It was nice to have another slower start to the day. We had breakfast at our accommodation, took our time getting ourselves organised and let the boys explore around the outside area while we ate and caught up on a little bit of the blog.
Before doing the supermarket run, Chris and Karl stopped for a coffee and a hot chocolate. Karl decided to make friends with some of the locals who regularly go to the coffee shop, introducing himself and then making sure they all knew exactly how to spell his name. He seemed very pleased with himself.
Chris and Karl then headed to the little supermarket in Marloth Park to pick up a few supplies. It is quite amazing how much they manage to fit into such a small shop, but unfortunately baby formula was one of the things they didn’t have.
That meant a trip out to Komatipoort, where there is a much larger supermarket. Being Heritage Day, we weren’t entirely sure how long everything would be open for, so we thought it was better to head out sooner rather than later.
On the way, Chris dropped Danielle and Isaac at the restaurant overlooking the river where Chris and the boys had eaten lunch while the girls were having their spa day. It was an extremely hot day, so sitting somewhere with a nice view while Chris and Karl went shopping seemed like a pretty good option.
Driving along the N4 towards Komatipoort, we once again came across the enormous line of trucks waiting to head towards the border. Chris counted more than a hundred trucks in just one small section, and the line continued for kilometres. There must have been many hundreds, possibly close to a thousand, all sitting there waiting to cross. We have absolutely no idea how long some of them must have to wait.
Once the shopping mission was completed and everyone was back together again, we headed to Werno’s house. Werno is Reggie’s brother, and Reggie’s parents also live there. Their house is new and absolutely lovely, with a really nice outdoor area and swimming pool.
This was where we were celebrating Heritage Day with some of the Mostert family, some of their friends, Danielle’s parents, Whitney and everyone else who was there. Of course, being Heritage Day, there was a braai.
We spent a lot of time around the pool, which was especially appreciated given how hot the day was. There was also plenty of wildlife coming close to the house while we were there. A number of animals wandered through, including some monkeys which the kids thought were absolutely hilarious.
Isaac was a little more challenging than usual during the day, mostly because he hadn’t managed to get much of a sleep. Chris spent quite a lot of time keeping him entertained and trying to stop him from getting too upset. We are definitely learning that keeping on top of his naps makes a very big difference.
To be fair to him though, he has done incredibly well considering how much we have asked of him on this trip. There have been lots of long days, different beds, disrupted sleeps, different feeding times and generally very little of his normal routine.
We really enjoyed the braai and spending more time with everyone, but we headed back to our accommodation fairly early. We knew we still had packing to do, as the following day we were leaving Marloth Park and moving through to Nelspruit to be closer to the wedding.
So that brings our time in Marloth Park to an end. We have really enjoyed staying here and having the animals wandering around us, but now we are very much moving into wedding mode and helping Whitney and Reggie with everything leading up to their big day.
We are also not quite sure yet what the rules are around sharing wedding photos on social media, so there may be a little less in the way of wedding-related photos over the next few posts. If there seems to be a suspicious absence of wedding photos, that will be why! Once we know what everyone is happy for us to share, we can work from there.
Chris, Dan, Karl and Isaac