The morning is cloudy and cold as we gather in the lounge at 5:30am. Our second drive is a ‘big five’ drive, which means visiting a neighboring reserve, the 15,000 hectare Thornybush Private Reserve. The extra size (it’s 32 times bigger than Gualaguala) means they have space for all the big five animals (lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard), but in such a massive space they can sometimes be difficult to find.

Our Thornybush land rover and guide pick us up from Gualaguala at 6am. The drive lasts about 3 hours, and we see four out of five – no leopard, which is the most difficult to find. Whenever we find the game, there are always other vehicles there as well, so the reserve seems busy, but well managed. We stop briefly for some tea, and then head back to Gualaguala.

We pull into Gualaguala at about 9am, where the other game drive is already back. Breakfast is at 9:30 in the treehouse. It consists of cereal with milk, then scrambled eggs, bacon and grilled tomatoes, then a fruit salad, followed by toast, then a cheeseboard and finally chocolate muffins. We spend a few hours reading in the tent, and at about 12:40 we go on the ‘self-guided walk’ shown in the Gualaguala guest handbook. It’s an hour-long walk around a series of numbered trees, with a guide explaining what each tree is and what it’s useful for. Unfortunately after about half an hour we have seen no numbered trees, and are starting to get the impression that we’re on the wrong path. Then the path opens out and there are paths leading off everywhere. Nick decides to adopt the “let’s try this way” approach to navigation. I’m consoled by the thought that this is only a 500 hectare reserve, and it has no predators in it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have snakes, biting insects and ants though.

We get hopelessly lost. We see some game in the distance – a herd of wilderbeast and some impala. Eventually we find a road, and disagree on which direction to take to get to the lodge. Finally, the lodge is found, having located zero out of twenty eight numbered trees. An incomplete success.

We’ve got an hour before high tea, so to the bewilderment of the South Africans, we jump in the pool. It is still just as ‘refreshing’ as it was yesterday.

The afternoon game drive, after a high tea of nut cake and fruit, is another ‘big five’ drive. This time we’re with a group of dutch who seem to be avid birdwatchers, and we have to stop incessantly to take photos of and wonder over tiny birds that we can barely see. We do eventually see some buffalo and black and white rhino, but no elephant or lions.

We arrive for pre-dinner drinks to meet several new guests, including a mother and daughter from the UK, who are at the start of a garden route holiday ending in Cape Town in a couple of weeks. Dinner is fish with creamed brocolli and stir fry vegetables, followed by bread and butter pudding, and is excellent.