The Drakensberg mountains were on my bucket list, so I easily persuaded Michael, the light of my life, to come along for the ride. Who doesn't love a road trip?
We drove from Joburg to the Royal Natal National Park. The scenery was so beautiful there: green, gorgeous and majestic from every angle you looked. We started hiking, then something very strange started happening. I think the mountain air was getting to me. I got giddy, almost euphoric, and started calling myself The Keeper of the Forest.
I felt at one with the mountain.
Michael was starting to look at me very strangely. I was aware of the words coming out of my mouth, but I could not seem to control myself.
All I knew was that I was very happy at that point and he just had to deal with it.
After our lovely hike, Michael suggested we head back so we could check out our accommodation, which I had booked online.
That's when things got really interesting.
We left the park and, a few minutes later, the GPS told us we were at our destination.
The only thing was, we were bang in the middle of a rural village, complete with wandering goats and cows. Now I love rural villages, and I'm all for keeping things "real", but this was hardly what I had been expecting.
The photos of "the lodge" and the online reviews had painted a somewhat different picture.
In retrospect, it had been a lot cheaper than the other places I'd considered, but I'd assumed on booking that I'd just got lucky with some sort of random special.
Michael and I were confused at that point, because we couldn't see anything that resembled the place we'd booked.We drove on, figuring there was something wrong with the GPS until it started recalculating and told us to make a U-turn. So we headed back again.
Finally, I squinted and saw a sign that proved we really had arrived at our destination. I laughed.
Michael turned a shade of red I had never seen. We were outside the gate, trying to figure out what to do.
He insisted that there was absolutely no way he would stay there.
We sat parked outside for 10 minutes. Maybe it was charming on the inside?
When the gate opened, we drove in. Suddenly Michael, horrified, turned an even darker shade of red.Without even getting out of the car, he pulled out his phone and started looking online for somewhere else we could stay.
He was so irritated he wouldn't even make eye contact with me.
"Look over to your right," he said. "There is a gravesite. That is a tombstone. I can't do this. For real, I can't."
He was dead serious.
That was enough for me. I got out of the car to tell the manager of the lodge that we unfortunately could not stay.
We were uncomfortable, I said, with the fact that there was a grave on the premises and I would not have booked it if I'd known. She was understanding though. And we continued on our journey to another hotel an hour away.
Best road trip ever.
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