Our first proper day 9 July 2014

Well what a comfortable bed, but how cold it was in the room, there is only a small panel heater, luckily there is an electric blanket on the bed,  so I slept reasonably well.
I decided to have a bath the water  was a nice light brown but hot, thought mudt be ok just dont drink it, plenty of goodies for the bath, when came to use wash basin,  there was no hot water but managed.
Breakfast was 9am and plenty to eat both hot and cold, then talk by our ranger on the use of cameras and taking wildlife photos, we then had time to relax and chat, it seems one of the couples Frank and Dot decided I was their new electronic expert,  proved by the fact I sorted their alarm clock out, it has been nice to chat to most of the group they are a mixture of single and couples, some more chatty than others.
In the afternoon we went for a bush walk, one of our rangers Given led the group and gave us some information about plants animals and the environment.  A little later we went on a boat trip round the lake and came across a family of hippos which was quite exciting,  unfortunately the temperature dropped so was glad to gey back to the room to warm up and wash and change before our evening meal served in the boma.
it was quite warm due to the large fire in the centre, afterwards we moved to the bar for a drink before retiring for an early night as we were up at 5 30 in the morning for a game drive, we were told we would get a wake up call at 5am, I read for a while before going to sleep.

An Apology

Dear readers, it seems that there is a problem with the Wi Fi here so I am struggling to post my Blog on a regular basis, plus we seem to be so busy its hard to fit it in with everything else thats going on very definately not a relaxing break, but most of the group seem good company.

Lakeside Lodge Entabeni 8 July 2014

Finally got off the plane, young mand took case and escorted me, not sure what point was, luckily it helped with queue for passport control, collected case and found Saga group, there seemef a distinct lack of organisation,  as we waited and waited for the rest of the group to join us. Finally we moved to the area for the coach, but where had our guide gone it was now gone 10 am, finally he arrived, not quite the coach I was waiting for, rather a hgv with seats in, seems previous driver had not filled up with fuel so this had to be done before we departed.
Luckily seats were better than they looked, so I fell asleep for a while. As we travelled the countryside looked much as other places in the world. We stopped for a while at what suppose was a service area, there was no McDonalds but there was a Wimpy, better still toilets and somewhere to buy a drink, we set off and the roads slowly started to become more rutted and niw understood that a conventional coach would not of coped.
At long last we seemed to of reached our destination, err no in fact we changed to 4 wheel drive vehicles for the last leg, problem was they were high off the ground, so quite a climb into but not such a bad ride given the state of the roads. Along the way we saw a few zebra and a young giraffe, a good sign for the days to come, only problem was I had left camera in case. 
Finally we were there at Lakeside Lodge, I was pleasantly surprised on entering we were offered a drink and a snack before going to our rooms. These were individual thatched units by the side of the lake with stunning views, rooms spacious but not very warm and quite dark. I unpacked, oh forgot to day outside was not that warm made worse by the cold wind, so now glad had packed extra warm clothes, only had a limited amount of time before welcome meeting, had a shower,  for some reason there was no curtain so water went everywhere, and no hot water to the sink, but at least I was clean and refreshed.
At meeting our Ranger explained he would be with our group for the duration of our trip, he explained how we would be spending our time, seemed very busy,  some days with a 5 30am start, luckily not tomorrow LOL, this evening we were going out for our meal but to remember to wrap up well, went back finishef dorting out then to the bar gor a drink and a chat with a couple of people, then off for the meal, was only a short drive but in the dark, in a traditional structure( cant remember name) had meal and chat, then back here,sitting by fire in lounge to keep warm, others were here to watch football on tv but  problem do all gone, think when finished this will go to room also,  hope you are enjoying the read.