Last Morning at Pondoro - then off to Ballito

We finished off our stay at Pondoro Lodge with one last game drive - how keen are we???  Getting up at 5.00am four days in a row was a bit of a stretch, but we managed it.  And we're so glad we did.  Ryno and Eryk were in constant radio contact with a couple of other drivers and managed to track down the same pride of lions that we had met previously - only this time instead of sleeping, they were on the move.  It was so exciting, being surrounded by 11 lions who just walked all around our vehicle, giving us totally bored, disdainful looks as if to say:  'Not you guys again!'  We spent a lot of time watching, following and of course, photographing, them.  What a great way to finish off our stay.

When we got back to the lodge for breakfast we headed for our usual breakfast table, but Chantelle caught us and said we were not having breakfast there, they had something special for us.  So she led us away from the lodge and down to the riverbank where they had set up a table overlooking the river.  Then the staff took our orders and served us breakfast there before we went up to finish our packing.  How lovely!

We said our goodbyes then it was back on the road for a 3 hour transfer to the airport.  At least this time it was daylight and we actually got to see a lot of the countryside, which was very picturesque.  And the road system was very good too - it would be an easy place to drive through.


We arrived at the airport in good time, and had lunch there before getting on the plane.  We had quiche and salad and coffees at a little airport restaurant which actually had cloth napkins and cloth serviettes - the food was very good and cost only around $14 for the two of us - can't get that at Sydney airport, or any Australian airport for that matter!  And the service was excellent!


The flight was good and we arrived in Durban for our transfer to Ballito (about 20mins down the road) around 4.00pm.  Again, the roads were excellent - Trev was most impressed!  We stayed at Coco de Mer, a boutique hotel right on the coast... more in my next post.