dialaflight – 2 J's World of Adventure

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 29/30 preparing for home.

Published on October 14, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We woke up after a very comfortable nights sleep in the Protea Marriott Midrand hotel….our deluxe room was mega comfy…even managed to get the temperature right… I forgot to mention that on our way yesterday we saw the fairly magnificent waterfall mosque…

We had a really nice breakfast of bacon, sausage, egg, toast followed by yogurt and fruit and a nice cup of coffee. Returning to our room we packed up and loaded the car before heading to our friend Gill’s for the night.

It was an easy trip, having got a bit lost yesterday my dearest Cora had given me strict instructions last night .. … “Mum! Do not go any other way ….get on to the N1 Johannesburg, where it splits stay N1 Bloemfontein take the first off ramp to Rivonia, head towards Morningside clinic ( my son had been born there) and take the turning to Gills just after the massive billboard….then you’ll know where you are”…… “yes darling” I meekly replied…….i followed her instructions to the letter and 11 minutes later we were at Gills.

We unpacked the car, gave Gill all the bits we hadn’t used…which was quite a bit as due to quite a bit of cold damp weather we hadn’t cooked as much as we had anticipated doing… we stashed the pillows back upstairs in the spare room cupboard and prepared the cool box with all the cooking stuff in it to be stored in Gills garage. At this point John came in from the garden as it started to rain heavily.

Gills garden is a hive of bird activity. There is a Southern masked weaver making a nest right outside her patio.

After the rain stopped we went to Chillies Mall. There’s a great car wash in the underground car park …150 rand (£6) for an SUV inside and out …. pensioners rate…so we dropped the car off and went upstairs for lunch at ocean basket.

Great seafood platter for 3 …yum, yum…needless to say we ate it all….

After lunch we collected the car and went back to Gills for a restful afternoon, chatting late into the night.

Morning came all too soon. The packing was completed two cases, two hand luggage’s and a Woolies back with our fleeces in. ……a little story about the cases….. last year after we came back from Sri Lanka we treated ourselves to 2 new suitcases …our old faithfuls which we’d brought at Tesco 10 years ago had finally expired with a hole in one and the wheel broken off on the other….so we purchased at reasonable expense two new bright yellow ones from John Lewis….we took them to the Caribbean last Autumn and the wheel collapsed on one and the zip burst open on the other….they had a 5 years ago guarantee so I went to Milton Keynes (45 minutes away) …. I showed them the pictures of the damage ..we had hearty discussion about whether it was poor quality goods or rough airline handling eventually they agreed to change them…I selected two others, silver ones, but they said I should have brought both the old ones back …I had only taken one as parking was a distance away and I couldn’t see how I would manage two….so I asked them to put the silver ones aside and I’d go back the next day with the other one…when I returned with the second one the following day they had sold the silver ones…I was not amused…. They agreed to waiver the delivery charge so I paid the extra £120 …they were each £60 more than the original one but I was told they were far better quality….sure enough they arrived the following day…We used them in Portugal and Spain and then this trip….oh dear…. One of them came off the plane dented and the plastic was cracked open. Since then the zip on the other has opened at the end you can’t see and it won’t zip closed….so once again we will have to have them wrapped at the airport to get them home and once again I shall be taking them back to John Lewis…these cases are not fit for purpose…surely a suitcase should be able to withstand a trip on a plane and why give them a 5 year guarantee if they are so badly made…..they weren’t super cheap at £140 each …….grrrrrrrr

Anyway back to reality….we had a very nice breakfast with Gill…thank you very much…then we sat chatting in the garden while John took loads of pictures of Urban wildlife and nature …

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to Gill…it’s always sad. We headed back to the Protea Marriott Midrand and booked into the same room.

Cora had said she would call and have tea with us. It was a wonderful surprise when she breezed through the door and joined us in the bar…..that lady brings an aura of positivity wherever she goes….her smile forces everyone around her to smile …she is beautiful inside and outside… we were so privileged, she had lunch with us and we spent all afternoon chatting until 6.00 pm ….How she managed to clear her diary and make so much time for us is beyond me….it was a very special time…then it was time for another goodbye…

After a rest we had a light supper and retired to bed.

The morning brought sunshine. We had a lovely breakfast again and then chilled in our room until checkout time. John took some pictures around the hotel.

We booked out and sat in the lounge area…writing this blog…in an hours time we head for the airport, drop the car off and fly home…Stuart has already WhatsApped me to say he will meet us at the airport….our holiday will then be over…..what a fabulous time we’ve had….i’ll blog how the flight went tomorrow….then we will blog our sightings data, our final costings and our accommodation reviews over the forthcoming week.

Thank you to everyone who has followed us…if you have any questions or need help with bookings feel free to contact us at 2jsworldofadventure@gmail.com

For flight and accommodation contact Maisie Morton or Sean at DialAflight

+44 1618418179

If you mention us Jenny Jackson and 2jsworldofadventure they will give you a really good rate.

Finally once we have sorted the photos we will be asking you to rank them so we can select your 13 favourites for this years calendar ….this year if you are in the UK you will be able to order one of these……more about that in future blogs💕

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 28 – back to Pretoria/ Midrand

Published on October 13, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We woke at a reasonable hour…we could hear the grunting of the hippos…pulling the curtains open …what a view

Sat outside up close and personal was a male waterbuck, still in slumberland, using the protection of the hotel to keep himself safe.

We once again breakfasted on the terrace….bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, nice light scrambled eggs, toast, yogurt and fresh fruit…all washed down with a nice cup of coffee…..Well!!!!! It’s a long drive today it’s good to start with plenty of sustenance 🤣

We paid the bill…I thanked the reception, who were anxious to know what sort of review we would give them….will we stay there again…yes we will….but I will book a deluxe room it’s £30 per night more and so worth it….I would also request Lion 102 room… it was very nice….if you book an ordinary room on booking.com you could end up, upstairs, over looking a construction site, along way from the viewing platform and restaurant.

We filled up at Engen petrol station in Malalane…they are always friendly and clean all the windows.

Off we set…the road works between Malalane and Nelspruit ( now called Mbombela) are going to be ongoing for a good few years. You have to take your hat off to them, they are widening the road into 2 lanes each way….it was 3 lanes with the middle lane offering overtaking in turns but lots of accidents occurred….This improvement is no mean feat because the road hugs the mountain side of a V shaped valley. On the way we had been held up for a long period because they were blasting, but today we were lucky. Blasting was taking place in the afternoon. We steadily moved along…every 100m’s a girl waved a warning flag.

Even after blasting the boulders are broken down with pneumatic drills…and bulldozers shift the rubble ……what a task

This is a vital bit of road improvement to speed up the road from Joburg to the Mozambique border and through to the coast.

We made good progress and soon found our selves travelling through mango and citrus orchards with the beautiful Jacaranda trees now in full bloom.

It really is so beautifully green and colourful.

We cross the winding crocodile river several times and always laugh at the hippo warning signs

On we went, we passed the huge paper mill at Ngodwana in the Elands valley, it been there 60 years…thankfully the wind was blowing in the opposite direction….otherwise it can be more than a bit pongy to say the least…

At this point I will remind anyone who is going to embark on this trip the massive importance of sticking to the speed limit….there are lots of electric speed cameras all the way along this route and also mobile police cars with cameras, particularly coming into and out of the town areas and always around the paper mill area…I know this, far to well as over the years I’ve incurred fines….one year I managed to rack up £400 worth of fines and the car hire company just takes it from your credit card…so you don’t even get a chance to plead insanity…or the need for the loo🤣🤣🤣🤣 This trip I have been a really good girl and I will be really cross if I get any speeding fines.

When we got to Millys we stopped, not because we were needing fuel, neither were we buying their delicious smoked trout, or eating in their restaurant…but because they have clean toilets🤣

Some parts of the road are single file with short bursts of duel carriageway to overtake lorry’s …..the road seems to go on forever…this part of the journey often reminds us of Scotland.

You know you are well on the way to your destination when you start seeing small rural reserves with cattle, ramshackle huts/ rondavels/ houses.

Through Benoni, I decided to turn on to the R21 and head to Pretoria. We took this route until the interchange with the N1 where we turned back to Joburg. We took the Olifantsfontein off ramp in Midrand and soon found our hotel. We arrived around 2.00 pm…a nice fast trip of 4.5 hours….I had booked and Executive deluxe room in the Protea Marriott hotel….the hotel is super. Excellent security, they scan your driving licence and your cars Id disc on arrival and exit …this way no one can steal your car…it also has a security gate and a holding area with a second gate…..we felt very secure….no chance of the car getting out with out us.

Our room was a delight…huge bed, desk, dressing table, settee, armchairs table, tv, aircon, en-suite bath and shower etc….free wifi throughout…really nice staff….we were that impressed we booked in again on Monday night before we fly out on Tuesday. It was about £100 per night including breakfast.

Just so you get a gist of the distances and the cost of the tolls on this route….. from Malalane 8km to Nkomazi plaza ( toll) 92 Rands. Nkomazi plaza to Machado Plaza 140 km 122 Rands. Millys is 10km on from the plaza. From Machado Plaza to Middelburg plaza 105km 81 rand. Our final milage at the hotel from the start of the day was 448km’s and we had spent a total of 295 Rands in tolls…this cost is incurred each way and you need to be very aware that for international visitors you need to pay in cash….they only take South African credit cards. That’s all about the tolls on the main road. The car may or may not automatically incur the tolls around Pretoria, Midrand and Johannesburg but these used to only amount to a few rand each. We will only know this when the car hire company puts through charges on our credit card.

At 5.30 pm, dearest Cora came and picked us up, bless her……she knows I don’t like driving at night. We went to a restaurant and met her husband Farayi, middle child, son, Sam and youngest child, daughter, Vhenekayi. Seth the eldest is now 17 and far too old to have supper with oldies like us🤣 We ate at The Codfather Waterfall Midrand. It was extremely nice…the kids entertained themselves and us adults had a good natter…..during our meal there was a massive thunderstorm and the heavens opened, what a downpour… such a wonderful evening… I am always so proud of Cora and her achievements …she is a very well thought of paediatrician…she works so hard, it is so lovely that she makes time for us in her busy, hectic life….

She took us back to our hotel and said she’d call and see us for a cup of tea on Monday afternoon…. What a lovely evening we’d had…we retired to bed very replenished and contented.

South Africa Safari 2025 Day23 Day of the rhino part 2

Published on October 7, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We weren’t very sorry to say goodbye to Pretoriuskop……it used to be one of our favourite camps but now the staff seem to treat you just like another punter….the housekeeper only made herself known to us by walking backwards and forwards past our rondavel staring on the day we departed, the reception staff went through the motions without any cheeriness and this time it was the Echo Safari drivers who drove around at high speed, moving their vehicles in front of you when you were spotting, driving right up your tail so you couldn’t suddenly stop and racing past you at 60+ kmph…maniacs…they need their licences taken… We met lots of nice Safari vehicle drivers but there are just a few companies who need reminding that the rules apply to them as well as everyone else….grrr moan over.

Our rondavel had not been the best in that the outside table was set into the wall under a cupboard, so John struggled not to hit his head, there was no bedside tables so I had to use the cool box, there was only one space to put a suitcase which was next to the sink under the towel rail and the kettle lead was so short you had to move the tiny table to put it directly under the plug point ……all these things make such a difference to your comfort and the standard was well below what an international visitor would expect….but hey! We managed.

Having said we weren’t sorry to say goodbye wasn’t entirely true because by leaving it meant we were heading for Berg-en-dal which is where we started and where we were ending our safari….but we still have 3 nights there and another 2 nights at Pestana Hotel so 5 more days of safari.

We filled with petrol and found the member of staff both cheery, funny and efficient. Well done to her…. Off we went…the first 60 km along Vortrekker Road were totally uneventful.

The only thing we saw were a small group of elephants crossing the road.

We got to the H3 at Afsaal picnic spot and headed for Malalane. Still we saw nothing….what an unusual day…the sun was out but the animals were not. In desperation we turned down to Renosterpan.

At last there were three big elephants in a muddy pool. Joining them were three warthogs.

We continued down to the main water and ate our sandwiches. There were absolutely no animals drinking. However we watched a flock of Southern masked weavers flitting in and out of their intrinsically woven hanging nests…they were intriguing to watch.

We also spied a water monitor striding across to the waters edge…it was our first of the trip.

Actually in the water was a terrapin.

On leaving the water and retracing our steps we found a very large elephant blocking the road..it took him 10 minutes to browse his way into the bush.

Back on the H3 we passed a social gathering of WBV’s in a tree.

We stopped to to take a photo of what we call our tree….we had sat under this tree whilst Queen Elizabeth II funeral took place….we had a 2 minute silence and then we had opened the car windows and sang both Jerusalem and the National Anthem at the top of our voices, for all the world to hear….it had been our way of showing our last respects to our Queen….So you see that tree which sits on top of a hill in the middle of the wilderness will always be “Our Tree”.

We rested a few minutes there and laughed as a squawking quinea fowl appeared.

We continued our journey, turning up to Berg-en-dal and still we saw very little. On arrival just before we parked the car we saw two parrots hiding in a tree.

The reception staff greeted us like long lost friends…we were allocated chalet 60. We booked on the sunset drive and went to the chalet to rest. Laid outside our chalet was a bushbuck.

We waited for the sunset drive truck with 7 other adults and 9 children all under 10…..but pleasingly enough they were well behaved in-fact they made no noise at all and their adults weren’t too bad either 🤣

Peter our driver shuffled across the carpark, 10 minutes after the time we’d been told to be there…his persona didn’t bode well…everything about him said he didn’t want to be there and would sooner return to bed or the bar…which ever he’d struggled in from…

He did however do a nice introduction and off we set. We saw absolutely nothing for the 10km tar road from camp to the H3….he did call out “ Pumba “ once but none of us saw a warthog and he didn’t slow.

Turning on to the H3 we soon came across a large rhino, which had obviously had a mud bath. Our photos weren’t brilliant because Peter also had a good camera and he positioned himself, in the cab, in the best spot for photos….whilst we were behind a thorn bush…🤣 but he did move a little before shooting off again.

He continued up the tar for 30 minutes….we had seen nothing an hour or two before and we saw nothing again. We took a couple of poor sunset shots whilst racing along…

As dusk fell we came across a hyena den…the mum was laid outside and out of the culvert came not just one or two pups …but they kept coming…we counted 6 in total….a lovely sight.

Next we saw a huge herd of elephant 40+ in total.

We carried on up towards Afsaal and on the left were 3 more rhinos. This time we had a good view…Peter explained the difference between white rhino and black rhino for those who didn’t know….The white rhino is much bigger and has a big square jaw, grazing on grass. The black rhino is much smaller, has a “V” shaped jaw and browses predominantly on leaves and bushes.

A little further along were another 4 beauties….we rarely see this many rhinos in a full holiday let alone within one drive …what a delight.

Peter turned on to the dirt and within a few minutes someone shouted stop…he did..a hyena was walking towards us and crossed the road behind us…but before we could get decent photos we were off again.

For the rest of the dirt road we were jolted around left right and centre… I braced myself by holding the side and the seat in front.

Twice people shouted stop but the vehicle only slowed and Peter shouted out “hippo” and then “genet” but none of us got to see either.

Back on the tar we did stop when a hippo was on the road edge. Peter explained that they can travel up to 30 km a night whilst grazing.

We returned to camp delighted with our rhino, hyenas and hippo sightings but a little disappointed with the actual drive which was far from comfortable or relaxing.

Our count for the day was 99+ impala, 4 squirrel, 1 hoopoe, 99+ elephant, 1 bateleur eagle, 12 Chacma baboons, 17 zebra, 1 woolly neck stork, 16 WBV, 4 warthog , 1 terrapin, 4 quinea fowl, 1 water monitor lizard, 1 steenbok, 4 kudu, 14 vervet monkeys, 5 giraffe, 3 lilac breasted rollers, 2 bush buck, 1 redbilled horn bill, 1 tawny eagle, 1 hippo, 1 wildebeest, 1 scrub hare, 9 hyena, 8 rhino….. not bad for what had seemed like a slow day.

We went to the restaurant for supper then back to our chalet for cards and bed.

South Africa Safari Day 22 The day of the Elephant

Published on October 6, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

“Tell me who made all of creation?

Who designed the wonders of nature?

Whose idea was pattern and colour,

Wonderful to see?

Everywhere around me,

I can see the hand of God,

The evidence surrounds me,

In the greatness of His world.”

……This was one of my favourite songs at work …basically because I tried all my working life to get children to understand the beauty around them, it’s so important for a positive mind set…..and when I retired the whole school blasted ( I use the word deliberately because they certainly wouldn’t have won a choir competition 🤣🤣) it out to me…it made me cry….

As I look around us at this moment in time I can’t help but want to sing it…..the natural, nature we have been immersed in for 2.5 weeks is everywhere around us.

For the first time in about a week I had a great nights sleep. It was the first double bed we’d had since leaving Gills in Joburg…and yes you’ve guessed it …it was great to warm my freezing cold feet on my big grizzly bear🤣🤣 And it sure was cold last night…yesterday barely got up to 19 degrees Celsius and the night was more than a tad chilly…in fact it was “flipping freezing”…..the rondavels are designed to stay cool….South Africa is supposed to be a hot country…this coldness is unseasonal.

Today we both woke to the squawking of some persistent Guinea fowl at 7.30 am….John made coffee and we chilled out until 8.00am…the day was warming up and thank heavens, there was a bright blue sky with not a cloud to be seen.

We breakfasted quickly and headed out to game spot. Johns new game led him to select Waterbuck …a bit cheeky as we had seen a herd at the gate yesterday evening and I think they numbered 10+ which is his new rules….so I chose buffalo…we’d seen a few “dagger boys” not too far away……. We left camp and about 600 meters from the gate was…yes you guessed it ….a breeding herd of several hundred buffalo🤣🤣🤣🤣poor John he just can’t win, even when he changes the rules🤣.

We watched them for a while…the bush was literally heaving with them as far as the eye could see….a herd this big is an amazing sight.

We drove through them and continued on the road to numbi gate. The hyenas we’d seen yesterday were nowhere to be seen…but it was a,ready hot so they would have been in their den. At the gate we took the dirt road across towards the Phenbeni gate. We turned back on ourselves taking the road around the dam….which had nothing drinking there, but we did see a large pod of hippos.

After a while we came across a couple of giraffe and then at last some waterbuck!!!

As we continued we passed several small herds of zebra.

A fairly large group of impala were roadside. Two males were rutting…a lovely sound hearing them crash horns in their battle for dominance.

We passed by what we call the balancing rocks.

When we got back to the tar we headed back to camp…the combination of Wimpy food and corrugated roads can play havoc with your inners….after a quick break we headed on a dirt loop and saw some superb elephants drinking out of a pool of water on an elevated rock formation. One looked as if he was “on top of the world looking down on creation”.

Back on thr tar we headed to “ have a shit dam” opps sorry I meant Shitlhaven dam 🤣 naughty me !!! . The dam had numerous hippo and we sat eating lunch watching long lines of elephant come down for a drink…it was by now 33 degrees Celsius….what a contrast from yesterday. Watching the elephants is fascinating…

The park has a supposed capacity for 7500 elephants but the latest count came in at 35000…..way above the parks capacity…you can see this by the devastation they have caused…some areas look as if they belong on the moon…. grey dust and everything grey and dead because the elephants have literally cleared the areas not a tree standing…very sad…but for now we enjoyed watching them drinking and having mud baths….the sounds, smells and sight are fantastic.

For much of the time we were on our own…enjoying these majestic beasts whilst munching our sarnies…we soon found out why…when we got to the top of the dirt road to rejoin the tar there was an array of cars, safari vehicles, trucks etc…..there in the tree opposite the turning laid along the lower branch was a delightful leopard…in a typical leopard pose.

We sat awhile watching this elusive predator in all its glory. Because we had come up from the turning we had a great view and didn’t have to hassle for the best spot.

We moved on and went further up to take the Naphe loop, which was devoid of anything including impala.

Back along the tar was looking directly into the sun ….there were no hyena where we’d seen the yesterday and the leopard had moved on by the time we passed its tree….

Back to camp we went , an ice cream and a rest was the order of the day as it was very hot.

Around 4.00 pm we went out again for a drive. We took the dirt road towards Berg-en-dal. Passed the huge herd of buffalo again and then shake rattled and rolled….this time we found the Fayi loop ( I could have sworn it was the fairy loop🤣) ..it was an interesting loop but completely devoid of any wildlife, but very pretty. It brought us out on the numbi gate road. Because we still had time we turned left towards the gate and in less than 1km we saw the hyenas from yesterday…the mum was laid in the road with a young black pup suckling we also saw 2 more youngsters and another full grown one…what a lovely sight.

Turning back to camp we stopped for a couple of sunset pictures.

Then we headed for the camp gate with 10 minutes to spare…oh no…the buffalo were blocking the road.. thankfully a parks employer drove passed us and cleared enough room for us to follow them through…phew we got to the gate minutes before closing time.

Back to the rondavel for a quick face time with grandchild and family…then off to the wimpy for steak and chips and some high speed wifi to upload the blog.

It was warm enough to sit outside and play cards before going to bed ….

Another magical day in the bush.

South Africa Safari 2025…Day21- The day of the giraffe.

Published on October 5, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We packed up our baggage and loaded it into the car…we were away about 8.30 having showered and had yogurt for breakfast. The housekeeper showed her face, the first time we’d seen her in our 4 night stay…but there had been evidence of her…she had made the beds and done the washing up….so her loitering gained her the expected tip.

It was a really cold grey day. In fact most of the day the temperature was only 16 degrees Celsius…the highest it went to was 19 degrees Celsius…and what’s more it rained for most of the day…not a downpour but that annoying drizzle which is too much for intermittent windscreen wipers but not enough for them to be on all the time. We kept our long trousers and fleeces on all day.

John selected zebra and I went with wildebeest as our first spot of the day…..it was in-fact a lovely line of wildebeest…..John has surrendered …I am just to in-tune with the wild….he has admitted defeat…and wants to start a new game tomorrow….so as from tomorrow it’s guess which animal we see 10 of first…ummmm Today it would have been giraffes.

We saw a lovely family group not long after setting off down the H1.

Giraffes are the tallest of all land animals; males (bulls) may exceed 5.5 metres (18 feet) in height, and the tallest females (cows) are about 4.5 metres. A newborn giraffe is about 6 feet (1.9 meters) tall at birth and weighs about 150 pounds.

They are quite easy to tell apart…the males horns are thick and bald ( no wise cracks about them representing most of the male species🤣) Where as the females horns are much thinner, with fluffy hair on top they also often curve inwards.

Some giraffes are darker than others due to a combination of factors including genetics, which determine an individual’s base pattern, and age, with males often darkening significantly as they mature to signal their status to other giraffes. Environmental factors like diet and climate may also play a role in coat color variation.

When there are a group of giraffes together browsing they are known as a “Tower of giraffes”, when they are walking from place to place they are known as a “journey of giraffes”. They are fascinating creatures, I could spend all day watching them….but we had to continue our journey south.

We saw some big herds of buffalo, both breeding herds and smaller groups of dagger boys. Lots of elephants were browsing the trees and bushes all around.

We had been travelling for very nearly an hour before we saw our first impala and then we saw a massive group…and a lot more throughout our trip. Some rather cute wart hogs were munching on the sweet grass at the side of the road.

While a pair of steenbok were hunkered down in the bushes trying to escape the inclement weather.

We felt privileged to follow a line of zebra up the road…so long as I didn’t get too close they were content to just walk along the road in front of us. If I got too close they broke into a trot until I dropped back…. We must have followed them for about a kilometre ….just us and them…we felt like a sheepdog shepherding them along. Then out of the blue they all looked to the right, startled they cantered off to the left…we looked to see if it was a predator but saw nothing….it was a lovely moment in time…no other cars just them and us…

We decided not to stop at Tshokwane as it was so busy. We continued on towards Skakuza…..the main tar road was appalling. In most places totally covered in sand which had been there so long it was corrugated. This is the H1 the main spinal road which runs from one end of the park to the other….how the parks board can have allowed it to get into this shocking state is beyond me…there were some road works taking place…typically 2 men were doing the work, while 20 stood watching them…one side of the road was being worked on but both oncoming and our direction traffic both had the go sign showing with no one working it …so inevitably be both met in the middle..ummmm …one of the workers moved a traffic cone so we could pass…..” piss-up”and “brewery” spring to mind…. Shortly after this we saw the unusual sight of a ground horn bill up a tree.

We also saw a variety of different eagles…tawny and bateleur …in trees.

We drove past quite a few herds of elephants before arriving at Skakuza. A quick loo break and a swift reccy of the shop and we were off again.

Onward towards Prestoriakop. We stopped at Transport Dam for our lunch. The usual hippos were wallowing and 3 big crocodiles were on the opposite banks.

We also saw a sight we’d never witnessed before…. A dead buck on the shoreline with a massive crocodile swallowing it…..presumably it had caught it, killed it and was now demolishing it…quite a sight.

On we travelled and between the Napier loop was a den of hyenas…..a very cute very young black one and two elder pups…

We got to Shitlhaven dam ….or as my son used to call it for years when he was a little boy “have-a-shit dam”. It always makes me laugh…there were just hippos in the water….

We continued on…I have to say I was not impressed with Viva Safari vehicles…they drove fast, overtaking then stopped, blocking the road when they saw zebra or giraffe etc…they showed no regard for other vehicles whatsoever…in-fact yesterday one had put me in a precarious position by blocking the road when a young male elephant was showing me attitude….this company will begetting Safari vehicles a bad name…its not just about their customers it’s about showing everyone respect. Grrrrr…whinge over

We got to camp and booked in….had a rest for an hour before driving towards numbi gate for the last hour…we saw another group of dagger boys and another den of hyenas….a lovely end to a very good spotting day.

Our supper was at the restaurant…if you can call a Wimpy a restaurant…John had a breakfast and I had sausages with hard microwaved mash and gravy which was so thick it wouldn’t come out of the bowl…then it was a game of cards and bed.