Day 142 – the thunderstorm and the blister beetle
J found out the sand was irritating her eyes, so she stayed in the room and skipped the morning excursion. S’ elbow still hurting, he soldiered on and went out with Obbie for the morning drive. Today’s trek was to a canyon. On the way, S saw an oryx that was right next to the car and S got an amazing view of it. They are stunningly beautiful creatures. S also got to see two brown hyenas. Obbie brought a walking stick to try to keep S from falling during the 30-metre walk from the car to the canyon. Apparently the canyon is typically dry, but had a lot of water because there has been so much rain in the last few months. Though a small canyon, it was still a spectacular sight.
When S got back to the lodge, he decided to ice his elbow a bit more. The staff asked if S wanted breakfast. He declined and asked whether J had been up for breakfast. They said no, but they offered to take her breakfast. S asked them to take her coffee, eggs and watermelon, but there was no watermelon. S then chatted with the Norwegian/French family again, who were heading to Windhoek before flying back to Zimbabwe. The young boys started to play with the drums that are a decoration in the restaurant. The staff then decided to do a singing and drum performance for the boys. S was very impressed with the performance and would have joined in, were it not for the ice pack.
S came by to check on J, then we both headed back to the lodge for lunch. Since we are the only guests, chef came out to see us and take our lunch and dinner orders. He also handed us his recipe for what S proclaims is the Best Corn Chowder Ever. Lunch was a very lovely gazpacho soup, ginger and soy chicken salad and lychee sorbet / Italian ice.
We also stopped by the ‘shopping mall’ / gift shop and J picked up three tins of natural mosquito repellent, which smells surprisingly good. Fingers crossed it actually works.
We went back to the room to sort out our final leg of our journey and were surprised to see a thunderstorm with tonnes of rain. Apparently we bring rain to the desert. It rained and rained and rained and we lost power. Once the power went, we decided to head back to the main lodge to hang out.
The staff had been enjoying playing in the rain and having a bottle of wine. When they saw us, however, they tried to play down the party. They really don’t know who we are. Obbie sat down with us and gave us some drinks. Selma and Lizelle joined a bit later. We were supposed to take a night walk with Obbie and the reptile guy, but the rain precluded that. It also precluded J’s first stab at a quadbike ride.
J also received another mysterious bug attack. It later turned out this was from a blister beetle. It is small and black, with a red neck. It doesn’t bite, but when squashed, it secretes a blistering agent which results in a blister, similar to a burn. Apparently this is not a common occurrence, but it has kicked off J’s insect allergy. This continues to be perplexing as S was in shorts and short sleeves our entire stay and J was in trousers, socks and a long-sleeved jacket to ward off insects.
It was difficult for us to get through dinner, as on request, chef had made a giant bowl of corn chowder. This stuff is surprisingly rich and two bowls of it were our downfall. This batch even had chunks of gruyère in it. Chef also kindly gave us the recipe, so J will be trying it at home. S begged off the main and J begged off the dessert. We headed back to the room and it was still raining. We only hope that our plane tomorrow out of Sossuvlei will fly, given the stormy weather and dirt airstrip.