We start our travels today

We set off on Saturday the 23rd in the afternoon for what we thought was a four or five hour drive to Hazyview, a town just short of Kruger National Park, where we would be staying in a backpackers hostel for the night. As luck would have it, a torrential downpour had begun just as we were finishing our final packing. We crossed our fingers that it was the typical Jo'burg daily delivery, but found an hour into the drive, it still hadn't let up. Lukanyo drove steadily on, making our destination at 6 hours past departure, with a stop for dinner as well. We read in the newspaper several days later that there had been flash floods in some areas, Soweto being one of them, with three fatalities as people had tried to get through to dry land.

It was already evening when we arrived to Gecko Bushpackers and we were glad to settle down for the night with some drinks and a pool table in a 3/4 enclosed room, open to the outdoors. I wasn't much competition but let my mouth pretend that I was. Some classical guitar instrumentals played as background on the speaker surround sound, until it was replaced by Lukanyo's joking request for Metallica. After three defeats, my gin & tonic no longer nursed my ego, and the fatigue of the day set in, so we headed to catch some shuteye before the next day's endeavors.