7/10: Life at the Farmhouse

Everybody but Honey, Claire, and I got up bright and early and headed out for the first tour of the day--the Isandlwana Battlefield, the greatest defeat in the history of the British Empire. Here's everybody getting settled in with their hot tea:

They were gone until lunch time, which meant that Claire and I got to sleep in. Honey woke up with a really bad sore throat, so we took it easy and explored the area around our farmhouse. Have I mentioned that the farmhouse has no heat? And very little electricity? An it's winter there? The last time we stayed here, we had to use kerosene lamps as our light source, and the motto of the trip was "put another log on the hot water heater" because the hot water heater was literally a large barrel on top of a fire. Oh, and have I mentioned that the shower is outside? Fun times. For some. Luckily, things have improved (slightly) since last time. We had real lamps in our rooms, and the hot water comes from a real hot water heater. But there's still no heat. And the shower is still outside. And it was still winter.

Here's what the hot water heater used to be: (fire in the bottom, and the big barrel up top)

Luckily, the weather warms up nicely during the day, and it's actually warmer to be out in the sun, so we took a few walks around the property in search of animals. We didn't find any, just a lot of chickens.

Everyone came back from their tour in time for lunch at the lodge, then it was time for them to head back out again for the evening tour--the battleground of Rorke's Drift. Honey, Claire, and I stayed behind again and enjoyed naps and......a shower! I was feeling so dirty, and I figured "who can see me? No one is around." So I did it. And, of course, being my luck, 2 random people on bicycles rode by. Lovely. Probably not at all what they expected when they rode into our little campsite. It really is a nice shower, though, if only the wall was just a little bit higher....Here's a shot:


The group was back for the cocktail hour before dinner, so Jason and I took our leave and headed back to the farmhouse for our dinner and to get packed up to leave the next day. And not a moment too soon!

Here's cocktail hour around the fire pit: