Guest User
January 5, 2024
Sleeping in a wooden wendyhouse, with an outside bathroom and no soap, is not my idea of a hotel room, but I could still let that slide. We were, after all, paying only about R350 per night per person for our family of four. Except, the wendyhouse was too small for all four of us, so my one son camped in a tent outside. The bar carries limited stock and the staff seem completely disempowered. However, the manager Vaughn really went out of his way to try and help and make up for the obvious flaws at this Lodge. If we had known Orange River Rafting Lodge did not have a trained, equipped guide for our three day, two night river rafting adventure following our one night stay in the wendyhouse, we would have booked elsewhere. This turned out to be quite a nightmare. On the first day of rowing, not altogether refreshed after our night in the wendyhouse (thank goodness the aircon was working!), we were dropped off along the river miles away from camp and had to battle in headwinds all day long to row to a safe place to overnight. We hardly stopped for lunch and our dreams of kids swimming and fishing throughout the day while rowing, were shattered. We rowed and rowed and rowed from 10:30 to 18:30 and our untrained guide could not explain when it would all end. Thank goodness for a friendly neighbouring lodge, which saved the day by providing us with a safe campsite for the night when we simply could not continue on the river. Our guide cooked supper, borrowing my headlamp because he had brought no light of his own. He had also run out of water and we had to give him some of ours. Oh, he could also not phone Orange River Rafting Lodge to explain to Vaughn what had happened to us that day and that we were dissatisfied, because his phone was not working, or he had no airtime, or whatever... On day two, we paddled back to Orange River Rafting Lodge. The paddle was much more pleasant and relaxing - we managed to stop along the way and swim a few times. We headed for lunch at Orange River Rafting Lodge, where we pulled the plug on the rest of our river rafting adventure. We did not want to risk a repeat of the perils of Day 1. Again, Vaughn went out of his way to make up to us, serving a braai for dinner on Day 2 and providing us with a campsite at Orange River Rafting Lodge for the night. Camping here posed a new challenge. Thumping music from our fellow campers 'till 10pm and 'see-through' reed ablution cublicles, very dirty sanitary ware and no water in the morning until 07:30... We were glad to go!