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Up early for horseback riding. When we got to the stables we waited around for quite a bit... but eventually we met our guide and he saddled our horses. I was on Flip and John was on Girly. Yes... his horse's name was "Girly."
Flip wasn't too cooperative - he tried walking me into bushes and trees and wasn't fond of staying on the path. Girly just kept his nose almost attached to the guide's horse.
We walked through a reserve next to Addo (which contained no fierce animals) and saw ostiches, antelope, vervets, and warthogs. Being on a horse was good, but after more than a decade without riding, a little uncomfortable!
The last 20-ish minutes of the ride were misty and there was no animals out. Thankfully we made it back to the stables before the rain really broke. We said goodbye to our horses - Flip and I had almost become friends! - and went to the restaurant at the lodge in Addo Park for breakfast/lunch.
While at the lodge, it really started raining... and continued to rain steadily as we returned to Camp Figtree. We decided to cancel our afternoon/evening game drive and dinner as we hadn't brought any real cold weather clothing.
We hung around our cabin for a while. I attempted to have a bath, but there was nowhere near enough hot water (perhaps the only bad part of the Camp). We then hung around the main lodge at Camp Figtree and drank tea. It was a very relaxing kind of day...
The 'Good Germans' joined us at the lodge and we played Scrabble (in English... as Marcel and Mareen's English is much better than our German!) and then the card game 99. Both games were a lot of fun and it was wonderful getting to know Mareen and Marcel a bit.
Lucky (one of the Figtree staff) lit a fire in the lodge while we were playing - it had been a very long time since I'd been in front of a real wood fire and I had forgotten how different wood fireplaces are from gas ones.
We had a delightful dinner with Mareen and Marcel. We shared a couple bottles of wine and did a lot of laughing. We parted ways after post-dinner drinks as Marcel and Mareen flew from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town the next morning.
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