I hope you’re well.
It’s been over a month since my last blog…
As regular readers will know, I’ve been away on my holidays…
3 weeks in the beautiful county of South Africa!
It’s the first time I’ve ever been away over Christmas, but won’t be the last.
The main downside, apart from missing family, was the travel…
I worked out we spent over 60 hours either in the air or waiting around at airports!
That’s a long time for anyone, let alone a 5 and a 7 year old!
But it was worth the journey to experience such a unique and majestic place.
We spent the first few days on the outskirts of Cape Town.
Christmas Day, we’d booked a lovely meal at the V&A Waterfront. The kids were well behaved, it was sunny, a perfect start to the holiday.
After this, we got a hire car drove along the ‘Garden Route’, which took around a week, stopping off at new places every day.
A great way to explore the country, see the changing landscapes, and stay at some outstanding accommodation.
At the end of the garden route drive, was our favourite part of the holiday, 2 days of Safari!
The weather really wasn’t on our side at this point, and the beautiful sunshine had given way to cloud and heavy rain!
It was so dissapointing… after waiting a year and travelling halfway around the world, that our first safari drives were cancelled by the heavy rain.
Fortunatley, on our second day things picked up and the rainclouds gave way, meaning we could hop in the rangers jeep and have a 3hr drive out in to the bush!
It was so exciting not knowing what you’d find around the next corner!
We saw all sorts; Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, a Cheetah, Lions (in the distance thankfully), Zebras, Warthogs, Ostriches, and much more…
It was amazing to see such huge animals up close, with no cages or bars, in their natural environment.
I did ask the ranger if he’d ever been attacked, and he did admit to having his jeep rolled over by elephants once, chased and lifted up by a rhino, and his tyre attacked by a lion!
Danger aside, what an amazing job he has driving around looking at wildlife all day!
I did consider for a moment what a ‘Stanley Villa Safari‘ would look like, but then snapped back to reality with the thought of phoning my insurance company…
I’ll stick with my sheep and chickens for now! 🙂
After the safari, we flew the hour or so from the east, back to Cape Town and had a final week chilling out at an apartment we rented in an area called Camps Bay.
There was a little pool for the kids to play in and temperatures in the late 20’s, perfect!
There was also a balconly to sit out on. This was great for games…
One of the kids favourites is called the alaphbet game… You might have played it before?
You think of a category, e.g. food, then go through the alaphabet and take it in turns, e.g. A = Apple, B = Bread, C = Cheese and so on…
We’d gone for the category of ‘Names’, and were towards the latter stages when this happened…
ARTHUR: T is for Thomas
ME: U is for Ursula (from the little mermaid)
ALICE: V is for Vicky
ARTHUR: ‘Wanker’ – with a completley straight face like he’d just said a completley normal name like Brian, or Bob or Steve.
ME: Spits water out of mouth shocked and asks in disbelief what!?
ARTHUR: Repeats ‘Wanker’, this time with a slightly higher voice at the end, no longer sure this is infact a persons name!
I had to explain, whilst trying my best not to crack up, that this wasn’t a persons name and wasn’t a word he can say again!
We went with ‘Wendy’ in the end!
I honestly don’t know where he get’s it from, he’s only 5!
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Next up…
As the subject line of the email says, if you’re planning a Glamping Holiday in 2024, we’d love to be your site of choice…
We have a deposit system in place that means you only have to pay £49 to secure your Pod or Bell Tent.
The balance is then due 6 weeks before your arrival date.
We’re getting lots of past customers using this already for the popular summer holiday dates to secure their spots – especially for the Bell Tents.
To check your dates, please just hit reply to this email and we’ll have a look for you 🙂
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We have lots of projects going on, here’s a quick rundown…
Project New Pods – We’re building a replacing 6 of our old Pods for Brand Spanking New ones… We’ve currently built 2 of the 6, and hope to have the remaining 4 done in time for spring.
Project New Hot Tubs – Towards the top end of the site near the woods – we’re installing 2 New Wood Fired Hot Tubs to go with 2 of the New Pods. We hope to have them in place by spring time and will let you know as soon as they’re bookable.
Project Alpaca’s – We’re aiming to have 6 pet Alpaca’s in place by the springtime. We’re just building the fencing and enclosure. The idea will be that you can book to walk the Alpaca’s with us around the lake. We’ll let you know as soon as this is bookable.
Project Catering – We’re applying for planning permission to join a new building on to our existing communal lodge, with the idea of having a catering kitchen so we can offer hot breakfasts, and high quality hot evening meals. Planning permission is like a piece of string, but I’m hopeful we can have this in place before the summer holidays.
Project Lodges – We’ve had a planning application in the system for just over 2 years now for 10 x New Lodges. Hopefully we’ll win the permission. This would be a big old job.
We’re also applying for something called ‘B Corp’ meaning we’ll be verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance.
So a lot going on…
To help document the year ahead, we’ve just bought a new ‘Vlogging’ camera, so we can share the journey on our Youtube channel.
I’ll be sure to keep you updated and send you links to any videos 🙂
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I’ll leave it there for today…
I’ll hope to see you soon…
All my very best,
Alex 🙂
Camp Site Manager (& a busy busy year ahead!).
P.S.
We’ve just crafted a new Valentines offer… More details in the next email for all you romantics!
