FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Johannesburg to Plettenberg Bay

Today was mostly a travel day so I'll keep the post brief. We all woke up at around 2am but most managed to snooze on and off again. However by 4am, we were all up and eagerly awaiting for 6am when the breakfast started! The family relished the hotel buffet breakfast, one of our favourite things when travelling (yes a little sad I know!) before checking out and walking the short distance to the airport terminal. Check in and security was surprisingly fast! We made a beeline for the Bidvest Premier Lounge, part of the lounge networks of the Priority Pass. The gentleman checking us in was very generous and let Jonah in for free (we were technically only allowed 4 people for entry). We gave him our most beautiful grateful before heading in to enjoy the facilities. The lounge was small but was more comfortable than the Qantas Lounge in Sydney. There was a charging station in between every 2 seats which was handy. The food offering was also more tasty. We were there at the right time when the breakfast offerings were changed to lunch so we tried both! And we were glad we ate so much because the lunch provided onboard was not the best!

We love our hotel buffet breakfast!

Some light breakfast reading! Our travel doc included our driving instructions for today

When we opened the travel guides for each country we were visiting, we discovered it had a lot of useful information!

Including a list of animals, insects and birds we might spot

Flora guide

Tracks

And even the constellations!

My own personal pack mule!

Look what we found at the airport lounge!

Our 1.5 hour flight to Port Elizabeth was otherwise unremarkable, as was our rental car pick up. The most disappointing non-event of note was that everyone was too tired to do the "Oh What a Feeling! Toyota!" pose for me! By this stage, jet-lag was catching up with everyone. I'm not quite sure how we made it through the nearly 3 hour drive to Plettenberg Bay. Baboons crossing the road jolted us right awake at one point. Unfortunately, the reflexes were somewhat sluggish on account of tiredness and no good photos were taken! The family was glad to reach Robberg Beach Lodge, our home for the next 3 nights.

Upon arrival, we were given facetowels to freshen up with as well as a cold apple juice which were downed almost immediately. We were then given a quick tour of the property before being taken to our rooms. We were unfortunately in the original building of the guesthouse so there was no direct ocean views. The rooms were very spacious and tastefully decorated. The service was warm and wonderful. They checked what our plans were for our stay to make sure that our needs were provided for including the day of our departure. We opted for dinner at the guesthouse as we were exhausted. Whilst waiting for our food, we munched on the complimentary afternoon tea and was pleasantly surprised to see dolphins in the water! The dinner was delicious and again prices were reasonably with a three course meal coming in at AUD35. I'm sure at a place like this that premium prices were being paid so this says a lot about prices in Sydney!

Finally, it appears that we keep meeting people with awesome names! The front desk gentlemen was named Speedy and the duty manager...Perseverance!