I'm not sure where to start. Sometimes you visit a place and it gets under your skin and into your soul. You fall in love with it and you know you have to return. I have happy places, like Olifants and the sea, places that you know are there and easy to visit. I'm talking about places that you have to make an effort to return to, it would best be described as a return to bucket list. Fugitives Drift as become one of those places.
Heritage tourism on a game farm in understated elegant accommodation with excellent food and interesting people, who would not want to return. Hats off to Nicky Rattray and her sons for continuing to establish the lodge and work so tirelessly to uplift the lives of those in the area, after the tragic death of her husband David in 2007.
Gray and I left the lodge around 9 and drove to the battle site of the Battle of Blood River. This was one of THE battles taught to us in the apartheid era. Arriving on the Boer Museum side it was as if nothing had changed. Afrikaans books and old SA Flags in the curio shop. We walked around the D-shaped laager of life size ox wagons. A tribute to the Boers.
We walked on further and crossed over the Blood River, formerly known as the Ncome River, on the Reconciliation Bridge.
On the other side was the Zulu Museum. This depicted Zulu warriors and their history. In the true spirit of reconciliation, it would have been good if the two museums could have been combined. Gray says I have been too kind regarding this site, which left a bad taste for both of us.
The Battle of Isandlwana was just as bloody and sad, the site however, is more poignant and leaves one with a feeling that we have learnt and grown from history.
Battles, history and lodges were wonderful, a real treat and now we move into the next phase of our Natal trip – bush, self catering camps and Panda for company. I can't lie, this excites me just as much.
We stopped at the Pick’n Pay in Vryheid for some fresh fruit and salad ingredients. I can't believe how little we buy when it's just the 2 of us. Our meat I bought vacuum packed and frozen from home, it is in the fridge/freezer in the back of the car.
Vryheid, like most South African dorps boasts a beautiful old church in the center of town. I am delighted by how clean and litter free all these Natal towns are. It was about an hours drive from there to Ithala. A beautiful drive through the mountains.
We entered the Mvunyane gate and drove to the main camp of Ntshondwe. It is a beautiful Camp, well maintained and the staff are super helpful and friendly. From there we drove for about half an hour to Thalu Bush Camp. It really is a bush camp. We are staying in the one and only rustic semi tent, wood and thatch bungalow. The kitchen is open and looks out into the bush. We have an outdoor shower and toilet, about 30m from the house. No electric lights and really basic but a view to die for. Sitting around the fire, with Gray braaing, listening to the call of the baboons, the elephants in the distance and impala walking past (there are no game fences around our hut). This together with my glass of wine, who could not be deliriously happy and content.
By 6:30, it was dark, with a few stars coming up in the night sky. We were in bed by 18:45. It had been a long day and Gray now has flu.
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