Day Forty Six

Day 46: Aquila 

Today Alan came and picked us up at 10 am to headed off to Aquila. We had to make sure we were packed and out of the hotel room before 10. It took us a 2 and a bit hour drive to get to the game park. Aquila is a lodge you can stay at that is surrounded by animals. You have a afternoon and a morning game drive included when you stay the night. And you can do optional activities as well such as quad bike safaris or more game drives. When we were driving to Aquila we went through one of the longest tunnels. It was a absolutely stunning drive with mountains on either side and you could even see snow on the tops of some mountains. You could also see wineries and country homes that surrounded the area.

We arrived at Aquila after 12. We couldn't check into the room until 2 but there was a lunch provided which started at 12:30. The lunch was a buffet lunch which was pretty good. They gave me ice team for desert because I couldn't eat anything else. You can defiantly tell the difference in temperatures here! Even when the sun was out I was huddled in my thick jumper. The restaurant was so cool there was a wall which had animal photographs positioned all over the wall. That's something I would love to create somewhere!!

After lunch we then checked into our room. We got the honey moon suite ;) ohh la la hahha!!! The rooms were positioned on a mountain so we had incredible views of the national park. We even saw hippos sun baking from a distance. It was pretty awesome! It had a massive bed, a hot bath, outside shower and a jacuzzi. 

We then had our first game drive at 3:30. we saw 4 of big 5 animals in Africa. These were the elephant, rhino, lions and buffalo. We did not see the leopard. Apparently there are two in the national park and one in rehabilitation. As soon as we got through the gates we saw the hippos up close, we saw zebras, wilder beasts, elephants, all 5 of the rhinos, 3 giraffes and we saw all 7 of the lions. The lions were in an enclosure though because they would kill all the animals if they were in the same space. The lions and rhinos were incredible they came up so close and I am so happy I got to take great close up photographs. It's good having such a smaller national park compared to the Kruger or the Hwange national park were we hardly saw any animals and we got to get really close to them!!!

After the game drive we almost ran straight back to our room because it was so cold. I decided to have a boiling hot bubble bath. It was incredible!!! We didn't have a chance to get to go in the jacuzzi because the water was pretty cold! 

After getting ourselves nice and warm we had to go out in the cold again to have dinner at 7:30. Once again the dinner was a buffet dinner. It was just nice to have some hot food to warm my insides :P

Then after dinner headed to lounge to get hot chocolates. It was amazing because of how cold the night was. It's definitely what I needed!! At Aquila the people here are so friendly and accommodating! 

After we went back to hotel and found out the room was flooding. Water was all over the ground. So they moved us to another room next door which didn't have a jacuzzi but it had a nice big bath!! A worker put the heater and also lit a fire in our room so it was nice and toasty. We then had to try to fall asleep with so much smoke in the room. I was worried the smoke detector was going to go off if there was one hahha!!

Xx