The final 300km

With all the noise going on last night there wasn’t much sleeping going on. People were up talking and drinking until well after midnight and by 3:30am people were back up either getting ready for the gates to open at 6am or packing up to leave.
At 5:30am we were all up so we decided to have a coffee and at 6:15am we were in the car ready for our final game drive. Caren the car was making some lovely rattles this morning and we checked in at the gatehouse and at 6:30am we entered the park. We were leopard hunting.
Almost straight away we saw 2 Rhinos laying down, then we saw wilderbeast and warthog. At 7:30am we stopped at the coffee shop that had no coffee ready and there were 3 Koodoo, then we got back on the drive. We saw lots of elephants, a few Zebra and lots of impala’s but sadly no leopards, and then just as we turned onto the track to head for the gate we saw around 30 Zebra, 12 giraffe, a herd of wilderbeast, impala’s and warthog. It was like all the animals had gathered together to say goodbye and finally as we got to the main gate to leave 5 zebras walked us down the road and then stood to the left of the car looking at us as we drove out the gate.
It was now 10am, we popped back to the restaurant for what we thought would be a quick breakfast but we finally got out of there at 11am and we had to pack our stuff into our rucksacks ready for flying and clear the camp.
At 12pm we were done, I’d found a book at elephant sands about an adventurer and climber and gave it to Becky to read and she had finished it and Becky, Pieter and Hilda wrote messages on the blank pages and gave it back to me which was lovely, then it was time to hit the road. Our last 300km drive, with our drive shaft rattling about and Caren the car donking and squeaking, Pieter had one of his friends on standby incase we didn’t make it all the way.
There wasn’t much chat most of the way to Johannesburg we were all disappointed and sad to be leaving each other.
At 3pm we pulled up at Pieters house to drop the trailer off with his martino. He showed us his new safari land cruiser he was doing up and we could see he waa excited about it.
Then he took us to the airport and after getting a fine Von the way in for I don’t know what he parked the car up and we all went to a restaurant for drinks. We bought Pieter one last beer, he gave us his video footage from his dash cam and then he pushed our bags all the way to check in.
It was time to say goodbye, Becky was first as they wouldn’t let her through security we will miss her little quirks of stretching all the time and munching away in the back of the car like a little mouse, then it was Pieter, we shook hands and hugged we will miss his infectious laugh his so upbeat attitude all of the time and we will definitely miss the fillet steak. Lastly we said good bye to Hilda, who we both really admire with her just get on and do attitude. I really hope we see them all again one day.
And then we were alone again standing in the security line waiting to get to in to the plane and return to some kind of normal. It had been a great trip and definitely a real adventure which is what we were hoping for, we would have some real laughs to share and stories to tell later on.
Our flight was 20 mins late leaving and once up in the air we waved goodbye to South Africa and I imaged Pieter watching us from his garden with a beer in one hand and a joint in the other laughing and waving back.
We touched down back in the UK after an 11 hour flight at 6:30am to be greeted by Ellies dad at terminal 3, our African adventure had come to an end.
Buyadonkey for an amazing adventure Pieter.
(Thank you very much for an amazing adventure Pieter).Read more