We woke at a reasonable hour…we could hear the grunting of the hippos…pulling the curtains open …what a view
Sat outside up close and personal was a male waterbuck, still in slumberland, using the protection of the hotel to keep himself safe.
We once again breakfasted on the terrace….bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, nice light scrambled eggs, toast, yogurt and fresh fruit…all washed down with a nice cup of coffee…..Well!!!!! It’s a long drive today it’s good to start with plenty of sustenance 🤣
We paid the bill…I thanked the reception, who were anxious to know what sort of review we would give them….will we stay there again…yes we will….but I will book a deluxe room it’s £30 per night more and so worth it….I would also request Lion 102 room… it was very nice….if you book an ordinary room on booking.com you could end up, upstairs, over looking a construction site, along way from the viewing platform and restaurant.
We filled up at Engen petrol station in Malalane…they are always friendly and clean all the windows.
Off we set…the road works between Malalane and Nelspruit ( now called Mbombela) are going to be ongoing for a good few years. You have to take your hat off to them, they are widening the road into 2 lanes each way….it was 3 lanes with the middle lane offering overtaking in turns but lots of accidents occurred….This improvement is no mean feat because the road hugs the mountain side of a V shaped valley. On the way we had been held up for a long period because they were blasting, but today we were lucky. Blasting was taking place in the afternoon. We steadily moved along…every 100m’s a girl waved a warning flag.
Even after blasting the boulders are broken down with pneumatic drills…and bulldozers shift the rubble ……what a task
This is a vital bit of road improvement to speed up the road from Joburg to the Mozambique border and through to the coast.
We made good progress and soon found our selves travelling through mango and citrus orchards with the beautiful Jacaranda trees now in full bloom.
It really is so beautifully green and colourful.
We cross the winding crocodile river several times and always laugh at the hippo warning signs
On we went, we passed the huge paper mill at Ngodwana in the Elands valley, it been there 60 years…thankfully the wind was blowing in the opposite direction….otherwise it can be more than a bit pongy to say the least…
At this point I will remind anyone who is going to embark on this trip the massive importance of sticking to the speed limit….there are lots of electric speed cameras all the way along this route and also mobile police cars with cameras, particularly coming into and out of the town areas and always around the paper mill area…I know this, far to well as over the years I’ve incurred fines….one year I managed to rack up £400 worth of fines and the car hire company just takes it from your credit card…so you don’t even get a chance to plead insanity…or the need for the loo🤣🤣🤣🤣 This trip I have been a really good girl and I will be really cross if I get any speeding fines.
When we got to Millys we stopped, not because we were needing fuel, neither were we buying their delicious smoked trout, or eating in their restaurant…but because they have clean toilets🤣
Some parts of the road are single file with short bursts of duel carriageway to overtake lorry’s …..the road seems to go on forever…this part of the journey often reminds us of Scotland.
You know you are well on the way to your destination when you start seeing small rural reserves with cattle, ramshackle huts/ rondavels/ houses.
Through Benoni, I decided to turn on to the R21 and head to Pretoria. We took this route until the interchange with the N1 where we turned back to Joburg. We took the Olifantsfontein off ramp in Midrand and soon found our hotel. We arrived around 2.00 pm…a nice fast trip of 4.5 hours….I had booked and Executive deluxe room in the Protea Marriott hotel….the hotel is super. Excellent security, they scan your driving licence and your cars Id disc on arrival and exit …this way no one can steal your car…it also has a security gate and a holding area with a second gate…..we felt very secure….no chance of the car getting out with out us.
Our room was a delight…huge bed, desk, dressing table, settee, armchairs table, tv, aircon, en-suite bath and shower etc….free wifi throughout…really nice staff….we were that impressed we booked in again on Monday night before we fly out on Tuesday. It was about £100 per night including breakfast.
Just so you get a gist of the distances and the cost of the tolls on this route….. from Malalane 8km to Nkomazi plaza ( toll) 92 Rands. Nkomazi plaza to Machado Plaza 140 km 122 Rands. Millys is 10km on from the plaza. From Machado Plaza to Middelburg plaza 105km 81 rand. Our final milage at the hotel from the start of the day was 448km’s and we had spent a total of 295 Rands in tolls…this cost is incurred each way and you need to be very aware that for international visitors you need to pay in cash….they only take South African credit cards. That’s all about the tolls on the main road. The car may or may not automatically incur the tolls around Pretoria, Midrand and Johannesburg but these used to only amount to a few rand each. We will only know this when the car hire company puts through charges on our credit card.
At 5.30 pm, dearest Cora came and picked us up, bless her……she knows I don’t like driving at night. We went to a restaurant and met her husband Farayi, middle child, son, Sam and youngest child, daughter, Vhenekayi. Seth the eldest is now 17 and far too old to have supper with oldies like us🤣 We ate at The Codfather Waterfall Midrand. It was extremely nice…the kids entertained themselves and us adults had a good natter…..during our meal there was a massive thunderstorm and the heavens opened, what a downpour… such a wonderful evening… I am always so proud of Cora and her achievements …she is a very well thought of paediatrician…she works so hard, it is so lovely that she makes time for us in her busy, hectic life….
She took us back to our hotel and said she’d call and see us for a cup of tea on Monday afternoon…. What a lovely evening we’d had…we retired to bed very replenished and contented.
2 J's World of Adventure 