Our sleep last night was less than ideal due to the very strong winds in the middle of the night. In an attempt to avoid the intense heat we had left the bedroom windows open and the wind swept through the house and rattled everything that wasn't nailed down. We had intended on waking up early this morning to go on another run but when the alarm went off at 6:30 both of had barely gotten any sleep and so decided to turn the alarm off and skip the early run. We slept for another 2 hours and then headed up to breakfast. Clive joined us at the breakfast table for a few minutes and asked what our plans were for the day.
Breakfast was yet again delicious, eggs mushrooms and sausages and the customary cup of tea and coffee. Because it was our last full day here we decided to drive to the Dombashaba ruins about 40kms away, a smaller version of the great Zimbabwe ruins. It was overcast and a little rainy as we set off, but as water is a scarce resource in Africa it was nothing to grumble about. The road to the next town along was tarred, but as soon as we turned off to head the remaining 30kms to the ruins, we were rattled along to within an inch of our lives! The road was atrocious, not flat at all but instead was the consistency of corrugated iron sheets, and so juddered us along no matter if we were driving at 10kms or 50kms per hour. We actually found this really hysterical and laughed about how terrible the road was for almost the whole trip there.
We eventually found our way with the map and say nav to where we thought the ruins were, which is when we encountered a closed, locked and barbed wired gate. Dan was ready to turn around and go home, but I pulled the gate towards us and climbed over the lock in the middle and made Dan come with. The ruins were a few hundred metres from the gate and clearly they used to have guards there and a ticket office, but it seems abandoned now. We read the blurb on the site, which is related to the great Zimbabwe ruins, just a smaller posting than that, and climbed the small hill to get to the chief of the tribes old dwelling. After investigating to our hearts content we scrambled back over the gate and headed back down the spine shattering road.
When we got back to the main tarred road we crossed straight over in search of the giant fig tree June had told us about. We had some trouble finding it but thankfully eventually did. It's massive! The trunk is 4 metres round and the branches spread an amazing 45 metres in diameter! I think it must be really old! On the way back we stopped in a little corner shop that turned out didn't sell anything at all according to the man there, even though we could see his stock, so instead we went to the supermarket on the main road and bought pasta and soup for Dan's lunch. I got a chocolate bar :D
We arrived back at about half two and Dan had his pasta. We went up to the main lodge to use the internet again and watch some tv, and I also cut up our large yummy watermelon for snacks. The sunset that evening was really beautiful because of all the clouds, and we were graced with the presence of a large male Kudu and three small impala. Clive had started the day really early to lay the foundations on the new cabin and went to sleep early, so we ate our dinner with June. Starters were basted mushrooms and a little sauce, the main course were delicious chicken wings and drumsticks with potatoes and cheesy broccoli, and dessert was the same amazing pineapple cheesecake. After talking all about our wonderful day of adventuring, we went to enjoy our last night of sleep in our cabin at Modumela lodge.
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