Lightly Green: The Hotel Princess

I've heard of people resembling their pets, or vice versa, but in our household the cat is less a physical lookalike than a spiritual twin of her human mama. She settled into life on the open road like a trooper but it soon became apparent that while she enjoyed being on safari with us, her tastes ran to the luxury end of the market rather than a rough and ready bush experience. I can absolutely understand that, and took great pleasure in watching the light dawn on Him Outdoors that he was transporting a cat with expensive tastes. He was flabbergasted to say the least.

Seventeen days travelling from Nairobi to Johannesburg went something like this. Night one was spent in a overland campsite near Arusha, Anushka was not impressed and refused to exit the vehicle until a middle of the night call of nature gave her the opportunity to race through the opened tent flap and plop down on my pillow, giving me the haughty look of death when I tried to get back into bed.

Night two was spent in a hotel in Dodoma and we stealthily sneaked her in through the window. Like greased lightning, she was stretched out on the bed within seconds, making it clear that spending eight hours on the road was an exhausting experience and she needed a comfortable rest. It was downhill from there as hotel after hotel through Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana we had to fight her for bed space - she was in like Flynn as soon as we opened the door, making herself completely at home.

Having established that communal hotel space is for guest use, there was no stopping her. In Mpika, we were the only guests in the hotel so allowed her, trailing the long, neon yellow twine we'd attached to her harness (to track her down and find where she was hiding) to wander about at will. After a while we hunted her down in reception, perched on top of the leather couch in full view of the pop-eyed receptionist who had never dealt with a situation like this before.

In Livingstone, she perambulated the reception gift shop before dropping into the restaurant and finding her way into the kitchen. Following the yellow rope I discovered a bemused chef staring at his furry visitor. Fortunately, the waiters thought it was very funny! The next day we moved to more affordable digs at Maramba River Lodge and set up camp on the riverbank; congratulating ourselves over the window seat we had every evening when the hippos gathered below us before grunting their way up the opposite bank for their night's munching activities.

The Princess wasn't too impressed to be camping after a week of hotel beds and spent the next three days sleeping in the car, emerging only for food or to join us when we mooched up to the pool and lounge to use the wifi, much to the amusement of other guests and the barman. One afternoon, we pulled up in the car for a quick beer after visiting Vic Falls, afterwards HO popped her through the top half of the rear door but didn't bother closing it as we were a scant 500 metres or so from our campsite. As he reversed, a peripheral flash of movement in the wing mirror caught my eye. I thought it was a monkey behind the car but no, madam had exited the vehicle and was padding purposefully up the path towards reception. To all intents and purposes on her way to check-in to a room!

Anushka will pass into family legend as the cat that will go anywhere, so long as the accommodation is at least 3 star!