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The Elephant Coast

March - April 2023
This is our journey back to South Africa, leaving Durban and travelling along the Elephant coast all the way to Kruger National Park Read more
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  • 33days
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  • 15.4kmiles
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  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 33

    The Final Flight to home

    April 25, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    We landed in Schiphol Airport at 10;50am and we couldn’t wait to get off the plane, stretch our legs and get a hot drink.
    Our first port of call was McDonald’s, normally because it’s the best place to get a bargain meal but unfortunately that wasn’t the case in Amsterdam and they wanted €6 for a breakfast muffin or nearly €9 for a Big Mac so we dispensed with getting food and settled for a basic coffee at €3.
    After the coffee we had to kill time because we now had 3 hours here and our last flight back to Norwich wasn’t leaving until 13:50.
    After a wander around we decided to pass through passport control and just go sit at the gate where we would get a seat and just be able to relax. Ellie watched her phone and I ran off to the toilets to stick my head in my jumper and vape. I felt very naughty.
    The plane was running 10 minutes behind schedule and compared to most planes we’ve been on it felt tiny. Just twin seats either side of the plane and it wasn’t full.
    Finally at 2pm Uk time we landed at Norwich and we collected our bags and then passed through customs where I was questioned and didn’t mention the 7 packs of Biltong I had stashed in the bottom of my rucksack and luckily we weren’t searched. Then we were free and back outside in the freezing 15°c temperature of Norwich and 10 minutes later Ben came and collected us and drove us the 40mins home.
    Once through the door, then it felt over, we will miss Pete and Millie, we’ll miss the cold outdoor shower and using the open toilet but most of all we will miss South Africa.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 32

    The Journey Home

    April 24, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    This morning I was awake super early at 3:30am for some reason and managed to stay in bed dozing until 5:30am when I gave up trying to sleep and headed upto the house to make teas and coffees.
    I was greeted by Millie who seemed to know that we were leaving today and wanted cuddles all the time and when I went back down to our little house Millie followed and sat by my feet while I drank coffee on the camping chairs.
    Ellie and I started packing the rest of our things and Millie just waited outside for us and when we were almost done we headed back upto the house and Millie followed.
    We were set to leave at 9am but with most of our packing done we were ahead of schedule and Pete just wanted to get on the road so at 8:20am with everything loaded we gave Hilapè a hug goodbye while Ellie was crying, and then gave Millie a big cuddle before we set off.
    It was 130km until our first stop in Hluhluwe when we were all getting hungry so we stopped at the spar for some hot pies. Then Pete said we had time for one last game drive and we headed straight into the Hluhluwe Game reserve where we were greeted by the warthogs in the car park.
    On the drive we saw Zebra, more warthog’s, Elephants and even rhino and it was an incredible last drive. We really will miss the diversity of all these different game reserves.
    At 12:15pm we left Hluhluwe game reserve, topped the diesel off and then it was a very long 350km drive to King Shaka Airport in Durban where we arrived at 2:40pm.
    We all went in because unlike British airports nobody has to go through security to get to the restaurants inside and we headed for a steers restaurant where we had our last meal altogether.
    Once Pete had finished his coffee and toasted sandwiches that was it.
    He was leaving for home and us 3 were boarding flights to Johannesburg airport.
    Ellie and I both gave Pete a hug and said we would be back again. And we will, but probably just for a quick visit rather than another trip.
    Then Ron went outside to walk Pete back to the car and give him cash for the tolls to get home and when he came back he was alone.
    Now we really felt like the trip was over.
    Ellie and I boarded the 6:15pm flight from Durban to Johannesburg and so did Ron but he was flying with a different airline and once we said our goodbyes at the gates in Durban we didn’t see him again.
    In Durban we had a 3 hour lay over and didn’t board our next flight until 10:15pm and by now we were both really tired.
    We tried to spend time walking around the shops in Johannesburg airport and I did find the smoking restaurant so I could vape and when we came out of there we both felt like we’d smoked 50 cigarettes each and we were grateful when we could board the plane and get ready to start sleeping.
    At 11:15pm the plane took off, much to my disgust we had 2 babies next to us and a row in front and the woman infront of me was the size of a house and liked to bounce in her chair. Then the lady behind me kept standing up and used my headrest to pull herself up which then pulled my chair back. To top it off I had an aisle seat again and every person that walked past me bumped me, including the flight attendants. To me it was the flight from hell but fortunately we were both so tired we managed to sleep the best part of 8 hours each and woke up with just 3 hours of travelling left.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 31

    Mabibi Beach & The Tree

    April 23, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today is our final full day and I was up early at 6am. I drank my first coffee alone before Pete and Ron both got up at 7am and then the chess game started.
    Ellie and I pottered around our little house making sure our clothes were clean and ready to pack and then at 8am Hilapè turned up.
    Even though it was Sunday and she would normally be at church we had offered to take Hilapè to the hardware store to buy her something for her house and she was very excited. She has been a great person to have here, always cleaning up after us, tidying our room, doing our washing and washing up and changing the bed clothes once a week.
    Yesterday she had to go to a community meeting and we think Pete should have gone aswell but he didn’t. Ron told me late last night that the winterdodgers backpacking building next door that Pete has told us he owns actually has an outstanding debt of R15,000 left on it and he’s asked Ron to help pay it. That works out at roughly £650 and obviously Ron couldn’t give Pete that money because it wouldn’t ever get paid back.
    Once Hilapè came in Ellie and I got dressed and then Pete told me he wasn’t going into town and I’d have to drive if we wanted to get her something. Now we knew Pete was hiding from the community elders.
    I jumped in Karin the car slightly nervously and with Ellie in the back and Hilapè riding shotgun off we went to MBazwana and to the hardware store.
    Hilapè chose a door for her house, a lovely red solid wood stable door and when we took it to the till she started crying because she was so pleased. She built her whole house herself even making the bricks by hand herself and she would never have been able to afford a door. She already said she can’t afford windows but she will put plastic sheeting in the holes and it will feel like a home. On the way home Ellie was crying aswell.
    Back at the house we had coffees and then I suggested we spend the last day at the beach so we all put on our swimming stuff, grabbed some towels and jumped in the car and headed back to Mabibi beach for one last time.
    For such a beautiful beach, and being a weekend it was dead with just a handful of people and our first stop was the rock pools where Ron put on the snorkelling gear and jumped in.
    When Ellie and I took Hilapè to MBazwana Ron had obviously told Pete that he was leaving the same time as us and Petes mood had changed and he was quiet, looked a little depressed and didn’t want to go swimming.
    After the rock pools we headed down to where the beach is really sandy and Ron and I went in a played in the surf like a couple of kids. It was a right laugh and wore us both out.
    We left Mabibi for the last time just after 3pm and headed back to the house where Pete said he was going for a lay down, Ellie and I went and got changed and Ron went off to phone his girlfriend and then chill out in his room while Ellie and I sat on the roof terrace.
    At 5pm Pete came back out of his room and looked in a better mood. He’s got used to the idea that tomorrow we would all be leaving and we said we’d take him out for dinner at the restaurant in Sodwana bay.
    We all bundled in the car and headed back down the sandy roads, through the river and into Sodwana bay for the last time and headed to The Tree restaurant where we all had Porky Jacks burgers and they were some of the best burgers we had ever had. Ron and I had a couple of beers and Pete stopped after 1 and said he wanted to drive faster on the way home but luckily I think some sense kicked in because he actually drive home quite calmly knowing that he needed the car to do a 1,200km round trip tomorrow dropping us all off at the airport.
    Back at the house Ron and I had a last beer together while Pete smoked a joint and then at 8pm it was time for bed.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 29

    Rest Day, Beers and Braai

    April 21, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    This morning I was up first at 6am and Petes bedroom door was closed so I quietly made a coffee and then went back to our little room and sat on the chair outside to drink it.
    At 6:45 I went back to the house and there was still no sign of Pete so I made another coffee and a tea for Ellie and delivered that before returning to the house to cuddle the cat.
    Pete didn’t emerge until 7:30am closely followed by Ron and I made more coffees and then the chess game started.
    At 9:30 Ellie and I gave up waiting for what the day might bring and decided to go and get dressed and when we returned to the house the chess game was still going on.
    At 10:30 the game finally finished but obviously by that time both Ron and Pete had no brain power left for the day and then went upto the roof terrace so Pete could roll a joint and chill out.
    At 11am Pete was talking about getting beers so I went to do a 30 minute workout and then showered but when I went back to the roof terrace at midday nobody had moved and Pete was now desperate for someone to go and get beer.
    The only place to get beer now would be the bottle store which only takes cash of which Ellie and I have none and because of the queues in town at the atm machines we wouldn’t be getting any out. Also we have paid for dinner which is hopefully ostrich steaks and the braai rolls.
    Eventually Pete managed to twist Ron’s arm into going to the bottle store and off they went in Karin the car and returned 30 minutes later with 6 bottles of beer and then they started flowing.
    At 2pm Pete asked me to put some music on and then our little party on the roof terrace really started and of course the chess board came back out and Ron and Pete started battling again.
    We stayed on the roof until 5:30pm and then we drunk the last bottle of beer so Ron and I went back to the local tavern and brought 4 more bottles to get us through the night and when we returned Pete had lit a huge fire and we all sat around that while Pete cooked our ostrich steaks, Wors Sausage and the Braai rolls while listening to some chill out music and talking.
    At 7pm dinner was served with some mashed vegetables and we all agreed that it was probably the best meal of the trip as the ostrich steaks were superb.
    Then it was coffee time before finally heading to bed at 8pm. It had been a slow but lovely day sharing stories and having a laugh and we’ve friended Ron on Facebook to stay in touch.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 29

    Marloth Park to Sodwana Bay

    April 21, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Overnight we had countless load shedding. It was definitely off more than it was on and when I woke up at 6am it was still off. Luckily the time that it had been off had just about filled the pipes with water and I managed to boil just enough for teas and coffee’s, then I sat in the garden with Pete and we were joined by the bushbuck, and deicker before a huge male kudu came in and scared them both off. Then the 4 warthogs came back and scared the kudu off and finished off the last of the food.
    We were packed and ready to go at 9am and after a last sweep of the place for any belongings we left our hot noisy hell hole with no power clean and tidy, Barr the mess the baboon had made. Then it was a trip to the field security office to drop the keys back and then we took a final drive around the gravel and dirt roads of Marloth park with Pete fantasising about how he could fill a huge house as a game and safari lodge. He’s got all the ideas but absolutely no money.
    We finally left Marloth Park around 10:30am and headed straight to Komattiport for fuel which was £100 for which we paid and food at the spar while Pete said he had phone calls to make but we knew by then he was phoning his mum because he’d run out of money.
    When we got back to the car with food for the journey he admitted that his mum couldn’t do a bank transfer because there was no internet.
    We got the Swaziland border just before lunchtime and we had to pay for the car which was only £5 and even though Pete took his card in, he may aswell have taken a brick.Then 90 minutes driving into Swaziland Pete got pulled over for speeding. The fine was R60 which is around £2:50 and they insisted he pay the fine but obviously he didn’t have any money and we only had R20 which they wouldn’t accept. Then they started telling me they were going to take my driver and I just laughed and said that’s ok I’ll follow you and finally Pete managed to talk his way out of it and they let us go.
    Another 90 minutes of driving and we passed through the Swaziland border and back into South Africa.
    We stopped back at the game shop that sold game meat for me to get Biltong to bring home because it’s in smaller vacuum packed packs and then we were going to get an impala wors sausage to go with our ostrich steak and braai rolls but Pete then saw Impala kebabs and insisted we get those instead. Then we realised that we would also be feeding Ron aswell who was back at the house, which wasn’t a problem as Ron would normally insist on paying his way, but for someone that is constantly skint Pete has got really expensive taste. Especially when it’s not his money.
    Back on the road I couldn’t wait to get back to our little house and get out of the car which costs us money every time we get in it.
    Pete said we could drive back through Phinda Game reserve which I knew would take an extra 2 hours but we are here for the animals so we agreed as this would probably be our last game drive.
    Going through Phinda was actually really amazing. It felt like all the animals had come out to say goodbye, we saw 3 Rhino just standing at the side of the road, then we saw a mother and baby rhino laying across the road. We passed hundreds of giraffe, 2 of which were right on the road and we had to drive past and they were about 4 foot away. Then we saw hundreds of zebra, then a massive herd of impala just walking up the road towards us, then wilderbeast and finally a lonely water buffalo who looked very grumpy. It was a lovely last game drive.
    Finally we were back onto tarmac and with just 30km to go I was relieved, and when we finally got back home at 5pm we had been in the car for 6 hours.
    Unloading the car Millie the cat came down to greet us and he was super pleased to see us and wanted lots of cuddles. Then after dropping our stuff off back in our room we all went upto the house where Pete and Ron played chess, I had a non alcoholic beer and Ellie had tea, we were all starving but with the chess game going on and Ron and Pete talking,time ticked on and dinner didn’t even get thought about until 6:30pm and didn’t get started until 7pm.
    While cooking dinner Ron said that he had turned his new job offer down and now wanted to return to Richards Bay on the 24th with us to start looking for something else and Petes face just dropped and turned to panic. Pete had thought originally that Ron would be here for 6 months, when we picked Ron up it had already turned into 3 weeks and now it was just another 3 days. Pete spent the rest of the evening talking in South African to Ron trying to twist his arm into staying longer because we knew that if Ron went, nobody would be here to pay to feed him.
    At 7:30pm dinner was served and it was just the kebabs and potato wedges which were extremely tasty but there was no sign of the ostrich steaks so I mentioned them and hopefully we’ll be having them tomorrow.
    After dinner we all sat in the lounge area of the house. I couldn’t wait to get into bed and luckily Ron said he was going to bed first at 8pm and then the rest of us could follow straight away.
    It had been a very long day of driving and this was our first night in 5 days we would be able to sleep with the windows open and have air in the room.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 28

    Last Day In Marloth Park

    April 20, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    This morning I was up first at 6am, closely followed by Pete. Our original plan for today was to stay at the house until mid morning then head into lionspruit game reserve just behind Marloth Park.
    Ellie got up at 7am and then we were joined by a bushbuck and a Kudu for breakfast and we fed them sweet potatoes and the pellets we had brought from the game shop. It’s lovely being so close to the animals. At 10am we popped to the shops and on the way we found the biggest chameleon we had ever seen, Pete picked him up from the middle of the road and gave him to Ellie. Then he crawled up her arm and luckily we found a tree to drop him off in before he got to her hair.
    At midday we decided to head to the Tin shack Mozambique restaurant where Ellie and I had steak and Pete had a chicken and cheese wors sausage.
    After that we headed back to the house and then Pete went for a lay down and Ellie and I sat in the garden feeding a Kudu by hand. The kudu had a veracious appetite and ate half the bag of sweet potatoes and kept on giving us the guilt look every time it ran out. In the end we decided to go for a walk to the tourist office just to see what else was on offer and when we got back from the walk an hour later the kudu was asleep behind the splash pool but soon woke up when she heard us opened the door and then started giving us the guilt look again. I gave her a couple more sweet potatoes and then Pete came back downstairs from his nap and he was hand feeding her for ages.
    By now it was getting late and I realised we weren’t going to get to go into the lionspruit game reserve or go back to the Kruger and I was slightly disappointed.
    For our last sunset here we decided to drive to the hide on Seekoei Street and see if we could see any animals but except for a few elephants far off in the distance we didn’t see anything but the sunset was amazing.
    At 6pm we arrived back at the house to find that the load shedding was back in effect and there was no power which also meant no water because the pump to get water from the ground is also electric. Today the power has been off more than on and it is a nightmare when you take power for granted although being in such a sunny country there’s no reason not to have solar installed and out here it is relatively cheap so that is another reason to hate this little house we’re staying in.
    At 7pm Pete cooked us a meal of Kudu and Impala Wors Sausage in cheese topped rolls and it was delicious as usual. Then we sat in the garden listening to the hyena howling while bushbuck and kudu ate the sweet potatoes from the feeding station. It was a very cool last night in Marloth Park.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 27

    Baboons Are Not Welcome.

    April 19, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    As we drove up the driveway to our little house a huge baboon ran across the road infront of us, he had packets in his hand and I commented that he’d just been robbing someone. As we approached the house we saw that a whole window frame had been ripped out and there was the wood and glass all over the floor.
    It was us he had robbed.
    We looked through the window to see utter devastation as all of our food and drink that was either on the side or in the fridge was now all over the floor.
    Once we opened the door the mess looked even worse, he had eaten everything from the eggs, the cereal the corn on the cobs we had, all of our snack food like crisps and biscuits were gone and he had drunk 2 cartons of fruit juice 1 carton of milk and thrown another carton of milk, eggs, pasta and maize all over the floor and smashed countless cups, glasses and plates and to top it off he had then crapped everywhere and rubbed some of it on the walls and carpets. He was a dirty Baboon!!
    First off we called security and a guard drove down looked at the devastation and we told him the alarm had been on. He said because of the load shedding the alarm wouldn’t work and that’s why the alarm hadn’t gone off. Load shedding is a nightmare, but luckily we had closed all of the bedroom doors and our stuff was safe but he had tried our bedroom windows and bent the frames.
    The security guard called the cleaner who in turn called a maintenance guy and he came straight out.
    Pete, Ellie and I started cleaning up and filled 2 black bags full of rubbish and then Petes ADHD kicked in and I washed the floor with a cloth on my hands and knees while he disappeared talking about other peoples holidays in Sodwana bay, but I have come to expect nothing less.
    Chris the maintenance guy put a new window in within an hour and then to mine and Ellies horror he screwed our windows shut with a drill. Now when there’s load shedding tonight we really will have no air, I’m dreading bedtime because I hated this house anyway.
    Once the window was fixed we headed back to the shops to restock on some groceries, luckily he hadn’t got into the freezer and our meat was safe. Then we headed back to the house dropped the food off and headed back out for sunset.
    We drove down to Seekoi street and sat looking at the parklands at all of the wildlife wandering across the plain, kudo, impalas, wilderbeast and we even saw parrots.
    Then we wandered down to the two trees viewing area and just as we got there Pete spotted a leopard on the other side of the river on the edge of the Kruger. He was quite far away but we could still see him and it was definitely a good sighting although it’s not the leopard in a tree I’ve been after.
    As it got dark we headed back for home. It was now 6:30pm. Thanks to the baboon, Pete and I hadn’t eaten a thing all day and at 7pm Ellie had to remind Pete to feed us. Otherwise I think he would have just smoked all night.
    Fortunately he pulled it right out the bag with a warthog stew with Pupe. Then with no zebra coming to visit us tonight we headed for bed.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 27

    Another Day Around Marloth Park

    April 19, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Nobody slept well last night.
    Because of the load shedding where South Africa distributes it’s power to where it is most needed all of the power went off at 12:30am and didn’t come back on until gone 3am. This meant no air conditioning in our little oven of a house and also it is extremely stuffy and with no fans there’s not even any air in the room.
    Just gone 1am Ellie worked out how to open the windows and pulled the curtains back and atlast there was air but there were lots of strange noises outside and we’ve run out of mosquitoe spray so we got eaten alive. It was a really terrible night and when I got up at 6:30am Pete said his night was pretty much the same, although I had heard him upstairs wandering around most of the night. This is also an extremely noisy house, with creaky floors and every door and cupboard in the place squeaks.
    We had nothing much planned today except for looking further around Marloth Park and seeing what the community has to offer and we sat at the breakfast table feeding the warthogs while we all had teas and coffees. It was pretty cool.
    Pete had run out of rizlas and weed and as I went to get dressed he went to the shop to get rolling papers and get cash from the atm.
    When he returned he said he couldn’t get the cash out until 10am because the needed to count the money in the cash machine, but he did have rolling papers.
    Personally I don’t think there was any money in his account whatsoever and Ellie gave him R100 which is £5 in England so he could by some weed from a Mozambiquen guy at the side of the road. To be fair he did get the equivalent amount of weed that would have cost £150 back in England for £5, but I really don’t miss those days of panic when I’d run out of weed, papers or tobacco.
    After the weed stop around 10am we visited the tourist information office and spent ages talking to the couple in there about hikes, bike hire and what the volunteers around the community offer and it turns out you can become a volunteer ranger and they will teach you all about the indigenous plants of the area and hold talks on animals a couple of times a month.
    Then we went to the shops and we found 2 large convenience stores that stock pretty much everything, a bottle store because alcohol has to be licensed differently. A laundrette, a butcher’s, 2 security companies and hardware stores. This place has everything all within a couple of kilometres of each other.
    From the shops we took another small game drive around Marloth park looking for animals and looking at the different style houses. Some of the ones along the rivers edge are absolute mansions. Then it was time to head back home for some lunch.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 26

    A Zebra Round For dinner

    April 18, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We arrived back at our little house in Marloth park just after 6pm and as soon as the car pulled up 3 Kudu came strutting out of the brush and straight over to the feeding area.
    Pete went straight into the house and grabbed 2 handfuls of pellets and scattered some on the ground and hand fed one of the females.
    Funnily enough after just 3 days of being here this feels normal and we just sat and watched them eating and staring at us while Ellie prepared half a peach filled with Sugar for the Bush Babies. Then just as she jumped in the shower the bush babies appeared in the trees and Pete and I watched them bounce from tree to tree.
    When Ellie came out of the shower I jumped in just to wash the Kruger sand off and as soon as I opened the door to come out with a just a towel wrapped around me, Pete was standing there.
    “Quick, Come and see “ he said and pulled me around to the back of the house where we had been sitting and there at the table was a Zebra.
    Ellie said he had just strolled straight up and didn’t even look scared and there she was feeding a zebra across the dinner table by hand.
    Pete threw another bunch of Pellets on the ground and then the zebra shifted from Ellie to munching his way around the patio.
    Once the floor pellets had run out he just came back to the table, lent right over it knocking a cup over onto the floor and smashing it and that didn’t even phase him. Then he picked up the half a lettuce left on the table and ate that. Still he wanted more.
    This zebra was going nowhere, and now we were his herd and despite him trying to follow us in the house a couple of times he was pretty cool to have. He was also a little intimidating when he put his head in the table and just stared at us begging for food, and we felt extremely guilty eating our dinner while he just stood there 4 foot away watching us.
    After dinner because he hadn’t tried taking our dinner we decided to give him more pellets and he seemed satisfied with that and in return he spent the rest of the night guarding us.
    He was our friend and we were obviously his herd now and he stood just 4 foot infront of us the whole of the evening until we had to go to bed, even then he stood there on guard and made us feel guilty, but we were glad to escape the zebra farts but did hope that he would either still be there in the morning or atleast come back for another visit.    Read more

  • Misadventures Of WandaThe Elephant Coast
    Day 26

    The Kruger National Park

    April 18, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    This morning I was up first at 5:15am closely followed by Pete then Ellie, we were all super excited, today was the day we were going to the Kruger.
    At 6:20am we all bundled in the car, armed with cameras and packed with food and drinks for a picnic later and we set off for the gates.
    Pete did his usual thing of telling us at the gates that we needed our passports which we didn’t have but luckily we had photo ID in the form of our driving licenses and got access. Then we were on our way.
    We first crossed over the amazing crocodile river seeing hippos and crocodile in the water and on the other side we were officially in the park and our game drive had begun.
    We were on the lookout for anything different today and new species were a must and our first sighting was a dwarf mongoose, a whole family of them running along the dirt roads. Then we rounded a corner and Ellie spotted an eagle owl sitting on the branch of a dead tree. This was a super rare daytime sighting.
    By mid morning we had passed hundreds of impala’s, Kudus, water buffalo and wilderbeast when we passed a group of game drive vehicles parked up on a side road.
    We pulled up behind them and from the front of one of the them walked a mother and baby rhino. It was another incredible sighting and we were super close. From there we drove to a viewpoint high up on a rock and had a panoramic view of the Kruger National park.
    Just after 1:30pm and around 100km into the park we came to a rest stop that had a cafe, picnic area and small shop. We stopped here for lunch and Pete cooked us all Impala and cheese sausage in hotdog rolls with Braie sauce.
    From there we had to start heading back as the road we wanted was closed and we just didn’t have the time to go further up and take a detour.
    For the next 2 hours it was pretty quiet animal wise as we were in the heat of the day at 32°c and the animals had obviously sought shelter while we drove around cooking in the mobile greenhouse that is Karin.
    Pete said the animals would start to be more visible again between 3:30 and 4pm and bang on 3:30pm a huge elephant came trundling down the road towards us. Pete turned the engine off and done the windows up and just as he got to the car he turned off the road and walked into the bush.
    Then at exactly 4pm as we started going downhill we spotted something running down the road. As we got closer we saw it was a hyena and we couldn’t believe our luck. Straight away I was hanging out of the back windows with my camera while Ellie was videoing with her phone from the front. To top the sighting off he just ran in front of the car for about 400 meters then he stopped and we were right next to him. He just stood there looking at us while we clicked away. It was another super rare and incredible sighting.
    We drove on and just 50 meters down the road we found another hyena just laying down at the side of the road. We stopped again to take pictures and then realised we were parked next to a huge hole under the road. It was there den, and they were coming out to start the hunt early as it had been so hot all day.
    It was now 4:45pm and we had to be out by 6pm and it would take us another 45 mins to reach the gate with no sightings.
    Luckily there were no more rare sightings and we left the park just after 5:30pm, exhausted from all the hunting but thrilled with what we had seen.    Read more

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