We had an exciting start to the new year, with Doug's 21st birthday party at Fairview in January. Never having had a function at Fairview, our property at The Crags near Plettenberg Bay, it was with a certain degree of trepidation that we planned it. 85 people invited,music booked, bar stocked,food sorted (all relatives were press ganged into chopping, peeling and cooking) but what we couldn't control was the weather! No tent,tables laid in the garden, totally reliant on good weather! We need not have worried, it was a beautiful evening, stunning sunset and the party finally ended at 3am!
Andrew and Anel announced their engagement in January to much excitement, and will be getting married at Fairview in October. However, this time we are taking no chances with the weather and will have a tent and we will not be doing the catering ourselves!
This seems to be the year of The Wedding. George Irwin and Renee Bufe who met while working here, are getting married in August and we are thrilled that they have chosen to have it at Fugitives' Drift. A new challenge as this will be the first wedding for the Lodge!
January and February sped by, we were very busy which was great. Super guests with just a couple of tricky ones thrown in to keep us on our toes! If you read our Facebook page you will have read my laments about the lack of rain - this is the driest summer since 1948, we have had the sum total of 60mm since the 1 January - it is desperately dry. For our guests the weather has been perfect! We thought the cyclone last week might bring us some relief, but all we got was overcast weather and strong winds!
The game continues to flourish, plenty of impala, blesbok and zebra were born late last year, and it is always so exciting to see newborn giraffe. They are not suffering from the drought yet, although low summer rainfall has a detrimental effect on the quality of the winter grazing which is concerning.
A group of us staff, and sometimes energetic guests cycle every morning and we are treated most days to great game viewing. A couple of times we have been rewarded by a brief sighting of bushpigs darting across the path in front of us! We have cut some great mountain biking single track and are in the process of marking the routes so guests can take a bike (we now have 4 exclusively for guests use) and go off on a ride.
My New Years resolutions (I must have forgotten the one about regular blogs!)were to upgrade our website (www.fugitivesdrift.com) and Facebook page, these are done and are looking great. Have a look at the website for specials as well as information on our Battlefields by Bike weekend in June and The Rattrace in September.
I think that is enough from me for now and it wont be 4 months till I post again - I hope!
