Sunday 6^th July, 2014….And yes the dinner was good last night…we had hake fish and it was delicious….we left our accommodation at 7 am at a level of 1800 m above sea level so chilly evenings and mornings but still lovely days…we dropped to 800 m by the time we got to Kruger Park which was about a 1 ½ hour drive…en route pine trees and gum trees for as far as you could see…just acres and acres and mostly for paper we were told…the trees here are planted so close that the trees are really spindly….then it was the usual villages but also a lot of banana plantations and macadamia nut trees which surprised us at this altitude but they seemed to be flourishing….it still astounds us these big 3 and 4 bedroom houses being built, and so many of them, in these villages where there are shacks around them!! Also the usual corn and sugar cane grown here as well…..and so to Kruger Park which is about 2 million hectares…it really is enormous and very different to the other parks in that there are many more trees and shrubs and lots of long grass with hardly any open areas which makes it really hard to spot the animals…we did about a 3 hour game drive and we were so disappointed as there seemed to be hardly any animals after what we have experienced in Kenya and Tanzania….and so into our camp in the park…here we have little units with 2 beds and a basin and it is a walk to the ablution block at night and one has to have a torch as hardly any outdoor lighting…a lot camping here in the park and we’re told the low lighting is so the animals will come to the fence at night that surrounds the park…lunch, picnic style as they have these cooking areas dotted around the park as well….and then another game drive…we were disappointed as I mentioned about the lack of animals and even a little bored at just driving, in fact Michael was taking pictures of rocks….and then we were on our way back to camp at 5.30 pm and only about 2 kms from the camp gate when a leopard ran across the road in front of us…we couldn’t believe our luck as we’ve only seen a tail hanging out of tree until now…there were no other vehicles there, just us and this leopard just stayed on the side of the road and looked at us …..we’re sure he was sizing up the meat in our truck the way he looked at us!!  We couldn’t have had it better and oh boy the excitement…..but we have seen animals here that we haven’t seen in other parks…for example a kudu and a duku…there are just so many animals in this world it is incredible….and so our picnic dinner in the park fighting off the monkeys…the guys did not lock the truck and we discovered that the monkeys had been in and helped themselves to a few things!!

Monday 7^th July, 2014….Pretoriuskop Park within Kruger Park….

Up 5 am for a light breki at 5.30 am and then on another game drive at 6 am…still dark….we have had some beautiful sunsets and sunrises here in SA but it gets dark around 5 pm and not light again until about 6.30 am…..first up this morning we had an awesome encounter with 2 black rhinos, a male and female…they were spooked and charged running right beside the truck but Michael missed the pic…the truck is hard to get pics from…the pop top vehicles we had in Kenya and Tanzania were much better for viewing the animals and taking pics…..we drove and drove and the usual animals but still no great numbers of zebras, giraffes, elephants etc we have been used to……saw some lions but they were too far away to count for us after the wonderful lion encounters we have had…..about 10 am we stopped at another picnic area and the boys did a cook up on the barbecue…lots of families there doing the same thing…school holidays here so lots of children around and camping in the parks even though it is their winter…no rain I guess, entices them to camp as they get their rain in the summer….we had bacon, eggs, beans and ostrich meat sausage….it was very lean like venison and tasted very gamey but we all enjoyed them….the big thing was fighting off the monkeys so we could eat our breki…the boys had put the table under a tree and in the end they had to get out their sling shot  to try and frighten one persistent money to another tree!  And so more driving and then we had a great encounter of two male white rhinos…….and then another leopard…we couldn’t believe our luck…we think this female had cubs in the bushes as we could hear the noises and she was being ever so protective prowling around the bush but it made for great viewing for us as she was right on the road side…..back to camp at 1430 and we have another game drive at 1600……I think Michael and I are just about ‘game driven’ out but all it takes is one bit of excitement like the leopard last night….that was unreal as you will see by Michael’s pics…..reflecting on Soweto I forgot to mention its origins….it really is a city within a city as there are about 9 milllion people in Joberg and nearly 4 million of them live in Soweto…This south western township was created during the apartheid era to keep the black people out of the city centre…..a community spirit was created and now many poor people choose to live there…..most of the population are middle-income earners, living in small box shaped brick houses along with the shacks…Only 10% of the population live in poverty but in contrast Soweto also has the highest concentration of millionaires in the country!!  We were staggered at the satellite dishes which we have seen in so many of these shanty settlements but our guide in Soweto said they run them from a car battery!!  M & F