Sep 26: We've been robbed!

Can't believe it: we're super vigilant travellers, avid users of the hotel room safe, even depositing our cameras, kindles phones etc. whenever we leave our room.  For this trip we invested in tamper proof luggage locks, I even have 2 secure handbags and body belts.  Then one evening, in our jet lagged stupor we forgot to actually LOCK the room safe while we popped out for a quick sandwich.  We were away from the room for less than an hour, but in that time someone entered our room and took cash from the safe.  A heap of US dollars plus some South African Rand that we needed for later in the trip where there are few teller machines.

Bother! (To put it politely).  

So we spent this morning giving statements to Hotel Security and the police.

We'll never see that money again, that's for sure.  A very slick, targeted robbery. They were after a quick cash hit, because wallets with credit cards and mobile phones, kindles, iPads and passports were not touched.  Thank goodness.

We will just have to mark that one down to experience ... I shall be paranoid from now on I'm sure.

Still, we won't let it upset our holiday, in fact half an hour later we set off for our long awaited round of golf on the Gary Player golf course here: the one where the annual NedBank Challenge takes place.

Despite the hot temperature (34 deg C) we had a fabulous afternoon.  A round of golf here includes a caddy each and lunch at the halfway point ... A great experience.  Half expected to see some wildlife, but all we aw, apart from birds was a lone wild big grazing then trotting across the fairway.  Handsome beast, curly tusks and all,  looked pretty scarey to me, but my caddy assured me he was harmless and paid him no heed at all.

We finished our round just as the sun started dipping in the sky.  The shadows lengthened and a balmy summer evening enveloped us as we tackled the very challenging 18th hole (the approach shot is over a lake - blimey!)

We sat relaxed at the 19th hole with our "sundowners" on a huge high of adrenaline, despite our devastating morning and Alan sinking down quickly with a head cold.

Very much looking forward to tomorrow - our REAL African travels begin.

This is the famous Cascades Hotel that is always featured In the golf tournament telecasts and where we are staying.