Our Final Game Drive

One of many throughout the day.

Today was our last game drive of the safari and we were all hopeful to get a look at the elusive leopard.  We thought about doing the night game drive last night but the kids weren’t overly into it and we figured we’d seen pretty much everything we had wanted to see.  That and driving around for four more hours after being in the truck for the last three days didn’t seem overly appealing either.  The Italians headed out for the full day game drive today but again, the 10 hours in a truck through the heat of the day wasn’t all that attractive of an idea.  So with the truck almost full we headed out on the half day.

We hadn’t gotten more than 500 meters from the camp to be treated to a pair of smaller elephants and the usual kudu and impala.  The day proved to be full of everything and we got a glimpse of a number of hyenas on the way to the main camp for our morning stop over.  Once you get into the park

We managed to find hyenas today.

you are not allowed

A klipspringer on a boulder (at first we thought it was a painting).

to leave your vehicle without getting a big fine so when Tilda had to go to the bathroom, Brendan had to think quickly on his feet.  There was some road work being completed where they have two armed guards making sure the workers stay safe with all the cats around the park so he grabbed his bag of biltong to go bribe the guard into taking Tilda for a pee!  As Duncan said, “that’s the first time any of us have been escorted by an armed guard to the bathroom!”

Elephant Jam.

Hippos hangin on the beach.

Kudu

The afternoon was filled with hippo out of the water, crocodile, and elephants everywhere with small babies, giraffe, rhino, you name it and we even got a good look at two huge male lions.  They were just lazing in the shade but must have been four meters long; they were ginormous as Alyssa would say!  We finished up the day by guessing what animal we’d see next and as it started to get really hot in the truck, we made it back to our campsite.  So unfortunately, no leopard but it wouldn’t have been any different if we had done the full day as they saw all the similar animals as we had.  What an awesome way to finish off the safari with just an incredible number of so many different animals!

The girls got to help Muma Flow tonight with dinner so after a swim to cool off and showers all around, that occupied their evening for a bit.  The rest of us decided we needed to finish off all the drinks in the cooler so before and after dinner we focused on that! 

We saw a pooh flicker too.

It was a pretty festive, laugh filled evening as it was our last dinner before everyone went their own way tomorrow.  The Germans spent most of the afternoon in the bar so Tauti was feeling pretty good by dinner time and it was incredible how talkative he was and how good his English improved when he relaxed a bit.  I had a great chat with him and it’d be great to have those guys come up to BC one of these days.  We swapped emails and who knows, we may have to make our way to Germany some day.

Our German friends.

Muma gave a heartfelt talk and acknowledge the kids for how well they have been and what great ambassadors they will make.  She thanked us all for coming to Africa and I’m sure there will be some tears tomorrow as we’ve all grown very close to her.  Muma has definitely made the trip for a lot of us with her bold, feisty spirit and great sense of humour.  At dinner Brendan gave us a very short speech asking us how we like the trip and then informed us we had a nice early morning as two of the older Aussi women have a tour planned for 1pm in Johannesburg... I think we were all a bit put out for the 4:45 am start especially after the later night around the fire.   But then again... it’s not a holiday!

Buffalo.

Crazy birds.