Thali Thali Game Lodge is across the road from Langebaan. Seriously. The entrance is on the opposite side of the R27, and it was the first time on our West Coast trip that we turned off the tar and on to the gravel, which was exciting.
Even more exciting was the sign we saw at the entrance: archery lessons. It turns out Thali Thali owner Thys van Niekerk represented South Africa in the world championships in the US last year, winning a silver medal. After we’d been welcomed with drinks and offloaded our bags at our chalet, we headed to Van Niekerk’s house to find out if we could give Katniss Everdeen a run for her money.
If that reference is obscure to you, it was to me too, until Divine Lady D explained The Hunger Games, which I have since watched as part of my research. It’s a thin connection because the longbow Katniss uses is different to the compound bows on which we were taught. Plus, there were no moving targets.
The compound bow is a complicated construction of levers, cables and pulleys. Other equipment required is a sexy leather protective thing to strap on your left arm, arrows of course, and another little gadget for your right hand which attaches to the string to draw it back.
A lesson lasts for 45 minutes – theory followed by practice. And it’s awesome. Divine Lady D and I were excited, keen, eager, and best of all, competitive, which earned us praise from Van Niekerk.
It feels and looks amazing to shoot a bow, and the thwack of the arrow hitting the target is extremely satisfying, especially when it’s a bull’s eye. Yes, there were quite a few of those. Van Niekerk generously allowed us to come back later in our own time to shoot some more, so we slathered on sun block and let those arrows fly.
I had promised Divine Lady D a bucket list experience at Thali Thali, which was supposed to be accommodation in a luxury “tent”, but the archery was a good substitute.
We ended up staying in a two-bedroom self-catering chalet which we shared for a while with a bat we named Bert (who eventually found his way out the front door after frantically circling every room in the house), an unidentified and stubbornly invisible scratching thing in the corner of the kitchen, and encountered wildlife on our front porch in the shape of emus and fallow deer that skittered around in the dark. We felt very brave in the face of all this nature.
The tents, chalets, and a four-bedroomed old farmhouse surround the lapa and restaurant, which has a deck from which we watched the sunset with gin-and-tonics while the aforementioned fallow deer foraged around the small water hole below us, and the emus patrolled the perimeter.
The amazing thing about Thali Thali is that this is all close enough to “civilisation” to see the glow of Langebaan’s lights on the night horizon, and know the Engen One-Stop with its Wimpy milkshakes (another must on a road trip) is just there, but it still feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere and can see the Milky Way.
Something we learned about the West Coast while we were at Thali Thali is that the weather changes dramatically in a very short time. When we woke up in the morning we were enveloped in a thick blanket of fog. This soon burnt off under a blistering sun.
After a hearty buffet breakfast of bacon, eggs, boerewors, baked beans, tomatoes and toast, we went on the game drive we’d ditched the day before in favour of the archery. Thali Thali is home to kudu, oryx, springbok, red hartebeest, eland, and many other antelope, as well as zebra, black wildebeest, a dromedary, and a family of three giraffes. Oh, and ostriches. We saw all of these on our drive, which was narrated by Van Niekerk; his entertaining tales of sex, power, violence, and betrayal in the animal kingdom rivalled any soap opera.
Thali Thali is close enough to Cape Town for a day trip. Game drives depart every two hours, and it’s a popular destination for lunch or dinner, as well as weddings.
For more information, see www.thalithali.co.za, e-mail [email protected], or call Amalia on 082 372 8637. For archery inquiries call Van Niekerk on 083 275 2825.