After another lovely cooked breakfast, our vehicle was delivered…yay, David drove it up the enclosed driveway of the manor so we could go over it without being on the street. Only just fits…. We loaded all our gear in, and had to have the electric fencing turned off, and held up off the car by a broom, while we backed out.

We headed off, ready to start our next adventure, top temp of 33 deg C today!

Exit, for the N3 Motorway, was closed due to a bike race, this was not good. We drove a bit further following the GPS to the next exit, nope this one must have been closed for a while as it was blocked by old concrete barriers. Oops lost in the bowels of down town Johannesburg…aaargh. After a couple of more tries & the GPS getting confused & loosing connection, we finally found the correct motorway.

We drove thru 6 different tolls till we reached Harrismith where we did a bit of grocery shopping, this is an experience as items are all different from home. Finding the exit back to the N3 was also an issue for the GPS, we took the wrong turn again and were headed in the wrong direction, we found an off shoot & made our way back to Harrismith & found the correct exit. All was going well until the driver- no names here, decided to take an exit to Bergville which wasn’t the correct highway number. Following the trusty GPS rather than the written instructions. After nearly getting divorced we turned around & paid another toll to get back onto the N3 we just left. We finally found the exit 194 and were back on track.

The road to the Champagne Castle Resort was easy going, and once near the top, very impressive, the only problem, the clouds had rolled in & we were now getting a thunder storm, we didn’t get to see the grandeur that these mountain ranges boast. The Champagne Castle Resort & Hotel sits at approx. 5500 ft – nearly as high as Kosciusko.

We checked in and drove down to our chalet – no 2, the outside looked fantastic, old style hatch roof- very authentic, the inside…wow, this place is gorgeous- I don’t know how much we paid, but back home I would rate this as 5 stars. 3-bedroom, 3 bathrooms, chandeliers in all rooms, a huge fireplace, under floor heating, heated towel rack and the list goes on. What a dream of a place to stay, and this is before we saw the view from the huge loungeroom window!

There is a note in the kitchen asking for visitors to put their food out of view as they are having issues with the local baboons!

The clouds cleared up a little bit for David to take photos, unfortunately the staff advised it is supposed to rain for the next 4 days or so. What bad luck for us.

We decided to eat at the restaurant tonight, you have to have long pants on after 6pm, but this wasn’t an issue as the temperature had dropped quite dramatically & we were wearing jumpers – luckily, we all packed 1.

The meal was a buffet and was ok, Brendan & I ate a few different things,
David not so much.

There was lentil soup, peri peri chicken wings, roast pork and duck, vegetable cottage pie, rice, venison curry, a strange pasta dish & a variety of cooked vegies. Cheese platters, wild berry moose, bread and butter pudding, ice cream and a lady making fresh pancakes – yum

After dinner we all crashed.