Crocodile Bridge

We were up before the sunrise, looking for the big cats again, which Facebook reassured us were very close by. We didn’t find any again, but had another totally splendid morning watching a fish eagle,

avoiding elephants on the road,

trying to take photos of elusive warthogs, and being enchanted by the zebra and impalas.

Our plan had originally been to come back to the camp for lunch and then take a break in the afternoon so we could pack and rest up prior to our afternoon game drive.

Well it didn’t work out that way. As soon as we were done with lunch, and photographing the little bush buck, who despite there being a fence around the camp, had decided to move in next to our rondavel, we jumped into the cars and were back on the road again.

We came across a herd of buffalos in the middle of the road. Now elephants are on the road because they are going somewhere, and need to get across the road to achieve that goal. Not so much buffalos. They just like to hang out on the road, and take a we shall not be moved stance if you try to encourage them to move on. They can be quite aggressive, so we sat and waited, chewing on our ever-decreasing supply of biltong.

Luckily a lilac breasted roller settled on a nearby tree and was in the mood for a photo shoot, so the photographer in the family had a field day snapping away, and got some great shots of the beautiful bird.

We had decided to go back to the dam near the camp to watch our final sunset in the park. There were a lot of rhinos at the dam, which was a good, and a bad thing. Good because you can never have too many rhino sightings, bad because you can have too many cars in too small a space.

We were able to get a good view of the rhinos, and did not feel we were intruding on them too much. The collective noun for rhinos is a crash of rhinos. You could see why. They are large and don’t seem to have the best powers of coordination, and kept on bumping into things. Indeed, a crash of rhinos. Coincidently this is also the name of an emo band from Darby that our middle son used to listen to. I’m not sure where the rhino connection comes in.

We watched our last sunset, and then all of the cars had to maneuver their path away from the dam and towards the camp before the gate closed. Unfortunately, this was the exact time that the rhinos decided to leave the dam too, so there was a bit of a melee but cars and animals managed to avoid a crash, so all was well.

We got back to the camp and finished our packing. We had bought a biltong maker, and by some miracle it fitted into Brian’s suitcase, as there certainly wasn’t any room in mine with all the shopping I had done. I wasn’t so sure about buying the biltong maker as we get a good supply from North Carolina, and I am not sure our local butcher will know the American equivalent for topside or silverside. Still, there it is safely packed away in the suitcase, together with a year’s supply of biltong spices. I’m not sure what the TSA are going to make of that when we change planes in Seattle. At least we will not be bringing biltong back into the US, we have just enough left to have a bit on the plane, but then that’s it.

Humphrey the hyena joined us for our barbecue again, but once more had to leave empty handed. We tried to take a photo of him, but didn’t want to use a flashlight or flash as it might have startled him, so it’s not a very flattering photo.

Before going to bed we said good night to the family as they will be leaving very early in the morning to head to a private game reserve north of us, and facing 2 overnights on planes we decided to let ourselves have a bit of a lie in.

It has been such an incredible gift to be able to spend this time with our family in this magical place, and get to know Angie, who is a really great person. Kevin is a lucky man, but then I have a soft spot for Kevin, so I must add that she is a lucky lady.

We must do another family safari!