By the time we returned from the Water Kloof hike our bags had been delivered to our room, so after a refreshing welcome drink of sparkling lemonade we headed over. Our tent was quite large, bigger than expected, with a huge bed plus a sitting area and small kitchenette. And, the view were amazing.
The bathroom area was in second tent connected to the first by a small walkway. It was also quite large, with a closet, shower, and tub.
After our hike a shower felt great, followed by some time on our deck with wine from the previous evening.
We arrived at the restaurant a little before dinner to get a bottle of wine and take advantage of the wifi. Unfortunately, others had the same idea and data was slow / non-existent. I restarted my phone to see if that would help and – surprise! – my phone needed a SIM PIN to turn back on. I didn’t have the cardboard sleeve with me so I just had to hope it was written down somewhere as the MTC guy at the airport made NO mention of needing a PIN to turn my phone back on. (Thankfully, after dinner I located the PIN. Crisis averted.)
For dinner we choose to eat outside on the patio because the air temperature was lovely. The buffet was limited to three mains, several veggies, a salad, and some bread rolls, but the springbok lasagna was delicious.
We had left one side of the tent flaps open and the room stayed a good temperature while we were at dinner, but Eric eventually had to turn on the floor fan as the desert didn’t cool off as much as he thought it would.
Around 6am, I awoke to something crawling on my arm. I brushed it off but then it happened again so I got up and turned on the flashlight on my phone.
There were about 30 ants swarming over my pillow – right where my head had been.
Needless to say, I freaked out – shaking out my hair and rubbing my arms to get rid of any stray ants. At some point, Eric woke up and we got a video and a few photos for documentation.
I jumped in the shower and tried to calm down. I certainly wasn’t going to get back into bed, so I grabbed my Kindle and parked myself on the couch to read until breakfast. And that’s when a mouse poked his head out between two throw pillows next to me and made me jump straight up for the second time in an hour. Ack!
Right after 7am, we walked up the restaurant for breakfast. The buffet started a few minutes late as they were working on the gas heat but the chef took our orders and we sat down with juice and coffee and they brought the food to us when it was ready. Egg omelet for Eric and an overeasy egg with beef sausage for me.
Before heading back to the room we spoke to the owner about the ant situation. He apologized profusely, swore they treated the rooms to prevent this sort of thing and upon checkout he comped us the bottle of wine we ordered with dinner the evening before, a gesture we appreciated. Overall, I really liked this place and I think we just got unlucky with the ant issue.