thursday, September 15, 2022

from Cape Town to Mpumalanga, and an education in gin

This morning we said farewell to Cape Town, and headed to the airport to fly across the country to the Mpumalanga Province.

My lovely seatmate Nichola

We arrived at Kruger Mpumalanga Airport in the early afternoon, grabbed our luggage, and headed off to our first activity, a gin tasting.

We arrived at Gin & Co., and sat down for what unexpectedly turned out to be one of my favorite activities on the trip.

We tried four different varieties of Dollie Gin (Lowveld Dry, Rooibos & Lemongrass, Blueberry & Pimento, and Strawberry & Wild Basil), each time adding an ice cube (to “release the serpent”), then tonic water, then a dried fruit that would compliment that specific gin, tasting after each step. I was amazed at how much the flavor totally changed with each addition, and our instructor did a great job of explaining the process behind everything.

After our tasting, we walked next door to a cute coffee shop for lunch and a little demo in their coffee-making.

Great little quiche and salad

Leaving the coffee shop, it was time to check into our next hotel. Hippo Hollow Country Estate is a particularly picturesque little resort on the bank of the Sabie River in the town of Hazyview in Mpumalanga. We found our rooms, then had the rest of the afternoon free to relax and wander around the property before meeting for a leisurely group dinner and a free night at the hotel.

Met with a refreshing sweet iced tea concoction

I thought I was a real idiot at first for not being able to figure out how to turn the lights on in my room when I got there, but it turned out to be our first introduction to load shedding in South Africa, where the power is completely shut off for hours at a time to conserve electricity and prevent the total collapse of power plants.

Apparently September 2022 has been the worst load shedding ever in South Africa. It’s causing all sort of problems in the country, particularly for those less economically advantaged, and it unfortunately is a real crisis that doesn’t seem to be getting better. I have to admit that as an American I had no idea this was happening, but it’s really horrible to read about the long-term effect it’s been having on so many people and businesses.

Photo by Rachel Sarah - I’ve been trying to really only use her group people shots in these pages, but I lost the photos I had taken of the main lodge, so throwing this in for the sake of hotel completionism! 😅

Nighttime visitor in the river next to the dining area deck. It’s called Hippo Hollow for a reason!