Day 16: Jo'burg

we arrivedlater than expected (virgin are REALLY crap)-the plane was delayed by over 2 hrs! we then went on a desperate mission for tracky b's due to obscene cold, to no avail :( we thought nike was worldwide!!!!!!!!! (kim says andy send me ur bloody trackys!!!!) got back to the hostel after eating some lush food and being harrassed by a man about the south african ways...danger danger...but come to mine for a bbq-errrrrr NO THANKS MATE! headed to bed before a visit from the cool reception guy and a good chat :)

day 17: Jo'burg

Woke up at gone 10 after much needed sleep in 3 layers of clothes, our trusty sleeping bags AND a full duvet!!!!! finally had a shower and were clean after a good 48 hrs of mounting dirt! we then headed to the apartheid museum which was really interesting and extremely hard hitting-still within our lifetime! very profound and intense experience. we got back very hungry again not eaten all day and decided on a well known nandos half chicken for much needed munch. then went shopping for our safari, returned to the hostel to prepare for kruger and hit the sack! before bed we played pool and chilled with some guys and huddled with hot water bottles to save us from the deathly cold!

day 18: Kruger

caught another 5am bus for our journey to kruger national park. we arrived at 12 and got ready for our first game drive to the camp skukuze. first thing we saw were a male and female lion clearly on their honeymoon mating in the long grass, elephants were next on the agenda, followed by an eagle, warthog, hippos, crocs and a GIRAFFE! (brims fav!) we saw our first monkey before arrivin at the camp @ 4pm. we left at 5 for a 3hr sunset drive.got some amazing pictures of some giraffes up close and saw a pride of lions on the riverbank who came up close and crossed the road right before our eyes! we moved on and then found another pride of lions just lying in the road for more amazing piccies and many gasps of delight! we then saw an elephant and a mum hippo with her babies! we got back to camp at 8 and prepared our tents by pretty much candlelight before a lovely dinner by our on site chef before introducing rulani to uno!we hit the sack for YET ANOTHER 5AM wake up call!!!!!!!

Day 19: Kruger

Again we wree woken up and left camp by 5 for an early morning drive! the sunrise was a beautiful backdrop for the white rhinos munching, zebras grazing and a few elephants. the freezing cold again called for a return to our trusty sleeping bags as we snuggled up! we watched the whole sunrise before heading back to camp for brekkie! we set off at 9 to head for the next camp on an all day game drive! brim sat in the fron with rulani and wore his safari hat! first on the agenda was an elephant the a pride of lions eating-the lioness outfought the lions for her food! next stop brought monkeys and more giraffes. we saw a klippe springer and then hit a lake where there were LOADS of hippos and crocs! after a baron spell we saw an ostrich and some ground hornbills 9an endangered species) then more elephants up close and some baboons-cute babies included@ we stopped for lunch with some gorgeous birds before the monkeys came for the scraps! we met a very shy elephant until we saw our very 1st buffalos-massive and apparently the most dangerous animals! we also got a glimpse of wilderbeast and more impala-they're everywhere when not being eaten! finally arrived at camp satara at 5pm for some more delish dinner and sat around in candle light with rulani chatting about the park.

Day 20: Kruger

Today we woke early again for our bush walk!!!! it was freezing and pitch black but as the sun rose we reached our destination and saw a white rhino, elephant (and his massive footprints) up close! the guide started picking up various forms of poo and offering them to us....we ran a million miles! but it was intersting....from a distance! the highlight had to be being charged by a lioness we got too close to proetcting her cubs!!!! guides: this is a very dangerous situation, DO NOT RUN, walk backwards slowly and face her! AWESOME! brekkie again before our drive of the day seeing hundreds of buffalo at a watering hole with crocs and hippos and the odd waterhog! brim sat in the front in the warm with rulani whilst the rest of us literally froze in the back (kim ended up completely out of view in her cleeping bag, hat, socks x 3, rulanis HUGE coat etc etc etc!) we saw more giraffes to brims delight and were lucky enough to see a porcupine as they are usually not out during the day!!! we had a shambles of a lunch-toasties taking 45 mins-is it really that hard?! and drove through the fantastic mountain range to our boat ride on the dam in the second largest canyon in the world. bloody freezing but saw some great scenery and a disgusting python! back in the warm after not showerin for 3 days we headed to the haven that is known as panzi bush camp. this idyllic spot contained individual wooden huts on stilts in the trees as rooms in the mountains with hot showers almost in the open at the back with the trees in the background in the dark :) GORGEOUS! IF ANYONE GETS THE CHANCE KIM WILL COME WITH YOU! got some funny photos of our disgustingly unwashed hair our of french plaits and had a lush dinner of meat, sweet potatoes and a traditional south african of a surprisingly tasty milk pie which tastes like cinammon :S headed to our lovely hut with our picturesque mosquito nets over our beds after a few piccies on the hammock...relaxation at its very best even included a treatment for our worn out hair!!!!!

day 21: Kruger

YET ANOTHER pre 5am wake up!!!!!!!!! another bush walk with a different setting and less adrenaline but alot of learning! in the private game reserve surrounding our haven we went through the bush and caught sight of many impala, a bufallo footprint, a zebras carcuss and an aloe vera tree which by the way, tastes disgusting! we also saw a tree so poisonous that a drip of the sap can blind and burn you, even the stupidest animals avoid the dreaded Queen of the Night! A scrummy brekkie of bacn, sausage and scrambled egg back at the lodge set us up for the day and a few piccies were taken before we set off on the bus for our long journey back to jo'burg! we headed to the brown sugar backpackers for the night and cooked ourselves a pasta and sauce dinner! yet another random night evolved with a 40 yr old rasta with dreadlocks to his his bum, a US firefighter, some locals and some hillbilly americans. kim got her first taste of far too easy to drink red wine and brim discovered black label-the beer known as sowetan pepsi! had our first experience of dorm sleeping for our last night in jo'burg!!!!