Day 6 - Springbok Lodge
Our first morning in Springbok Lodge and our first real view of the lodge and the surrounding reserve, and very nice it is too. The day saw the team split into three groups; one group off on an early morning game drive in the private Nambiti game reserve, one group with a slightly later start heading off to the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift, and a third group that decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have a lie in.
The game drive group managed to add a new animal to the list, with the sighting of a hippo mother and baby, and also sighted the now usual (if you've spent the last few days in a game reserve that is) complement of zebra, giraffe and wildebeest.
The battlefields group headed out to Isandlwana, discovering exactly what the British did wrong to be comprehensively beaten by the Zulus, and slightly humbled by the mounds of white stones representing where the soldiers fell (there are a lot of them). Then onto Rorkes Drift, to see how it could be done right, provided you had a much smaller area to defend, and plenty of items to make barricades with, including tins of biscuits. The group nearly didn't make it back, but were rescued by Steve, who managed to push start the bus from where it had failed to move away from the petrol station.
Another game drive in the afternoon for those who wanted it, and for those who didn't, the chance for a relaxing hot bath which had been drawn by the housekeeping staff. So hot in fact that Lauren, who didn't check the temperature of the water, got into the bath and then very quickly got out again once the scalding nature of the water became apparent, falling into her suitcase in the process. The baths also caused a certain amount of intra-room tension, with various people quickly taking advantage of it before their roommate noticed - Gary in particular was aggrieved at Peter’s callous disregard for his love of baths.
And so to bed, where once more, Chris' belief in the fundamentally violent nature of the wildlife was displayed when he believed his bed to be under attack from a particularly vicious mouse - Chris blames vivid dreams induced by anti-malarials...
Quote of the day goes to Julie, who was heard to remark at dinner "It's all about the stuffing" - lucky Neil!
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