Day 12

Day 12

Very bad night for me. Think the African sun has addled my brain. Bry and I had bought a surprise gift for Bill whilst in Cape Town which we had planned to give him last night. After a fruitless search of a our luggage, we remembered putting it in our dirty laundry bag for our onward flight to Kruger, and of course we forgot to remove it again before taking the laundry to the local laundrette – BUGGER!

We decided we would not get it back and so wrote it off to experience and planned to replace it today. During the night, I suddenly realised that I had done the same thing with a very precious and sentimental gift of a ceramic Raku Warthog, that Bill had bought me as part of my 60th birthday present. I found this very distressing and  consequently didn’t sleep the rest of the night. The following morning, after confessing  my stupidity to Bill, we made a quick return visit to the laundrette and much to my amazement the staff had  indeed found our parcels and returned them to us. Much is often said  about the dishonesty of local Africans and our experience yesterday with the crooked cop endorsed this. However, this experience in the laundrette has done much to restore our faith in the basic honesty of the very friendly and hospitable locals. They have been without question so delightful

Now it was time to set off for our final day in Kruger in search of the elusive lion and anything else we might see. We entered via Phabeni Gate and headed back towards Skukuza. The first 50 minutes we saw nothing other than a few yellow billed hornbills – was this going to be another fruitless day?

The temperature was already in the 30’s and maybe the animals were sheltering in the shade. A stop at Skukuza to check on the days sightings encouraged us to head back on the Lower Sabi road where lion had been sighted the previous day. Ten minutes after leaving Skukuza, we were very surprised to suddenly see a leopard sunning himself on the roadside verge directly in front of us. We stopped for the obligatory photographs and the leopard obligingly stood up and walked across the road posing for us. YAY – that was now 4 out of ‘the Big 5’, just a lion left.

We pressed on and after another ten minutes a queue of several parked cars and caused us to stop as they were – obviously looking at something, although we could not make anything out . We enquired from the driver of one of the vehicles what they were watching and he said that there was a lion in the gorge below. As we were able to get manoeuvre closer, we were able to see a fabulous stud lion with a wonderful mane prostrate on the rocks below, in the shade. He was so very well camouflaged and could have been so easily could have been missed. HIGH FIVES ALL ROUND – our own Big 5 completed!

(Yes, the Lion is in this picture, he is lying flat out on the floor of the gorge, his mane showing from left to tail on right in centre of picture, & well camouflaged)


Elated, we pressed on in the searing sun, this road skirts the Sabi River, and frequent pull ins at view points eventually rewarded us with two fabulous crocs sunning themselves on a sandbank, one on particular was a very big chap, not that I would argue with even some of the little ones.

Today was the day of the Elephant, numerous sightings followed including several with much younger ones, and in particular two with such sweet babies. Aaaah.

Headed back towards Phabeni Gate to leave the park, we particularly like this exit, as after leaving the park, it is possible to stop on the river bridge, where hippos and crocs seem to be everyday, and sure enough there were a couple of crocs on the sandbank, and several hippos in different parts of the river. Time to say Goodbye to Kruger National Park. It has been fabulous, much more than i expected and I wouldn’t hesitate to return.

Headed back to the resort for a much needed shower, it’s been a scorcher of a day, over 35c at times. Glad rags on and then headed out again for our final meal at a restaurant nearby that we had seen earlier in the week, and it was offering several game dishes on it’s menu. Bill opted for a regular steak which looked and tasted excellent, whilst Bryony and I chose an Ostrich & Kudu kebab. in retrospect, a mistake, we both love ostrich; but the kudu wasn’t nice. it was very strong, much stronger than venison, which I don’t like anyway but Bry does. Still to compensate I had my last “Don Pedro” of the holiday, and very good it was too. Back to finish the packing as we leave at 9am tomoz for the flight to Joburg, and then catch the flight to Heathrow tomorrow evening at 8.30pm