The sun sets on Africa

Sunday 14^th August

Well, we are home, or almost. Just a final post from our holiday and then I guess the blog will go into hibernation until the next time.

Our last game drive was Thursday night and it was also very quiet. Just the usual game – zebra, giraffe, buffalo, impala, elephant. We stopped at sunset for the usual sundowner drinks and snacks. Just one final sunset in Africa and I think this one was the most colourful with quite a bit of cloud in the sky picking up the colour. All was not lost with game though – on the way back to the hotel in the dark we spotted one rhino, and coming around a corner we were greeted with a big elephant standing right in the middle of the road. It was a bit of a Mexican standoff for a couple of minutes until the elephant decided to move off and give us the road.

One final giraffe.

...and a wildebeest.

Jackal - one of the pair that we spotted. Hard to photograph - they moved quickly and were good at putting a tree between them and the camera.

Our final African sunset.

We enjoyed a final dinner at the lodge – we ate every meal out on the deck though this night was probably the coldest, and I needed a rug as the warmth of the fire didn’t extend out to the dinner table. For our final dinner Rob had ostrich steak and I had duck. The meals at the lodge were very nice. The lodge consisted of only 6 rooms so a maximum of 12 guests at a time. It seems like most guests were there 3 nights as we were and there was someone coming and going every day. They ran 2 safari vehicles from the lodge at a time so there were only ever 6 people in each vehicle. The rooms were very comfortable with split system aircon, ensuite (with outdoor shower) and a king king bed. It was lovely to go to bed after dinner where the bed had been turned down and there were chocolates on the pillow.

There were a lot of wispy clouds in the sky on our last day - I think the skies had been clear every other day.

Friday morning at 8am began our long journey home. In our transport to the airport there was one of the guides travelling back to Johannesburg on his days off so we had quite a chat with him on the drive. It was like having our own private game drive as we talked about the animals and the park. We passed one car on the drive out who stopped and told us about a cheetah sighting along the road. And they were still there – a breeding pair of cheetah probably on the hunt the guide told us. They seemed to be totally unfazed as we stopped and took photos. Then there was one final sighting of rhino as we continued to leave the park. This was a great end to our game drives in Kruger National park.

The cheetah were just moseying along down the road.

Another zebra crossing.

Our hope was to see rhino in Kruger - and we weren't disappointed. Eight rhino over the 3 days.

Drakensburg Mountains

The trip home was long with a 1 hour flight to Johannesburg, 7 hours wait in Johannesburg, 10 ½ hour flight to Sydney, short wait in Sydney, then flight to Melbourne. We arrived at Matthews in Bacchus Marsh around 7.30 last night – about 28 hours after leaving Kruger. 

Sunset with the Drakensburg mountains in the background.