Finally Made it to First Exciting Safari Lodge - Ngala

Per the itinerary: Day 2: Monday, 15 July 2024

Upon check out from your hotel make your way back to The Airport in time for your scheduled flight 4Z871, Johannesburg to Hoedspruit, departing at 10:30 and arriving at 11:25.

An andBeyond representative will meet you, and fellow guests, at Hoedspruit Airport and drive you to andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge. Approximately 2 hour.

Weather: Joburg sunny and 51F. Hoedspruit. Sunny and 72F, Ngala Safari Lodge 72, sunny.

The day started out well enough and breakfast was surprisingly tasty - I really liked the eggs. Here are the mandatory food photos

I was misinformed about Airlink sharing miles with United, so had an enjoyable time being yelled at for being in the premier line and wasn’t allowed in the lounge. Seems Airlink only allows through checking with Star Alliance - later was independently verified .

I found a nice place to hang out which had a selfie arrangement, so sat for a selfie with Mr. Bunny to pass the time.

It was a full flight with many Americans. Two men were sitting in the row behind me and they wouldn’t shut up. One was talking about when he turned 62 he started meeting his buddies annually and did fun things like crossing all the manhattan bridges. At this point I had to put my headphones in and listen to my book on tape turned up very loudly to drown them out.

I ended up sitting next to a Swedish lady travelling on her own. She will be staying at a ranger training camp which sounded quite unique to me.

Amazingly we were fed a sandwich and a drink on the 55 minute flight. I had the vegetarian option, but no photos this time.

I flew into Hoedspruit Airport which is a decommissioned airforce base. Many of the buildings are camouflaged and built into the earth.

The plane had quite a long taxi to the main buildings.

I was met by Gerald. There was one other passenger, Jaco, who is working construction refurbishing the tented camp. Strangely enough I sat next to him while waiting for the flight to board. he is South African and has been working at the camp since May and expects to be here a few more months.

Gerald has been a driver at the camp for 3 years.

We took the short cut which took about an hour. We went through the Enkhulu gate at timbavati and we had to sign in. The maximum speed was 55 kph and the fines were quite stiff if you sped. There was also a posting for fines if you hit/killed an animal on the road. These ranged from 300 rand for small animals up to 50,000 rand for big animals. There was no fine if you hit/killed another human.

This road was the main road to Kruger National Park and I was heartened to see many animals- elephants, monkeys/babies, zebra, and various types of gazelles.

We got to the Lodge in good time and it is lovely, right on a water hole. The elephants come by to drink from the swimming pool.

I will have a butler during my time here. His name is Promise. I had a very tasty lunch while watching the watering hole - here are the mandatory food photos -

Promise took me to my room - mandatory hotel room pictures:

At 3;15 I was told to show up back at the main building for tea and to meet “the cocky brigade” - the game guides and trackerss. My guide’s name is Stephan and my tracker is Chris.

Stephan is probably around 24, is S. African and has a degree in Zoology. He isn’t yet a certified guide, but has gone through the &Beyond training. He’s been here 2 years. I don’t know much about Chris yet, but we decided since his name is the same as my husband’s, he will be my African husband (without benefits).

I had a private game drive this afternoon which lasted about 3 hours. We decided to target leopards - I hadn’t seen one in the wild and Chris found a kill recently belonging to a female and her cub. We saw absolutely nothing except tracks

until the sun started to go down.

Then we were lucky to find “half ear”, the dominant male in the area. He is normally very skittish, but we were lucky and got very close. Towards the end it was as he was posing for us.

Back to the Lodge for dinner and I was greeted with hot chocolate with Amarula- a sort of Baileys. Dinner was:

Butternut Squash and carrot soup and Kudu steak. The only thing I was able to get a photo of was the soup

Because before I could totally finish the Kudu (which was delicious), it was taken away and all the staff came out with a Birthday cake for me

and sang behind me very loudly and for a very long time behind me. I guess my birthday is starting early.. then they continued to sing for another 15 minutes and I finally got some photos.

So, no photos of the Kudu because I was off my stride.

Coffee and Amarillo with the cake.