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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 – Day 27 Our final day in Kruger.

Published on October 12, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We woke up fairly late in our Pestana lodge deluxe room…..very comfortable…only the coffee maker didn’t work and the aircon after a while turned into pneumatic drill ….

Looking over the river it lived up to its name because on the opposite bank was a crocodile.

We wandered up for breakfast..word was obviously out “ awkward customer alert” because we were treated like royalty. The food was much improved from our previous stay….everything was hot, nothing had run out. There was a good selection of cooked and continental style food and we enjoyed what we had.

Heading into Kruger we were pleased we had booked in the previous day because after a 20 minute wait to get to the front of the queue we were dealt with rapidly……..there were two receptionists on duty,…..part of the problem is that the entry forms haven’t changed for the past 37 years, except for the fact they used to be on A4 paper so there was space to write the information they want…now they are on A5 paper…half the size and impossible to fit the answers to the questions in the boxes….so everyone misses bits out which means it takes twice as long at the counter because they have to fill it in there….its all a bit pointless as it would be much quicker to do away with the paper and the counter staff just scan your id and put the info into their computer…they do that anyway by looking at the paper copy you give them and you still have to show them your id……anyway having finally got the permit we drove to security…nice chap he looked inside the car and in the bags in the boot…i light heartedly said the only thing we had which we shouldn’t have was 3 weeks of Kruger dust….unsmilingly he replied he could see that….oh dear sense of humour failure..

At last we were in and once again driving the H3…. Ashort while after the gate a mass of cars appeared all jostling for position….yes your right…a leopard had been seen but it had laid down and was no longer visible…..another “almost saw”. On we drove.

Just before the bridge a large breeding herd of Elephant crossed the road.

Further on we realised we were seeing a lot more plains animals than previously. This was probably due to the previous rain, which we’d had a few days ago, bringing through the new sweeter grass…everywhere looked transformed from grey/yellow sun scorched grasses to a green and lush and leafy landscape the transition was very noticeable.

We saw small herds of zebra, a lot more impala and a very large herd of wildebeest.

Past Afsaal we took the first right again…it goes for 3 km and then splits. The day before we had taken the long left hand loop, which took us most the day, so today we took the right hand loop, which we hadn’t driven for a few weeks…….it was quite prolific in game. We saw a small herd of dagger boys. These were the first buffalo we’d seen in several days.

Next we stopped to converse with a very pretty Kudu. There were actually 3 or 4 females browsing but we couldn’t see a male.

A little further on we did come across a huge male kudu of at least 6 years old, he was too shy to pose for a picture… We came across numerous elephants right at the side of the road, having either come up from the river or going down to it….the majority were happy to let us pass by but one or two of them showed attitude towards us which caused me to rapidly move on…I wasn’t going to see whether an elephant could out run a car🤣

We took the next turning left and went across the pontoon bridge below the weir. There was a fish eagle in the tree on the opposite side of the river. Also just a little further along in the shade of a huge tree the swish of a tail alerted us to a lioness sleeping…a difficult spot to say the least, but we also spotted her lifting her paw to rub her face and another tail swish.

We stopped on the pontoon to admire a large elephant drinking above us.

On the edge of the weir red dragon flies were dancing in and out for a drink. A lovely peaceful sight.

We continued on and had a slow drive back to the gate. The drive became more sparse of wildlife. We cleared security at the gate, this was our last self drive of our trip.

Back at the hotel we quickly changed and walked up to reception to wait for the Parks Board Safari vehicle to pick us up for our sunset drive. There were about 12 others waiting. The big truck arrived with Loyd at the wheel….he’s taken us out many times over the past 12 years…we remembered him well.

Back into Kruger we went, he picked up 10 more passengers at the gate making it a full house! He rattled off down the tar, with sightings of a hyena, elephants, a giraffe and of course impala. Loyd was in a hurry…which means he had to have had some animals whereabouts previous intel. Turning on to the dirt we soon came across a fabulous crash of rhino…5 in total. There was a delightful youngster. Loyd explained that it was over 6 months old because it was eating grass as well as still suckling. This evidently is good news because it means it could survive if anything happened to its mum. We enjoyed the magnificence of this prehistoric looking beast for several minutes before moving on.

On we went…Loyd was a man on a mission…we soon found out why…under some bushes were a pack of wild dogs…a fabulous sighting. We sat a long time watching them sleep, get up and lay down again….Loyd explained about their hunting tactics and how they don’t actually kill their prey they rip it apart…we already knew this about them…they may look cute but they are savage killers.

After the wild dogs Loyd drove sedately. He pointed out a chameleon…in the vehicles lights they change colour making them shine out rather than blend in with the bush. We also saw a juvenile bateleur eagle in a tree….then a young bull elephant with attitude…Loyd explained that male elephants only join a herd at mating time. They then mate with the females and then leave the herd again. This is the first time we’d heard this. The younger bulls form bachelor herds where as the older bulls often stay alone.. Loyd clapped his hands and the young bull retreated, his bravado disappearing.

A short while later we saw another rhino.

We continued the drive seeing very little else, our companions didn’t have a great talent for working the torch spotlights into the night. Back on the tar we came across a hyena den with two pups out playing.

Our wildlife count for the day was 99+ impala, 1 crocodile, 1 warthog, 37 zebra, 99+ elephants, 19+ wildebeest, 75 buffalo, 6 girrafe, 1 bushbuck, 1 wahlberg’s eagle, 6 Kudu, 1 lion, 2 bateleur Eagle, 1 African Fish Eagle, 1 grey heron, 4 hyena, 6 rhino, 6 wild dog, 2 scrub hare and 1 chameleon.

Returning to the gate it was pitch black and Loyd dropped of the clients he had picked up…some of the young women started walking across the carpark to the toilets…Loyd shouted at them to get in their car….looking at us out of the darkness next to the toilets was a large hyena.

We were dropped off back at the hotel. Once again we sat on the viewing deck for supper. The floodlight river looked very romantic and we could hear the grunts of hippos. We both had lasagne for supper.

We had had the perfect ending to a wonderful safari. We never know when or if we will be back we can only say…” thank you Kruger you are in our hearts and in our dreams. We hope to see you again.”

We retired to our room and had an earlish night in preparation for tomorrow’s long drive back to Johannesburg/ Pretoria.

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

Published on October 10, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

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.

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….

Published on October 9, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

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

Published on October 8, 2025November 22, 2025 by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

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.

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.

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.