All good things come to an end and this morning after breakfast it was time to leave.
We drove out along the Umzimvubu River, with the beautiful Natal bush and cliffs as scenery. We took a drive into Port St John’s, where Gray holidayed as a child. Apparently things in this once lazy holiday spot have changed drastically over the years. It was bustling and busy with lots of street stalls and markets.
We took the R61 through Lusikisiki and onto the bustling and busy town of Flagstaff. The going was slow with windy roads and livestock of every description crossing the road at will.
To avoid the roadworks around Kokstad, we took the road from Magusheni to Mbizana. We still encountered roadworks and gravel roads as well as a very unhappy GPS, who spent a couple of hours trying to reroute us.
From Mbizaza we headed to Harding, the last stretch was tarred and forested, reminiscent of the areas in Mpumalanga. Harding is a forest town with a big creosote plant.
Then Gray took another back ‘short cut’ to Umzimkulu, more roadworks, to Ixopo and eventually into Pietermaritzburg and onto the N3 for a brief spell before we were back onto the gravel roads of the Midlands.
We arrived at the beautiful old Rawdons Hotel, in Nottingham Road around 5 pm. It was overcast and chilly.
After settling into the Lake Cottage we got a fire going in the fire place. It was a beautiful, cosy cottage set next to the lake, which was all misty in the cold evening.
We ate at the main hotel, enjoying beer and gin from Nottingham Road Brewing Company, situated at the hotel.
Spot the Saints Badge in the pub
We were joined in our comfy bed next to the fire by the hotel cat, who out the rain and cold, not surprisingly purred contentedly all night.
No comments:
Post a Comment