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South Africa   2002 Sunday 1 september After a long day of waiting we leave for Schiphol airport at 6. Rob and Filip are already there waiting for us. We go straight to check in, at least we can dump our bags there. But the check in doesn't go as smoothly as we expected. Filip is on the waiting list, that is strange as we booked months ago and 4 tickets at the same time. Now they tell us, the plane is full and Filip has to wait and see if there is a seat for him. I bet they thought he was travelling alone, because he has another date on his return ticket. This way they have to pay only one passenger for not taking him on the date of the ticket. But after we stated we are travelling with four, there were some phone calls, and another unlucky passenger was on the waiting list. But who cares? Filip has to sit separate from us, but we fly at night and try to sleep anyway........ Monday 2 september We arrive exactly on time in Johannesburg. A lady of the rentalcar company picks us up. It is another rental company as on our booking papers, but again who cares as long as they have a 4x4 ready for us. The lady thought we were arriving with two persons and came with a normal car to drive us to the carpark several km further. It takes some pushing, but the bags are in the trunk. And three people in the backseat works too. The speedbumps are another story, the bottom of the car scratches on the road over and over again. The lady says it is because the car is too short. But what about too low, and too heavy loaded? It is a 45 minutes drive to the rental company. And then: ´there is a problem with the car´. The window is cracked and they have to put in a new one before we leave. The lady takes us to a mall so we can buy some groceries in the supermarket while they fix the car. Ofcourse we go to the liquorstore too. It is the first day of our vacation. When we return, there is a new windshield in the car and we can load our stuff on the truck and go. Again we have to manage with space. The spare tyre and gasbottles are also in the luggagespace so it is a bit of pushing but all the bags are in. A friendly employee explains the car and the equipment, and we can really go now. We take a short stretch of tollroad and then we go for a smaller road into KwaZulu Natal. Along the road there are many fires, it is the time to burn the fields and thus kill the pests. In Newcastle we stop at a campground next to the Amcordam. At th egate we pay 60 Rand for the four of us. The campground is almost empty and we decide to take some space for our three small tents. After a while the gatekeeper is coming our way: three tents, that is not allowed. Not allowed? and what if we pay extra? Rob is going with the gatekeeper to the manager and he manage to get permission for our three tents. Because we are dutch, and not familair with the rules, we get a free ride for once. Normally you pay per unit. Our car has tents on the roof, this is one unit. But our three tents are three units too, so we should have payed for 4 units instead of one. Filip and i are doind dishwash duty this night. The washingroom is closed and we go for the hot water in the mensbathroom area. All is going well and fast untill a man from Zimbabwe enters. He starts to talk, about the stupid rule of closing the washing area at 6 pm and how he can't sleep without doing the dishes first. We mummble something like yes, you are right. But that is not all. Do we know something about the situation in Zimbabwe today? They took his farm, killed his wife and the rest of the story was equally sad. After listening for over 30 minutes we manage to dump him and go for the coffee which Tom and Rob already made some time ago. Tuesday 3 september We start the day with bacon and eggs while the sun is slowly getting over the horizon. After packing all the stuff we head for the battlefields. These are battlefields of over 100 years ago. Our first stop is at Bloodriver. A monument consisting of metals wagons is marking the spot of the battle of the Bloodriver. The round circle of wagons depicts the circle as it was at 7 december 1838. At this spot a small number of farmers overcame an attack of thousands of Zulu warriors. After the battle the Zulu blood colored the river red. Hence the name Bloodriver. I buy tickets for a small museum next to the monument. The owner gives me three adult and a childrensticket. There is no child with us, i said very surprised. How old are you? she asks. 40 ! Well i wouldn't have said that she replied, you look like a child.... Time for some coffee and tea in the small restaurant where you find yourself in a 1800's atmosphere. Even the prices seem to be from that time 2,60 € for 3 coffee and a tea. At the other side of the river there is a new Zulu museum, which is not quite ready yet. Therefor we don't have to pay an entrancefee. A man walks with us to explain some things. In the museumstore we buy some pottery just to support the museum. The story here was slightly different, but the huge numbers of deaths remain. At the map there is a dustroad to Islandwana. We rented a 4x4 so this must be possible. It is a nice road we pass small Zulu villages, where children are waving at us. Islandwana is a mountain where a heavily armed britsih army was slaughtered by Zulu warriors with spears. The Zulu surprise attack was a new strategy, called the horns of a buffelo. The british were surrounded by the horns closing in from left and right while the body of the buffalo attacks from the front. They didn't have a chance. The british that died here where burried on the mountain. Every grave has white stones on it. One grave can hold more bodies. It is very impressive to see how many white piles of stones there are. Not much further the Zulu army clashed with the british at Rorkes Drift. While we were walking amoungst the buildings that once were a church and a hospital a guy come to tell us how 'we' Zulu attacked the heavily armed british. The Zulu were not defeated, but decided to retreat to Zulu land. The King of Natal didn't give them permission to enter. Time to search for a campground. The travelguides are not mentioning them in this neighbourhood. There is only one called Eaglesview, a beatiful location, but the gate is closed. Back to the mainroad. In Melmoth there should have to be a campground. But we can't find it. Not along route R66. It is getting dark and we need to find a place soon. The hotel in Melmoth has no private parking lot so we decide not put our car with all that equipment on the public street. So on we go, just outside of Melmoth a sign with a bed and Kwanzimela on it is pointing to the right. The next sign says it is 6 kilometer further. It is dark and there is fog, the mountain road is twisting. It is getting scary. Once at Kwanzimela, there is a closed gate too. But there is no lock on it, so we slide it open. A guard is coming. Do they have a spare room for us? Welcome! come in. He brings us to a large building. A nun is coming out. Well this time we will sleep in a convent, the rooms are good and clean. We pay only 500 Rand including breakfast for the four of us. Rob and Filip share a room with a nice sitting area. This is perfect to have dinner. And a beer ofcouse. Wednesday 4 september It is overcast when we wake up. Would this day be the first disappointment of the trip? Breakfast is at 7:30 that leaves us some time to discover the convent grounds. Th graveyard is special to see, all the graves are above ground, which we are not used to at home. The graves are simple, some of them are made of twigs only. In the breakfastroom we see a woman in a lovely Zulu dress. We don't know then we will meet her later that day. Breakfast is better than expected not only bread and jam but also fried eggs, bacon and sausages. Another great day! After breakfast we leave for Ulundi, time for shopping. Beer is something you can't buy in a supermarket here. You have to go to the bottlestore. The first one we see is looking scary. The employees are behind bars and on top of the metal bars there is barbed wire. They don't sell beer and don't even bother to tell us where to go. So we are on our own. The first Castle sign belongs to a pub, but a bit further on there is another bottlestore. Again there is a lot of barbed wire but at least they have an opening just large enough for our tray of beer. Just outside of Ulundi we visit the Ondini cultural museum. There are many busses in the parkinglot and there are kids everywhere. Once inside we understand why. Today they have a cultural contest. Schools compete against each other in traditional singing and dancing. This is where we meet the lady from breakfast again. I have to take her picture twice as she is convinced she wasn't smiling in the first one. We enjoy the spectacle while sitting on the concrete tribunes between the competing children. We shoot a lot of pictures. Then a man approaches us. He wants to know if we are from the Natal Board. No we are just tourists. The men thinks it is very special to have visitors from Belgium and Holland at his small festival. He ask us to come and sit at the VIP tribune. But we are just fine here among the kids. He agrees, but we have to promiss to stay untill the end. And when the minister arrives he wants to introduce us to him. As we try to sneek out a bit later he notices. Can he borough our shuffle? A child threw up and he wants to clean it. Ofcourse he can, no problem. After a while we manage to escape. Around one o'clock we drive into the Umfolozi game park. Before we arrive in Mpila camp we already spot an elephant, rhinos and buffaloes. The tents in Mpila camp are great! Everything you need is in there. A kitchen with a fridge in one tent. And in the sleeping tent there is a shower and a seperate toilet. From the balcony there is a view that gives that out of africa feeling. Zebra and impala are grazing just in front of our tents. At six we leave for a night drive. Allthough it starts to rain we do have some sightings: hyena, civetcat, buffalo. Back in camp everything is wet from the rain and it is not possible to braai so it is cooking inside today. After Rob and Filip left for their own tent and we are in bed, a hyena decides to have a look for scraps. But we locked everything away and he has to leave with an empty stumic. Thursday 5 september It rained the entire night. It was nice to sleep in a large tent with a bathroom inside and not in our own small tents. Despite of the weather we decide to make a gamedrive at 6 am. Not far from the camp we encounter a group of 4 hyenas. And a little bit further down the road are 5 rhinos. This made our drive and we are not sorry for choosing to go out in this weather. Back in camp the wind is heavy and it is not possible to keep the gas on to fry our bacon and eggs. So we have a cheese sandwich. Pack our bags and drive up through Umfolozi to Hluhluwe. Both gameparks are joined into one big nature reserve. Because of the rain we don't see many animals though. The maincamp in Hluhluwe is Hilltop and is located high up so where we drive into the clowds. It is wet outside and we decide to go into the restaurant for lunch. The food is good and not expensive. The sun is not strong enough to come out and we decide to leave Hluhluwe and head up north in the direction of Mkuzi. The unpaved road is getting slippery by the rain and we decide to use our 4 wheel drive after we almost slip of the road. Around 4:30 we arrive in Mkuzi and it is dry. We put up our tents near a braai (bbq) and enjoy a beer. Tom turns the car so we can sit under the awning protected from the wind by the car. It is a nice night to have a braai. Friday 6 september Filip read the itinerary very well, but he didn't expected it to be true. Having breakfast with the hippopotamuses sounds like somthing we would make up to fool him. But after a drive through the park we arrive at a picknick site, and getting out of the car we hear them already. Behind the bushes is water and the hippopotamuses are very near our shoreline. After we ate our eggs and bacon the vervet monkeys visit. But they are too late, there is no food left to steel. We drive back to the maincamp. We have to pay our admission and campground fee, as the office was closed when we arrived yesterday. We book a nightdrive for tonight too. The cultural village we wanted to visit burned down recently and we have to seek another thing to do. In the vicinity is a hide. Walking up to it from the car we don't expect much, it is in the middle of the day. But what we see is beyond everything we could think of. Straight ahead, in the middle of the waterhole, there is a domestic red and white cow. Just the same cow as we see at home in Holland. While we are sitting there a couple of nyalas and warthogs visit the waterhole too. So we get that wild feeling again. Back at the campground a group of campers is blocking the entrance. It is with dislike they let us pass. And when we drive up to our tents and take the braai to prepare our lunch they are absolutely not amused. They had set their eyes upon this spot to built their corral. They find another place and possition the campers in a circle. When they are all leveled a suzuki jeep is placed in front of the entrance so the corral is closed for trespassers... At the start of the nightdrive the driver asks us what we want to see. We ask for a lot, an almost impossible goal of leopard, black rhino and elephant. He is not the least bit impressed. He tells us the 26 elephants are all in the south of the park. The south of the park is the hunting area and we will not go there. But he finds us a leopard and a black rhino with young. A great nightdrive. Saturday 7 september We wanted to sleep in, but we didn't manage. Filip and Rob are excited because today we will see the most beautiful Zulu women at the reeddance. At least that is what the men at the men at the cultural show at Ondini told them. The route to the Enyokeni palace is beautiful. The sand road winds through the mountains. The road signs to the palace are good and as we get closer it gets busier and bussier. There are lots of busses there and at the practise area thousands of Zulu girls dressed in bead skirts are practising with the princess. They practise different songs and different dances. Then they have to lign up. Four next to each other and 8 to 10 rows long. But when they have they move a little,everything is a mess again. It looks very chaotic, but in the same time everybody tries to make the best of it. The reed is then given to the girls and they leave for the palace. We are not allowed inside the fence. So we decide go. We find a campground in Pongolo, an hour drive north. While we put yup the tents the ashes from the burning sugarcane fields nearby is coming down on us. But nothing to be worried about. It is that time of the day again: beer and chips. Sunday 8 september It is not far to the border with Swaziland. Formalities are not very difficult and don't take much time. We get a gatepass, stamp our passport and pay 5 Rand roadtax for the car. And then we drive into Swaziland. A land that we remember as having only sugarcane fields. But this visit we see a lot of bushveld too. To be honest the landscape is nicer than we thought. We stop at an store just to get some Swazi coins change. We arrive at Hlane early. The campground is not full and we can make camp at a nice spot near the fence. An ostrich comes around to see what we are doing. After lunch we have a look at the waterhole. There are some rhino and elephants there. A group of impalas moves along. The park is very small and when we go for a ride we always come back at the camp. This must be a sign. We get some beer from the bar and sit down in the shade near the waterhole. When we get the next beer and a bag of chips the salesman tells us we have to come to the traditional dance that night at 6. The dance will be performed by the employees of the park. He tlks very slowly and we just want to drink our beer while it is cold. OK we will come and see the dance. We are eating something at our campsite at six and around seven they come to tell us, they want to begin (if we are ready....) The dance is just cute. They are all amateurs but they try. The man from the store places a basket in front of the spectators, this is where we can put our tips in. After he came to look for the seventh time if someone dropped something in it, we decide to give something. He comes around once more, looks and cries out: oei, oei. All the other dancers take their turn to have a look. Maybe we overpaid, but it was worth it, just one beer less for us this night. Monday 9 september At the south african border we encounter an imigration officer who talks just as slow as the man in the store at Hlane. We hope there is nothing in the water here that causes this. But it is no problem, ... we drank beer. From the border it is only a short drive to the Krugerpark. We enter the park at Crocodil bridge there is no place to pay here. The Krugerpark is probably not free, so we ask what to do. They tell us we have to pay at the other side of the river at Crocodilbridge camp. It is not easy to miss there. A barrier blocks the road untill you payed at the office. We buy a map with some explaination about the park and the areas in wich to find the game. We drive north on a gravelroad. Our first stop is at the hippopool. A armed ranger takes us from the car to the water to see the hippos. After a few pictures we move on. A large area of the park burned down recently. At one side of the road everything is black at the other side we see the dry yellow grass with sometimes a green bush. We book a place at the Skukuzu campground for three nights. Tonight we have some game on the braai. The impalasteak is good, and we would probably buy it again. Tuesday 10 september After a coffee with a biscuit we arrive at the gate at 5:55, which opens at 6. But 8 cars managed to get there before us. And like all the others we turn left towards Lower Sabie. This road is known for its lions. The place to spot lions should be here, but although we try very hard we see no lions. We should be happy with elephant, hyena and leopard, but that is simply not us... Lower Sabie offers no picknickspot, but they do serve breakfast for a reasonable price. We check the sighting board, but nobody saw lions in the area. So on we go, a dirtroad to the north takes us through some burnt areas. The pictures of the black and white zebra and the gray rhino with the blackened landscape are great. A jeep stopped just in front of us. What do they see? It is a lion! But before we get our cameras ready it walked away. A sighting is a sighting though. The viwepoint at the top of the dam is not what we expected and it doesn't take long for us to move on. The road we travel on is very quiet, no other vehicles. At the other side we understand why. The road is closed from this side, a chain is blocking the way. Rob gets out to unlock the chain. Luckely no lions nearby. Not much further we encounter a black rhino. This is good, 4 of the big 5 in one day. Just a couple of buffalo to go to complete the set. We are having lunch at Tsokwane, it takes some effort to eat it before the birds do. Back to Skukuza. Just before we arrive back in our camp, there they are: a herd of buffalo. Time to drink a cold beer to celebrate a successful day of game viewing. A quarter past five we climb aboard the jeep to go on a nightdrive. At the gate we encounter someone that tells the driver there are 5 lions about 5 km down the road. But our driver ignores him and drives in the other direction. He finds us three leopards, but the lions are gone. We are spoiled tourists, not even happy with 3 leopard sightings on one night. The only thing we seem to rember is the ranger telling us what a nice thing elephantdung is. You can cook it in water, filter and drink it. (we didn't dare to try) And if burnt on a campfire the smoke will cure headaches. We did try it later, but all we got was burning smokey eyes. Back at the campground we have soup and rice with chakalaka. Our neighbours don't speak a word to us. It must have disappointed them we are staying another night. Maybe they want our good spot. Bad news: we will stay tomorrow too. Wednesday 11 september Again we leave the gate at six, and again we are not the first ones. We go straight to the point where the lions were seen last night. But to no surprise, they are long gone. The first two hours of driving are not very exciting. Even the impala are not abundant. So we stop at the Stevenson-Hamilton monument just to see anything. But then suddenly we find a hyena family along the road. The two young ones are still drinking their mothers milk. It makes us feel hungry too. So we have breakfast at Afsaal. The red and yellow hornbills are not very shy and they steel the bread from your hands if you don't pay attention. Rob even has them eating bread out of his mouth. After this nice break we go to Berg en Dal, a quiet camp, where a hippo and a fisheagle entertain the tourist at the dam. In the vicinity of Berg en Dal lives a big rhino population. And today we find some of them easily. Back to Afsaal to have lunch. When we get out of the car we see some huge elephants very closeby. They are eating from the grass and the shrubs. They let us get very close to get some pictures. Again we need another film. (Maybe we should switch to digital photography) The hornbills of this morning are now joined by dwarfmongoose. But they are much more picky, a piece of bread is not good enough. Filip offers them some milk and they gladly accept. Back to Skukuza. We have new neighbours. Nice people who talk to us, opposite of the old neighbours. They tells us they saw two troups of lions at Lower Sabie Road. Lions are just not our thing this safari. But we have another change tomorrow. The kudu steak we have for dinner is great, but we differ in opinion, which one is better kudu or impala. Thursday 12 september Today we slept in. It is 6:15 when we hit the showers. And after a relaxed breakfast we drive in the direction of the Paul Kruger Gate. During a stop at a hide we see a lot of sitatunga and bushbok. But Tom has an empty battery in his camera and Rob is out of film. Again thinking about going digital...Through the Paul Kruger Gate and it is not long before we arrive in the beautiful Drakensbergen. One viewpoint after the other. There is no time to doze off in the car. Although we already stopped several times and we don't know anything about it we follow the signs to the Berlynfalls. It is a nice waterfall named after an old farm nearby. We are not the only ones visiting, a touringcar filled with loud dutch tourists. It is nice to travel with only the four of us. Time to have lunch, but we are going to find a much quieter spot. That was a nice idea, but at our next stop Bourke Luck Potholes entire schools are having a picknick. We manage to find a table not taken by the kids. After eating our sandwiches we have a look at the potholes. The water eroded the rocks for many years and the holes in the rock are impressive. The last lookout today is the 3 rondavels. The campground has its own viewpoint of the rondavels and after we pitches our tents and we went to have another look. While three of us are in the showers and only Rob is ion the camp the vervet monkeys see an opportunity. They climb in our car. Rob is warned by the neighbours and tries to chase them out of the car. That is the moment the other monkeys can have a pick from our groceries. Tom is coming from the shower and helps Rob to empty the camp from monkeys. But still they got some corncobs. We seem to miss nothing from the car but a roll of sweets. Luckely we are left with exactly four corncobs, and we hope they get sick from the sweets... Friday 13 september We have a long drive ahead of us today. It is breakfast and packing in record breaking time. And soon we are on the road. Mac Falls is our first stop, a double waterfall. The waterfall is nice to see, but the viewpoint is a bit scary. (That is what we hear from the other tourists around. Again they are dutch, and we think it is a bit exaggerated. The steal construction is hanging in mid air, but it looks very solid. Next stop is the Sodwana Caves. A tour just started but we can join in anyway. As all the other guests are schoolchildren the guide likes to turn the light out to scare them. But after three times it is not funny anymore, just dark. We follow the freeway to Pretoria and make good progress. At a 1-stop (a chain that offers gas, food, and a store)we have a snack at Wimpie. Wimpie is a fastfood restaurant with service. Closeby we notice a sign that says Toeriste Slaghuis (tourist butchery), we hop it is not place where they slaughter tourists. The campground near the Rodeplaatdam is not fully booked, and we manage to find a nice quiet spot at the waters edge. A good flat grassy area to put our tents up. But Filip wants to sleep on top of the car (it is his last night and therefor his last chance). We enjoy a beautiful sunset and light a campfire. An old tire that washed ashore stops the wind from blowing our campfire out. As we eat from our braai, we notice that nights are getting cold here at the waters edge. So we put our last wood on the fire. It is an hour after dark and a car is coming towards us. A new guest with a trailer. There are about six free spaces before he reaches our spot, but he decides the best fishing spot is only one meter from our tents. The trailer is put level and the fishing rods appear. After the lines are baited a large lamp is put next to the rod stands. We think it is getting to cold and go to bed. Hoping we can sleep with a large light next to our tent. Saturday 14 september Again we are up early. At 6 we are all outside and enjoying the birds sitting on the fishing rods at the neighbours. Not far away the fish are jumping out of the water. Maybe a fishing net is better than a rod, but what do i know? Everybody else on the campground is fishing for carp with rods. After breakfast we drive to Pretoria. First stop is the Parliament building, where we enjoy the view and the beautiful garden. There are lots of monuments in the garden. Most of them to honor soldiers who died in different wars. At the other end of the city we visit the Voortrekkersmonument. A building full with symbols. Everything pointing to the heroic times of the dutch farmers (the Boers), who traveled to the north of the country to colonise the land. Inside yopu can see the entire history of this colonisation cut out in the marble walls. It is here where we see the Battle at the Bloodriver again. Back to campground so Filip can have a shower before we drop him off at the airport. There are 6 fishing rods next door, but still no fish caught. Filip has no problems at checking in and we make our way back to the tents. Tonight it is even colder than yesterday and we crawl into our sleepingbags very early. Sunday 15 september We want travel a long distance today and we leave the campground at seven. (a packing record?)The N1 is a dull straight road to the north. Besides the tollbooths there is not much to see. And because it is a sunday morning there is not a lot of traffic too. The scenery changes a little when we take a smaller road to the east at Louis Trichard. Along this road we see some Venda villages, with many round houses. The women on the street wear colourfull dresses, with a striking coloured warm blanket around their shoulders. It seems strange to us they are feeling cold. It is over 20°C, something we would call a nice summerday. We enter the kruger Park at the Punda Maria gate. As most people come from the south and enter through other gates it is not very busy here, they even take the time to register our names and country of origin. We decide it is time to pitch our tents and in Punda Maria camp we find a nice spot at the fence. At the other side of the fence we see a track that is clearly used by game. We expect to see something travelling by from here. At the end of the day we follow the Mahonieloop. We spot a lot of elephants but even more buffalo. When the mobile has coverage again we get a text message from Filip. He is home safely, after a three hour delay at Johannesburg. At the campside we givce him a call. There was a minor problem with landinggear, which they repaired before take off. While we light the braai we see some eyes in the beam of our spotlights. It is not the hyena we thought would come, but it is a bufflo. Not far away we hear some elephants that are breaking branches from the trees. That night, in bed, we hear our hyena howling in the mountains. Very impressive echoing. Monday 16 september We arrive at the gate just before six, and we are the first ones. The gatekeeper opens the gate immediately. Today we want to see the north of the Kruger park. On our way to breakfast at the Pafuri picknick spot, we see some Tsessebe, but that is all that is worth mentioning. Pafuri is located very nicely above a river. The groundkeeper is happy to see custommers and brings us some charis. We rent a skottelbraai from him for 10 Rand. This is a lot easier to make breakfast for three. Bacon, tomato and eggs, it all fits in one pan, better than our own small pans. We follow the river for a while but nothing special to see here. We leave the river and go to the north border. No game, but a few nice Baobab trees. Back to Punda Maria. After a relaxing afternoon we go for a nightdrive. When we find the first rabbit the ranger tells us that rabbits are nocturnal, but they seldom see any. We are somewhat surprised by this as yesterday night we tripped over a lot of them right on our campground. And we are right, at a sudden point it feels this nightdrive is in a pettingzoo, only rabbits. When we spot a duiker the ranger tells us this small antilope is eldom seen during the day. Again we disagree, we saw quiet a lot of them already in bright sunshine. Another guest mentions we had better taken Jock of the Bushveld (a dog from a famous novel), he would have found the cats. But Jock is not here and all we see is rabbits and duikers. Tuesday 17 september We have packed at six and leave south. The first pack of elephants we encounter is not very relaxed. They start to treathen us and we decide it is better to drive on, than risk taking pictures of our wrecked car. At Shingwedzi stop for breakfast. The manager is stopping by asking if we need anything else. He thinks it is important every custommer is happy. It are the custommers that pay his salary. But we are happy, while we enjoy are bacon and eggs a herd of kudu is grazing at the other side of the river. The closer we get to Letaba, the more elephants we see. Especially in the Letaba river. We pitch our tents next to the fence. Then we visit the elephant museum. The skulls of some old bulls are very impressive. After our visit we go to have look at the river again. And, to no surprise, an elephant is drinking. A bushbok is lying right in front of our feet. Some of them live in the camp and are not afraid of people. At our tents it are mainly birds looking for scraps. After dark a hyena comes to the fence and soon after an elephant shows up. Wednesday 18 september Letaba is a much busier camp than Punda Maria. Before six there are already seven cars in front of us, waiting for the gate to open. We drive in the direction of Elephantscamp, where we want to have breakfast. We stop at a dam, but nothing to find near the water. Only an elephant in the river before we arrive at Elephantscamp. Again we enjoy breakfast. The waiter is stunned when i ask for a breakfast without eggs, but with bacon, tomato and sausage. But after some pursuading it is done. We enjoy the view for a while (some say the best in Kruger Park). Rob sees some giraffes at the other side, but even with the binoculars i see a vage spot, what could be an animal.... Back to Letaba, our neighbours are coming our way. They stop to ask if we finally found a lion. What a cruel thing to ask, no still no lion pictures. They tells us to five kilometers further than take a left turn, cross a bridge and to the left there is a lioness. We don't expect her to wait for us and when we see an elephant with huge tusks we stop to watch. We estimate the tusks at 1.50 m, but he is a bit too far for a picture. On to the lioness. We are lucky, she is still lying there. And there is only one car at the spot. After we took our pictures we went back to Letaba for lunch. At the end of the afternoon we go for a short drive and encounter a hyena with two very small cubs. Tuesday 19 september The gate opens at six, as usual we are there. A lot of elephatns and giraffes but nothing special. It is along drive south. We stop at every camp or picknickspot. First at Satara for breakfast. At Tsokwana we buy some souvenirs and a can of soda. At Skukuza it is time for lunch. We choose a pie with chips, tasty. At the end of the day we arrive at Berg en Dal. There is a nice man at reception: "You are always welcome at Berg en Dal ! (As long there is an availlability)" . No open spaces along the fence so we find a spot with some trees and make a coral of our car and the tents. A very nice camp for our last night in the wilderness. Before dinner we go for our last gamedrive. Where did the rhino go? Last time we saw many of them here, today only two backs. Time for a campfire to braai the last food we have. After dinner we take a walk along the fence. Friday 20 september Our last day we decided to sleep in. It is 6:15 when we hit the showers. The breakfast is very much, as we want to clear the fridge. After breakfast we pack everything for the last time. The Berg en Dal personel is very helpfull and there is even someone coming to help us folding our tents. It is only 10 kilometers before we leave the Kruger Park. But we manage to spot 4 rhinos and a large herd of elephants. It is a long way to Johannesburg and the car rental company is at the other side of the city. Despite it being a busy friday afternoon we are at the airport in time. We even have some time to eat and spend our last Rand on some souvenirs. Other pictures can be found on our multiply page. Our travels    Africa    America    Australia    Asia