Day 45 Huntingdon Lodge

We decided to walk up Thyolo Mountain this morning – it was already hot by the time we set off and the sun was blazing down with little shade.  It took us 1.5 hours to walk up to the estate picnic site which had great views over the whole tea plantation.  We wanted to walk to the mountain top some  200 metres higher up but couldn’t find a path and in the end we decided it best to head back following a somewhat extend route. We were clearly not concentrating enough and managed to miss the correct path twice and had to improvise a route back to the lodge through the tea fields but still managed to make it back inside 3 hours.

We swapped lunch for afternoon tea, expecting a cuppa and a slice of cake, but were astonished to be served up: plates of cucumber sandwiches; scones with strawberry jam and cream; a variety of homemade biscuits and two huge slices of chocolate cake.  The lodge was really busy with loads of local expats also having afternoon tea – we later discovered that it was Mother’s Day (not that there seemed to be any mothers having tea!).  Less than 4 hours later we were being served another 3 course dinner (still with the candle stick, but in the garden now) and were the only people in the lodge so it felt a bit weird.