We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, packed the car, and as most good road trips begin, left an hour later than scheduled. The trip was an estimated 4.5 hours with my poor loving husband agreeing to take on all of the driving (have I mentioned I still can’t drive manual?)
Luckily this drive was nothing like the I-95 road-trips we get back home (thank god). Wait – but isn’t Florida beautiful you ask?! Yes. Yes, it is IF you are near a waterway, which I-95 (our main highway) is not. You will find yourself staring at miles of very flat, very boring pastures, houses that all look alike and woods.
Looking at the beautiful scenery and chatting about random topics made the time fly by. Soon it was time to stop for a bite to eat and a leg stretch. We decided on a cheap and delicious option: Pieman’s pies. I had a spinach & feta and Jono had a pepper steak. Why the grand ole’ USA hasn’t jumped on the pie bandwagon I just can’t seem to figure out.
We had a twenty minute delay where there was some road work going on and then stopped at the grocery store to meet our other housemates and pick up some supplies. Before I knew it we were pulling into Marloth Park, where we were staying.
As we were about to pull onto our street, I spotted our first animal. Out of the bush walked the most beautiful creature, the elegant GIRAFFE! Commence full freak out mode. I wailed my arms around like a crazy person about to go into a full on panic attack. Jono reversed, I pulled myself together and quickly hopped out of the car to take photos, as well as our friends in front of us. Melissa shouted “that’s my favorite animal!” I replied, “me too!”
As I slipped back into the car and fastened my seat belt I knew this was going to be an incredible trip.
Here is a peak of the house we rented in Marloth Park. It’s a short drive to Kruger (closest to the Crocodile Bridge Gate). It was six-bedrooms and fully kitted with a kitchen and wicked outside entertaining area (critical to any good SA home.) We prepared a braai and chatted to our housemates. This was the week of the Alfred Dunhill golf tournament, so all of our housemates were golfers on the sunshine tour. We ate, drank and parted ways to get a good night’s rest. Up next, my first safari trip through Kruger!