Tag: kruger-national-park

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 26 – The day of the zebra

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Today we packed up at Berg-en-dal …tonight we leave the park and have two nights at Pestana Lodge….so tomorrow we’ll self drive during the day and have a final sunset parks board drive, before heading back to joburg.

We set off taking the S110 past the camp where the tar stops and on to a really bad dirt road. It felt like rock surfing and was just one leap after another as I picked the cars route down and up the winding track. We flagged another car coming in the opposite direction to ask if they’d seen anything, because we were seriously considering turning around….we hadn’t done this road this trip because I really don’t like the drive it has always been a bad road fraught with hazards.

However our conversation with the other car led us to continue on….sure enough in another km or two we came across an open grassy area with two big black maned male lions laid down…unfortunately they had their backs to us but they were very majestic…..we jostled for car position to get a better view but to no avail.

After admiring these beauties for a while we continued on to the Matjulu Dam….there was very little water if any in the dam…but solar panels were feeding a water tower and a trough. An elephant was trying desperately to get water out of the tower. He didn’t seem to be successful and wandered on to the trough. Here he joined a heron and had a long thirst quenching drink.

Back on the dirt we took the shortest route back to the tar…a breeding herd of elephant where browsing at the track side..a lovely sight.

Back on the H3 we headed up past Afsaal. We were delighted to see our 2 rhino again.

We didn’t stop at the picnic area but continued past the jelly bean rocks and Jocks Safari lodge on to the next right hand dirt track. We took Burne Road down on to the Crocodile bridge river road. We were pleasantly surprised to come across a leopard tortoise walking along the road….its the first tortoise we have seen this trip.

Further on we came across a herd of zebra mingling with some kudu. The kudu wandered off and we ate our lunch next to a very handsome zebra stallion. He munched on the grass next to the car…I think our masticating was a comfort to him ….as he was totally accepting of our presence…..what an honour…lunch with a zebra. We spent along time just enjoying the moment in time.

After lunch we continued on. As we turned on to the Crocodile bridge to Malalane dirt road there was the heavy stench of death…sure enough we sighted both WBV and lappet faced vultures and some eagles… Closer investigation showed us they were feasting on a giraffe….we didn’t loiter too long as the smell was quite overpowering.

A little later an on coming vehicle stopped and asked if we had seen the lions…which we hadn’t…he told us they had brought down the giraffe 3 days ago and had moved off the kill that morning…hence the birds of prey taking over the carcass.

Shortly we came across a rather majestic bull waterbuck all on his own.

On we went ..our next sighting was a Wahlberg”s Eagle in a tree….

We arrived back a Malalane gate. We went in to reception and booked a day pass for tomorrow and a Sunset Drive with pick up at the hotel. The day pass reservation was 56 Rands each…but it is holiday time and sometimes the gates reach their daily entry quota and then you’re only allowed in if you have internal accommodation booked…so we didn’t want to take a chance. We also booked pick up from hotel Sunset drive, because when we did this same gate drive at the beginning of our holiday we had been unable to sit together because it picks up at the hotel first…..it cost an extra 50 Rands each to have the pick up ( £2.30ish) so we thought it worth £5 to be able to sit together.

Stopping on the bridge immediately after the gate we looked across and saw a crocodile on a river island.

Our viewing count for the day was 99+ impala, 2 squirrel, 1 grey heron, 2 lion, 7 warthog, 46 elephant, 8 giraffe, 1 lilac breasted roller, 22 quinea fowl, 2 rhino, 4 grey Lourie, 1 wildebeest, 17 kudu, 4 bateleur eagle, 22 WVB, 1 Leopard Tortoise, 2 lappet faced vultures, 2 waterbuck, 10 zebra, 3 vervet monkeys, 2 crocodile, 11 hippo, 1 Wahlberg’s eagle.

We arrived at Pestana Lodge at 3.00 pm. We booked in and off we went to our allocated lodge….oh dear…..NO!!! …much to Johns annoyance as he hates it when I complain…back to reception we drove…he stayed in the car while I went in…

“ Sorry but our room is unacceptable. Firstly it’s upstairs and I requested no stairs as I struggle to climb stairs” ( it’s also so John doesn’t have to lug the baggage up stairs) “and secondly it’s overlooking a construction site”.

The young man on reception stated it was the room allocated to the price we had paid…I just don’t believe them..we paid £98 per night ….thats a lot in South Africa….i informed them they needed to find us a downstairs room not on the construction site, similar to the one we had had 3 weeks ago…I also told them we were not just any old international tourist who only comes once, we come regularly most years and expected to be treated with the respect our loyalty deserves…..well! They rang housekeeping and sent another person from reception to see if another room was ready…they could tell I was not at all amused…The head of reception arrived…a very professional lady called Annika. She taped a few keys on the computer picked up a room key…made a phone call…then apologised profusely for allocating us a really awful room, she upgraded us to a ground floor delux river facing room. Her phone call was to summon the head of housekeeping, Fate, who escorted us to our new room….it was delightful…. beautiful views, huge room…everything you could ask for. Fate fussed over us like a mother hen, brought us complementary nuts, fruit, cheeses, crackers, biltong all wrapped up on a platter with a big bow, whilst still apologising for the mix up with the rooms….ummmm even John looked impressed with the outcome. I tipped Fate handsomely.

View from our room

We had a nice rest before supper. John sat on the balcony with his laptop and good wifi internet.

We walked to the restaurant at about 7 pm. We ordered A’ l carte…I had grilled chicken with plain rice and John had lasagne…both dishes were very good….we were very happy.

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 25 The day of the unexpected….

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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.

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 24 The Day of the Rhino Part 3!! Or The day of the Klipspringer

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We got up at leisure …I managed to find our house keeper…a young lady with her tight curls dyed blonde answering to the name of “Wossy”….I asked her if she could do our washing she said she could but didn’t look too happy. I said we would of course pay her, she cheered up a bit, I asked if 150 rand would be ok and she beamed from ear to ear, grabbed the washing and skipped away…excellent…you’ll be pleased to know we will both now have clean undies, T-shirts, socks, trousers and hankies to see us through to the end of our holiday🤣…it was beginning to look a bit dodgy! In fact I had been considering calling at Woolies in Malalane the day after tomorrow to buy new pants and socks….now I won’t have to bother👍👍

We set off for our game drive down the tar S110 which leads from the camp to the H3 main route. We wound our way down the S25, S114, S118 …wow where has all the game gone…

John had stated he would see 10 giraffe and I had selected elephant….as it happens we only saw 6 giraffe all day and by the end of the day we had actually seen 15 elephants…sorry John, I’ll select a porcupine tomorrow then you’re bound to win🤣

We did see a steenbok, near some impala.. the contrast in size was quite clear to see.

Young male impala
Steenbok

There was also a large male kudu in the mostly dried up river bed. You can age a Kudu by the turns in its horns. Every turn is 2 years so 3 curves …which tend to be your big dominant bulls means it’s over 6 years old….the young buck which don’t quite have a turn yet are under 2.

6 year+ adult bull kudu

We saw one or two elephant wandering browsing in the bush, but no big herds. We stopped lots of times to ask others what they had seen but apart from impala no one had seen much at all.

We cut back on to the H3 and headed up towards Afsaal picnic spot. A safari vehicle was looking at the rocks so I stopped and asked if they’d seen any thing interesting. The guide asked what I meant by interesting expecting me to say leopard, as they like rocky outcrops,. But I actually replied Klipspringer. He burst out laughing and I explained we had been in the park nearly 3 weeks and still hadn’t managed to see a “Klippy”….

The Klipspringer is a smallish ( 40-60 cm) sturdy antelope with short spiky ringed horns, and a yellowish grey coarse coat. They frequent rocky areas. “Klip” means rock, and “springer” means jumper in Africans which is exactly what these antelope do, they jump from rock to rock. Their thin pointy rubber-like hooves make them look like ballerinas leaping across the rocks. They can often be seen on the top of rocks, the highest lookout point, this is because they have binocular vision…but up until yesterday try as we had we had failed to see one….

The Safari guide was explaining to me where they had seen one…on an outcrop near Skakuza, when one of his clients, who was using binoculars sighted one on the rocks…wow superb….unfortunately by now lots of cars had crowded in on us, as they thought we had seen a leopard, and I was unable to manipulate the car so John had a view. Very frustrating… we said a grateful farewell to our friendly Safari guide and his guests…spending a few more minutes trying to locate where the Klipspringer had moved to…but sadly no success.

After using the toilet at Afsaal we went back down the tar towards Malalane gate.

We came across a largish troop of Chacma baboons .

Slowly we wound our way back to camp….

We went straight to the restaurant for a sandwich lunch. Although they don’t have Internet, our router worked very quickly, probably because it is the highest point in the camp…so we uploaded yesterdays blog, while eating lunch.

We went straight back out again. This time we were more successful. There was a large elephant drinking from a small pool of water at the roadside.

Due to the recent rain there are pools like this all over the place. This means animals don’t need to go to the rivers or to bigger watering holes to drink, this is why spotting has suddenly become one more difficult. It is why I always advise people to Safari between May and September, South Africa winter…because it’s dry after the hot summer and animals have to drink in the rivers and main water holes so they are much easier to find and see.

We headed along a short dirt track then back on to the tar. The South African Parks Board had put out a red weather warning stating there would be thunder, lightening, heavy wind and rain and flash flooding….i wasn’t very keen to move too far from the main road which is tar and has proper bridges , unlike the dirt roads which use pontoon bridges, fords and the roads can become impassable in the rain……not that we saw much rain a few specks on the windscreen was all we got 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway by going up the tar we went past the rocky outcrop again…this time we both got to see a pair of Klipspringers on the top rock and on another outcrop we saw yet another one…a bit like London Buses – you wait forever for one then they all come at once….however we were very joyful…they are difficult to see because of the distance…but well worth the effort.

We continued along the road and lo and behold we saw two adults rhino and a young one and a short distance further on two more. We sat for ages watching them. There was a huge elephant behind the family of three…he looked like their security guard!

On the way back we saw a twitch of an ear at the side of the road and sure enough there was a hyena den with two pups peaking out…very difficult to see.

Our Klipspringers were still standing to attention on the top of their rock as we passed by and made for the camp gate….a lovely afternoon drive.

Our count for the day was 99+ impala, 2 bushbuck, 8 warthog, 2 squirrel, 2 steenbok, 15 elephants, 1 kudu, 2 vervet monkeys, 1 wildebeest, 10 Chacma baboons, 3 Klipspringer, 2 red billed horn bill, I lilac breasted roller, 2 quail, 1 dwarf mongoose, 2 guinea fowl, 6 giraffe, 5 rhino, 2 hyena, 1 zebra, 2 white headed vultures…our lowest count to date.

We ate at the restaurant again then sat outside our rondavel playing cards…there was no hint of any rain.

South Africa Safari 2025 Day23 Day of the rhino part 2

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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

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“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.