Day 133: Leshiba Wilderness Lodge – Day 1
Unlike our poor neighbors who were no doubt woken up by our constant nose-blowing and loogie-hacking, we slept wonderfully! Feeling much better (but still not 100%), we got up and made some breakfast sandwiches and fried up our leftover veggies for a perfectly portioned and healthy breakfast. Even if we did get sick, Botswana has been great and we are so sad to be leaving. Even though we like South Africa too, we are so bummed that the journey is coming to an end.
Avocado breakfast sandwiches and instant coffee – yum!
We get our passports stamped at the Botswana border and drive across the dry Limpopo riverbed and into South Africa. We experience a bit of shadiness as the South African police officer at the vehicle checkpoint is being overly thorough in his inspection: popping the hood of the Britz rental car to check the engine, making us unpack our backpacks and asking us how many computers we had with us (Igor insisted that they are tablets, not laptops), and where exactly we were driving to next. Maybe this is legit, but we’ve heard plenty of stories about corrupt South African cops at this point, so we fibbed a bit and said we were driving straight to the airport to return the car. As we drove away, we notice that the powerlines are down lying on the side of the road. We heard rumors that some of the poor villagers would sometimes cut down telephone poles for firewood – perhaps this was the handy work of the cash-strapped locals?
Back in South Africa, where everything is just a little shady.
It was another LONG drive to our next lodge, but like Limpopo, we knew the place had to be spectacular if guests are willing to put up with the steep 15KM mountain road. In fact, the road is so tough, that many visitors leave their cars at the bottom of the mountain and arrange a 4×4 transfer. We, however, were feeling mighty confident in our 2016 Toyota Fortuner, so we powered to the top! Once we reached the top, we discovered there was one vital piece of information missing from our itinerary: the gate was locked to deter poachers from entering the property, and we didn’t have the code for the lock.
We still had our old South African SIM card from the first week of our trip in our bags, so we started digging it out to see if we had any minutes left (or any reception!) – luckily for us, the staff at Leshiba had received a frantic call from Russell that morning alerting them that we were coming, sans code and sans cellphone, so they were driving down to the gate periodically throughout the day to see if we had arrived. We were only waiting about 10min before our hosts arrived to let us in.
It was a long drive up the mountain, via a 4×4-only road. The cheeky signs provided much needed humor and encouragement.
The traditional African huts were so cute! The set-up was meant to mimic a traditional village. It got very cold at night, but the hot water bottles provided during the turn-down service kept us cozy all night
Once we checked-in to our rooms, we discovered that for the first time in ages, we were in a hotel where is was *safe* to take a walk! We have been living such a sedentary lifestyle this past month – driving everywhere, taking tours – that combined with the copious amounts of food everyone keeps feeding us, we were feeling very out of shape. Too bad we were still sick – we didn’t make it a half an hour before we retreated back to the lodge for some soothing cups of tea. The lodge had a guided walking safari scheduled for before breakfast the next day, so we took it easy in order to be recovered enough to participate.
Finally – a chance to walk amongst the animals in Africa! Since there were no lions or cheetahs in the private reserve, they deemed it safe to walk alone.
After 20min of walking we were winded, so we returned to the common area to drink lots of tea, and enjoy the view from above
The food at Leshiba was AMAZING – steak tenderloin perfectly medium-rare – and we had to pair it with WATER. When will this cold end?!?
A cozy end to a lovely South African evening: snuggling by the campfire and a shot of sherry as a knock-out nightcap
Since rhino poaching is serious problem in South Africa (and Leshiba has unfortunately already had poaching incidents on their property, one of which fatally injured one of their animals), Leshiba asks that guest not share the photos of their rhinos online, as broadcasting the quantity and size of the rhino herd could attract more poachers. For that reason, the next post will be set to private, using the same password as our “Where are we now?” section. If you would like access, please email me.
Loved the traditional African huts. At least you had a cozy South African evening by the campfire and a shot of sherry as a knock-out nightcap that should help those colds.