Stupid o'clock start, so up at 5am & bus pick up at 6am!! Bus was one of those minibus things that holds 12 people & I had a nice bunch - 2 kiwis who'd spent 5 years living in Oxford, a british girl from Cardiff, a brit living in Perth and an old retired couple (he was german she was american), so we had a pretty good atmosphere in van.

Stopped at a motorway services for breakfast around 8ish, then carried up through the Drakensburg mountains. Passed a bunch of coal and chrome mines, all of which were absolutely huge and all open cast. Any arable land was some kind of maize or sweetcorn, but then changed to fruit as we got into the mountains valleys.

The Drakensburg mountains are amazing and I was a bit sad I couldn't get any pictures, as we were going way too fast. But they are beautiful, huge red sandstone mountains all covered in mist, which makes them very green, which is an amazing contrast to the colour of the rocks and sand.

The plain on the other side is where all the game parks and reserves are, but apart from some baboons on the road, we didn't really see any animals, as all the reserves are fenced in, so you don't see anything much from the road.

Staying in the Guernsey Private Nature reserve, which is nice, except the road in & out is a messed up dirt track (apparently there was horrendous flooding in Kruger area about 3 weeks ago and pretty much everything got washed away - it was so bad they had to airlift out the guests at my lodge via helicopter, as there was no other way to get out!!) so getting in & out of the reserve and our lodge is somewhat painful. The suspension in the van leaves a fair bit to be desired!!

We are staying in the Thornybush Reserve in Guernsey, in the Thornhill camp/ lodge. My room is great, I have a bed with mosquito netting all around, which is pretty exotic, but very necessary, as I've already been bitten a couple of times, so long trousers for me tomorrow night and more mossie spray - obviously I have not been liberal enough with it!!

Journey to the lodge was about 7.5 hours (numb bum by the end of it!), so we had a late lunch, then had an hour or so to kill before my first game drive. We had dropped the kiwi's & the 2 brits off just before the lodge, as they were staying in camping area, so it was just me and the the retired couple off to the neighbouring private game reserve for the drive.

Our safari truck didn't have a roof, so had to hang onto my hat quite a lot, but it was a great drive. We saw some warthogs and a giraffe on the way there. I managed to get a picture of the giraffe, but the warthogs are too quick. In the park, we did really really well, we saw quite a few buffalo to start, then got really close to a mother lion and here 3 teenagers who were all resting in the shade from the afternoon sunshine. (Thankfully some cloud cover had come over and there was a bit of a breeze, so I didn't burn - loving the factor 50 - nor did I boil!) Couldn't believe how close we were to the lions, only a couple of feet away, it was really amazing. We also saw elephants, 3 of them tearing up the trees and scrub, we drove off the track and right up into the bush with them. At one point I could have reached our and touched one of them. Had a great moment when we rounded a corner and came across a mother warthog facing down a black backed jackal, who was after her 2 kids for tea. Also saw something I think was called an "inella", some kind of antelope with some very fancy horns and markings, certainly got everyone else in the truck excited, so I guess it's pretty rare to see it. Saw a bunch of impala and wildebeest and a small herd of zebras, was surprised how much brown there was on the zebras!

Saw some great birds, there was a beautiful blue kingfisher flying around at one point, stunning colours, really bright blues and turquoise. Saw a couple of eagles, guinea fowl, hornbills and some eagle owls on the way home.

Highlight for me was the rhinos. We tracked down a pair toward the end of our 3 hour drive, a very heavily pregnant mother an her 4 year old, again we got incredibly close and just sat there as they grazed around us. Can't believe how big their mouths are, they are much more efficient than the elephants.

Got back to the lodge about 7:30ish after dark with about 10mins to go before dinner, which was really nice and ate more than I have in days.

Early night tonight as I am off to Kruger National Park proper tomorrow and it's an all day trip, so getting woken at 5am for a 5:30 departure, Can feel some sleeping in the bus coming on. Thankfully tomorrow's truck has a roof and sides, so will minimise any burn potential, though our guide thought it might rain, so best take some socks to protect my feet!