At 0710 our last walk set off for the 13km walk back to camp - slightly longer according to my fit bit, probably because we had to negotiate our way around pans which still had water in them. It was a lovely varied walk along the river, through wooded areas, over granite kopies and through the last section of long dry grass, whose seeds still sneaked down my gaiters and into my socks, on the climb back to camp.
Around one pan there were white storks, ( today's photo) Maribou storks and great egrets sitting in the trees and looking stunning in the morning light,and a hammerkop on the edge, grappling with a fish which it finally swallowed. We also had great views of a big male kudu who was picture framed by the vegetation he was staring out from and we watched giraffe and impala going about their daily lives. As we were going through thick woodland we saw fresh signs of buffalo,but no actual buffalo, I then asked Moli a question about ashy starlings, in the trees, which was heard by a small group of elephant who then ran off. Moli said my question was fortuitous otherwise we could have walked straight into them as we were just about to head around the bush they were behind - phew!
On arrival back we had much welcome cold hibiscus tea and home made pizza for lunch - the two types were very tasty but the best one was actually the one ostensibly for John with no tomatoes!
The afternoon was very hot - I sorted out my best photos and created a slide show in the cool of the tent.
We went out a little later at 4.30 pm and headed to the east - we saw Ellie's, eland, jackal and I got a great picture of baboons with impala before stopping for a sundowner at their very first camp site adjacent to a sand river - we could hear alarm calls and looked for a leopard but saw none - as we got back into the vehicle I gave Moli the challenge of finding one. He had seen one on our second evening but in the dusk light we hadn't so it didn't count!
Then on the way back we did glimpse the back of a leopard and saw it bound over the grass and disappear - we tried to manoeuvre to see it again but presume under the cover of the grass it had slunk off in the opposite direction! But we had successfully seen an elusive iconic animal - so we had a spring in our step as we arrived back at camp particularly as we also saw two more civets and 4 black backed jackals.
Before dinner I showed Noelle and Moli my slide show as we remembered our 9 days together. We then sat down to a meal we had encouraged - broccoli in cheese sauce and fish fingers in cornflake crumbs - Moli's idea. I have to say the cheese sauce was excellent and one John would have been proud of!