The alarm rudely awakened us both at 5.00am…….does this time even exist….not for the past 8 years of retirement….. we dragged on clothes, gulped a cup of coffee down and headed for the gate. The gate opens at 5.30am and we were 5th in line.

We set off on the S110 then on to the H3 before turning on to the S114….up to this point we had only seen one lonesome warthog…far too early for the animals to be awake…

John had selected elephants and I went for Chacma baboons- the first to see 10….

Our first spot on the S114 was actually a male waterbuck

We looped up another dirt road and saw a couple of elephants. Then looking down we saw a rhino in the dried river bed…what a lovely sight. We turned down across the pontoon bridge and viewed the same rhino up the river bed… and would you credit it, quite near to the rhino were two ground hornbills…..

We saw a few more small herds of elephant …we were now up to 8…..I was worrying 🤣 John might win….before turning on to the tar. We had decided to go to Afsaal for a bacon butty…. Suddenly we saw another rhino

We enjoyed our bacon butty and carried on up the tar towards Skakuza. We slowly went past the rocks looking for Klipspringer. However we were not so fortunate…we used to always see 2 under what we call “The Jelly Bean” but no luck so far today.

We turned around and went back down the tar…as if by magic a whole troop of Chacma baboons appeared…sorry John you lost again.

We returned to our chalet at 10.30am. I called “Wossy” and she appeared immediately….the laundry was beautifully done and folded…I gave her 170 Rands and she was a happy as Larry……We crawled into bed and had 3 hours more sleep……whose idea was it to go out so early…we are definitely too old for that malarkey..

John made up some sandwiches and off we went for our afternoon drive….our first sighting was a rather splendid giraffe. He had red beaked oxpeckers on him…these have a two way exchange with a giraffe they feed by picking off the ticks but they also act as an early warning system for approaching predators…..they help each other….evidently a yellow beaked oxpecker had rescently been seen on giraffes and this is supposedly very rare….but the ones we saw were definitely red billed…

We saw some nice small herds of zebra mingling with impala.

One zebra made us laugh…it had obviously found an old broken tree it liked…it then proceeded to give every part of its body a good scratch…..I could do with a tree like this🤣

Passing what we now call Klipspringer Rocks we found two in exactly the same position as yesterday.

On we went and again came across three more rhino

Wow that’s a total of 7 Rhinos we’ve seen today. Turning back to camp we saw a few more elephants.

We detoured onto a dirt road and came across a hammercocks nest which owls had made their home..

Further on we saw 4 dwarf mongoose…they are very skittish but delightful little chaps.

Finally back on the tar, we crossed the bridge before the S110 turning…it was crowded and we soon saw why…there was a leopard lying in the dry river bed…not an easy spot…but a great one..

Wow what a day of extraordinary sightings.

Our count for the day was 99+impala, 10 giraffe, 2 grey Lourie, 1 common duiker, 7 rhino, 2 ground hornbill, 1 squirrel, 1 grey heron, 3 guinea fowl, 18 zebra, 21 elephant, 2 Klipspringers, 6 wart hogs, 3 kudu, 4 dwarf mongoose, 1 waterbuck, 2 steenbok, 2 lilac breasted roller, 18 Chacma baboons, 1 yellow billed hornbill, 1 wildebeest, 1 leopard.

We ended the day with a braai…..thanks Roger Case for your braai tips..we had edible t-bone steaks and skewered vegetables…although the tomatoes fell off into the fire and by the time the fire was the right temperature to cook and not cremate we ended up eating at 9.00 pm…but it was an 8/10 so much improved from my earlier efforts…typical I get it right on our last night staying in Kruger accommodation, tomorrow we go back to Pestana for 2 nights…we’ll still go into Kruger during the day.

Having had a midday kip we stayed up until 10pm playing cards and listening to the sounds of the wild.