One Hell Of A Weekend
House of Horrors
Option three: Have you ever had a weekend you'd rather forget? Explain what happened, why it was so bad, and what the outcome was.
Around about 1983 before internet or cellphone technology a group of us booked into accommodation in Ifafa Beach further down the coast from where we lived at the time in small 1.5 bedroom homes within a caravan park.
All of us had young children and had not been away for a break in a couple of years. Excited we wracked stacked and packed, one couple had three little ones, the other two and two of us had one each, Four couples and seven children, food for all, let's go!
Ifafa is Zulu expression meaning ‘place of sparkling waters’, well we arrived in the rain this immediately meant no beach for the little ones. First impression outside, a relatively grand big old house, it looks OK.
Then we went indoors....
One exceptionally long front verandah room with snooker table, very old dirty lounge suite, with 'Blou Koppie lizard' running around the wall trying to escape energetic children running around.
Kitchen was dripping in sludge, lucky we brought some cleaning products along, two of us started kitchen scrubbing while two held their breath dived into the bathroom! BTW Woman scrubbed and cleaned while men babysat and swept taking turns.... Know the deal 😡?
Source - Giphy
Who the hell rents out a place in such filthy condition? Learned later rich folk who never arrived from inland to check what the hell was going on in their property.
'Bedroom' one long room with worn out beds and mattresses that had seen better days, thank goodness we had camp cots for some of the little ones, going back home was not a question, a little too far for little ones who needed urgent feeding.
Next morning more rain, just was not our time to visit obviously we decided to pack and go home, while packing up the cars the oldest little boy (at the time about 6 years old), playing in the garden was rewarded with a bite from a dog. Rabies in the region is a very big problem....
Source - Giphy
Next step parents rushed off with little lad to the closest hospital in Park Rynie about half an hours drive, we packed up the rest of the children and all drove home in under an hour and waited.
Thankfully the child never contracted anything from the bite, we never ventured further afield as a large group again!
The house was not on the beach as advertised, it was up on the hill, similar distance from a beach as where we lived at the time, our friends managed to wrangle a small discount after telephone tongue lashing ensued on our return.
Twelve years later we had a similar event happen in Hogsback, a beautiful place in our country, my sister booked our two families in together after visiting East London in the Eastern Cape.
In both instances we had children, could not turn around and just go home, staying the night was our only option. My advice be very cautious when booking places to stay!
Thought for Today: No matter how far you are from your house, you will keep going until you get home. -
African Proverb
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That does sound a ch a terrible place I don’t know how people can rent out a place like that
Places like this do happen unfortunately, thank goodness today we have internet now to check, many people will mention bad places long before they mention good online today.
Yes that’s true people seem more Keen to leave bad reviews than good
Wow, it's a very unfortunate experience when the goal is for a vacation but it's not as expected, hopefully one day you and your family can vacation according to what you want. for such an experience incidentally I have never experienced.
Both times it was meant for weekend stop only, both distastefully filthy with bad attitude from owners. Internet solves a lot of this from happening hopefully now.
yeah hopefully it doesn't happen. Keep spirit
So sorry you had to endure such weekend Joan. Ah well we all live and learn.
A few years later we inherited a two bedroom tent, invested in a trailer then knew what we had. Also supported Parks Board more often, renting private places became a big No, No!
Yes so much better to have your own option.
Roughing it when young never was a bad option, way better than living in filth!
I couldn't agree more - that's why this current water shortage is a real problem for me.
What a terrible experience. We had so many as well and it always ends up fights between families for some reason. Or at least in my experience. There is always finger pointing and scapegoat seeking. I have vivid memories of some of these truly "haunted" places, and as you mentioned one always asks why do people rent these places?? I guess they are looking for a quick buck most of the time.
Mostly we remained friends, as we moved into our own homes we used to get together often for game of darts and a braai, yes able to laugh about the incident eventually, reminisce as to what we would have done to the owners had we seen them....
That weekend was a nightmare, it happened twice... never again, became much more selective and cautious.
After a while, we can laugh about these things, but in the moment there is anything but laughter. And as you mention you become much more selective and almost sceptical about the whole practice.
Life teaches you quite quickly to be skeptical, super wary when booking anywhere I don't know now.
I wonder if it is sad that we learn this skeptical attitude so quickly, or if I am naive to think that we could have been otherwise. Alas! Here we are now.
Once you reach puberty the rose tinted glasses tend to disappear, we learn pretty quickly life is not quite what we expected.
It is sad that we can almost pinpoint a date to when the glasses of deception disappear. But we need to accept this otherwise we will always be taken advantage of.
Please forgive me, but your story made me smile 😉 although I know that you have had a very bad time there.
I have never made such bad experiences and so, while reading your words, a little movie was playing in my head that ended with a crying boy and 4 families driving home, sad and disappointed, and their eyes said they would never return.
Well, in the eighties there was no internet where you could have read tons of reviews of your destination or see actual photos. Of course, such could also happen nowadays, because reviews can be bought and images faked, but the chances are smaller.
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You are so right, I have yet to visit that lovely beach of Ifafa and it really is not far a drive, it was simply absolute disappointment after the build up of just getting away.
Internet also can be super misleading, mainly look for negative first since the positive reviews can be friends of friends and a scam.
Second incident with my sister I think was far worse, we were miles away from home, the local hotel fully booked we could not find a place anywhere else. Stuck in a nightmare with four children 3, 4 and x2 6 years olds, saw the area in an early morning hike, they then returned to Johannesburg and we drove back to Durban.
Such is life, live and learn!
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What a terrible experience. There is nothing worse when you want to spend a few days on vacation than arriving at the place where you are staying and realizing that it's a big disaster.
Definitely a night away adults would never forget, reminds me of the song "Shabby Little Hut Down By The Sea", pity it was not on the beach!
Seemed even the rain was in disagreement, that's one terrible night but like you said at least the kids never caught anything from the bite 🤔 And shame on the owners for putting an ad for what they didn't own.
Rain was a problem, not being on the beach as promised the second, filthy house was simply the breaking point! Little boy was inoculated by doctor in precautionary measure, not a happy little chappy but lucky nothing serious.
Great post and I don't like unexpected event like this one.
One never anticipates deceit at this level, most took pride in what they rented out, lesson well learned!
It was unfortunate the trip was so disappointing. Joan. Not only the condition of the place but the weather was miserable. It’s hard to get a good night sleep when the place was so dirty.
@joanstewart it's bad enough when things go wrong on an adult outing, but adding in a bunch of little ones, wow what a disaster! And the men actually did the babysitting? I'm amazed, lol. Just what you women needed was more housework to do. And then the rain! I'm glad the little boy didn't have rabies, but I'm sure the trama of the dog bite was more than enough drama.
And I love your Spongebob gif!