1. Arrival and the long drive

I have never been so unprepared for a long holiday.  I was working on conference calls until 40 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, so packing was a rushed job (plus running SS through his packing checklist - he hates this but ever since we were away for two weeks and he took no t-shirts with him he has to suffer it).  Raced off to the airport, got rid of the bags, and raced into the lounge for a quick 20 minute snack (SS was starting to look a bit mulish at this point at being raced around - he does still believe that things should be done in his own time!).  After racing him along to the gate they had only just started boarding when SS realised we did not have any water for the flight.  So we raced back to WH Smith, got some water, raced back and still boarded early (perks of FF membership), settled in happily to our seats (31A and 31B) which I had picked with care.

We had our usual Asian Vegetarian special meals (guaranteed to be a curry) which were lovely, and our flight attendant was a Kiwi guy who was truly one of the best flight attendants I can remember in any class on a plane.  SS watched the Bourne Legacy which he said was good, I watched the Wedding Video (which was not so good).  Then I tried to watch To Rome with Love, and as usual with a Woody Allen film it put me to sleep within 20 minutes.  I do not get his films at all.  

We only really dozed on the plane, but I was conscious that on landing I had about 7 hours of driving to do, so tried to get as much rest as possible.

Landed into Johannesburg, and as usual, easy off the plane, and the customs guys in South Africa were their usual charming, fun selves.  Compared to the US, it is such a pleasure going into South Africa.  We got our bags and headed off to Hertz to collect the car keys.  I had booked an automatic compact car as there would be so much driving slight tired, and then 4 days of Kruger Park game viewing that I didn't want to pfaff around with a manual car.  I had hoped we might get upgraded a class or so, but no.  Our hideous little VW Polo tinned can was waiting for us.  Officially the most underpowered, tinny, clunky little automatic ever in the world.  I have never been happier to give back the keys of a hire car in my life.

I got some cash out at the airport as well - I hate not having cash on me (unlike SS who tends to regard cash as something others have, he is strictly a card man).  Good thing I did as I had forgotten the toll roads for which of course, you need cash!

First plan was to drive to Bryanston and see the houses where I grew up, and my old primary school, which I have not seen for 24 years!  

Driving towards the city, before heading off on the N2 ring road was so surreal - seeing the old mine dumps and things that were so a part of growing up, but that I hadn't seen for so long - very disconcerting really.

My sister had sent through directions as a lot of roads are now closed off at one end etc, and this was very helpful.  We did also still have to stop off at one point when I took a wrong turn on Wilton Avenue, but google maps came to the rescue of course, and very soon, I was sitting across the road from the house where we spent 6 years of my life.  Strange the things you notice - I had remembered the driveway as being steeper than that (particularly when chasing tennis balls down it).  The gates are new (I still remember my father crashing the car into one of the gates), and the wall, which was stone when we were there, is now rendered.  There is no fencing around the tennis courts, just the support poles - not sure why as the court is still there, including the practise wall where I spent many solo hours.

Next stop was the house where we spent a few years in the late 70's before moving to Australia for the first time.  Hard to tell really, but this is now a health centre/GPs and the shape of the roof seemed different, so I think perhaps our house has been knocked down and a new one built since then.

Then, up the road to my primary school.  This was the most surreal, as the parking across from the school was exactly the same, the gates are the same, the name of the school above the gates is the same.  It is always hard to explain to people like SS who are still within 50 miles of all the schools they attended, what it is like to be halfway across the world from where I grew up, but to see the school looking exactly the same is very weird.

So, the trip down memory lane was over, and time to hit the freeway.  Luckily my sister had again provided great driving instructions, and so off we headed.  SS was once again asleep within 5 minutes, and so I put the radio (and the airconditiong!) on, and pootled along happily in the little TinCan.  There was one place where there was an accident which slowed things down for a little while, but otherwise, I was just heading to Milly's at Machadadorp.  Exactly the right timing as we got there at 12:30pm as we were both getting peckish by now.  We got a lovely seat by the window overlooking the dam, and were all set for a good lunch.

SS and I were both too tempted by the smoked trout salad with fruit and greens, but also a cheese and ham toastie and a couple of juices  Food was just splendid.  We did manage to get through it all, and for R230, what a bargain.

Back outside, and after a stop to fill up on fuel again, we were back on the road towards the Kruger.

It was a surprisingly long drive - for some reason I had thought Milly's was halfway, but it isn't really.  We skirted around Nelspruit, and headed up to Hazyview to Pick n Pay to get supplies for our self catering accommodation.  The speed limit drops and so that means it takes longer, but still, the drive did drag a little, particularly with SS snoring away next to me.  But finally, we got to Pick n Pay.  We did spend a good hour in there stocking up, but I had a list and only got slightly sidetracked by SS.  The only thing we decided to buy in the park was the wood for the fire (which turned out to be a bit of a mistake!).
Off to the Phabeni gate, where we checked in and bought the Kruger map book (at R35 it is indispensable).

And then through the gates at 5:10pm, and into the park!!

2. 24 hours for the Big 5!

We headed into the park at 5:10pm, and had until 6:30pm to get to Skukuza and check in for the night - it is only 30km from the gate, so we were confident we could try to do some game viewing on the way.

At this point I should confess, that I was very nervous about whether we would see anything at all.  Both SS and I are certified TERRIBLE game spotters.  Even when we have a guide with us pointing out game and trying to explain where it is, between the two of us it will take a good long while to be able to see what is being pointed out.  To have the responsibility of finding things to look at - well, let's just say I was going to be Streetcar-ing it and relying on the kindness of strangers!

Well, first said-stranger arrived 5 minutes after we left the gate.  A lovely woman in a white 4x4 flashed us and told us there were two rhino calves in the dam at the next turn off.  So off we went, and there they were.  Literally the first sighting we had in the Kruger was two rhino calves about 15 feet from SS's window.  Phew.

Whilst we were there, they got out and waddled along the ridge into the distance.  We were thrilled - how lucky!

It started drizzling a little as we drove to Skukuza, so there was not much more to see, but we were still excited about the rhino.
As Skukuza we had all the needed documentation and so checked in without a hitch.  Prudence (who checked us in) was having a good old laugh with the other check in people as there was a South African couple who were trying to get their accommodation changed as they had booked a rondawel with two twin beds and "my wife refuses to sleep in a single bed - we must have a double!".  Needless to say they were getting the full pouty faced "ah-ha"  Yeah right!" treatment from all the staff.  Hilarious.  To be fair, the website and booking systems are so good with Sanparks, that there is no excuse for booking the wrong type of accommodation.  I don't know how it worked out, as we were keen to go and settle in.

We eventually found the rondawel (not so easy on your first drive, and from then on you wonder how it was every difficult).

There was a lovely moth waiting for us in the bathroom.  So we did spend a bit of time unpacking the car, taking out the food and loading up the fridge (I had bought a soft sided esky from the UK, and bought some ice in pick n pay so that we could buy meat and milk etc there and keep it hold on the way through to the camp).  The esky had held up really well, and everything was still cool.

We each had a shower (bliss after 24 hours of travelling), and had a cup of restorative green tea.  The rondawels are so well set up - inside there is a toaster, microwave, kettle, bedroom, television (don't know why they bother as I didn't want to watch it, and it had rubbish reception in any case), double bed, slate lined bathroom with shower and huge mirror, then outside there is a braai area, double electric hob, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, bottle openers, dish rack, sink, full fridge and freezer etc.  Fantastic set up.
We then got back in the car and headed to the park shop not realising that it shut 30 minutes after the camp gates were shut.  Sigh.  So instead for our first dinner I cooked chilli sausages on the hotplate, which we had with salad and some buttered bread and sauces.  Tho' I say it myself it was pretty fantastic anyway!  WE had a celebratory glass of wine with it of course, all eaten overlooking the Sabie river.
Off to bed as we were both very tired after our long day (despite SS sleeping most of the way in the car ;-) ).
Next morning, we woke early (for us, nothing compared to my mother and sister who are up at 4am in the Kruger to be the first out the gates when they open).  But we were on the road after cereal, juice, yoghurt and tea at 6am.  Unfortunately for the first and only time my sister's directions were a little inaccurate, so after driving around the staff quarters (oops), we got back on the right road.  We did have our first sighting in the staff area however - this lovely warthog.  Not necessarily what you want to see at 6am!

On to the road, and just over the first bridge, there were two 4x4s parked.  We stopped and asked them what they wre looking at, and had the usual "See the tree?"  "Which tree?" "That tree with the horizontal branch!"  "Ummm, not sure!".  Eventually we did see it - our first leopard!!

This was exciting, but the leopard wasn't going anyway, and we did not have Big Bertha lenses with us, so we moved on towards Lake Panic hide.  On the non-tarred road heading to the hide, we had our very own first sighting - a tortoise!  On the road!  Yay us!!!

We got to the entrance to the hide, and headed down.  Officialy this is a bird hide and so you must be quiet, sit on the benches, and admire the wildlife.  But it is amazing as you also see hippos, the noise of the birds as they squabble is amazing, and the silence otherwise was so resting.  Just what we needed our first morning.  We spent a great 30 minutes by ourselves, then a really nice guy arrived with two professional SLRs, with the most GIANT lenses on them.  He and I were right next to each other taking photos of the same bird fishing in the river, but mine were of a bird in the middle of a frame, his were a close up of the fish going into the bird's beak.  I had SUCH lens envy at that point.  If I do another trip like this I will hire some alternate lenses for my camera...
SS settled in to just watch and enjoy the silence.

And here are some generaly shots of the activity that morning...

As we left, my friend took up the position of power in the corner spot - you can see one lens in his hands, and the other on the bench next to him  Lens envy!

Even tho' it was about 10am when we left, we decided to do a loop around the waterhole road before heading back to camp, just to get more of a feel for the park and being back.  We were driving along with another car, who dropped off to enjoy their thermos of coffee by the waterhole.  We saw some various buck, and some more tortoises, and then I was heading up the road, looked to the right, and literally 3 foot off the road was a lioness!  I screeched on the brakes, and said "Oh $*&%, a lion!".  We were so excited, particularly when another lioness appeared behind her.  Frantically pulling out the camera, snapping away as they wandered up near to the car.  As they headed back down the road I reversed alongside them, with the lionesses looking at us like "What?  What are you lookin' at?  Huh?"

And then, behind them, appeared this dude!!

Well, we spent the next 25 minutes, all alone on the road, just doing three point turns and following the three of them around as they slowly made their way to the waterhole.  It is a strange situation when you are so excited to have a sighting all to yourselves, but equally you want to share the sheer joy and adrenalin with someone else.  The kindness of strangers repaid!  However no one else came along at all, until well after the lions had had their drink, and were heading off into the bush for a snooze.

At this point I did tell SS to wind his window up!

This did make me laugh - that is one relaxed cat.  I did wait to see if she covered up afterwards with soil, but no, she just walked off - obviously not litter tray trained just yet!

Wow, so at this stage we had seen rhino, lions, leopard, hippos, tortoises and buck.

As we continued up the road after the lions, the next sighting was this weird toucan-esque bird.  I have no idea what it is, but it is photogenic!

And...another tortoise.  I do not recall seeing tortoises in the park when we went there when I was a child.  Maybe I was just not interested?  SS really liked them as he used to have a pet tortoise called Fred (who alas did not make it through winter one year), but he had a small soft spot for those we saw.

Not much else of significance on the drive, although a few more quite stunning birds did pop up.

And so, back to camp for lunch and a snooze after our early start.  We stopped at the shop on the way to the rondawel to get some beers, wood and coal and some bits and pieces.  I am not a cheerful camper if I nap during the day, so instead I left SS to snooze, and went on a walk around the camp.  I found the communal swimming pool which looked nice, and walked to the shop as I needed a different adaptor plug.  Then back to the rondawel, where I sat by the river for a while.

 This was rewarded immediately by an elephant on the far bank - not a great sighting, but an elephant none the less.

But then my afternoon was capped off by two buffalos down in the water having a lovely old splash around in the heat.  As I photographed them I realised that they capped off the Big 5 within 24 hours of arriving!  Unheard of!!

SS then re-emerged in his usual photo-ready way - hiding behind the paper on our stoep.

We had some lovely sandwiches - tuna, salad onion and lettuce with Crosse & Blackwell tangy mayonnaise - the most wonderful mayonnaise in the world.  SS was an instant fan.  We were also eating this low-GI bread that I found in Pick n Pay, and it was really wonderful - wish I could get it in the UK.
After lunch, we decided to go out again for another drive in the direction of Satara camp to see some different topography and vegetation.  Lots of rolling hills and stunning views over towards Mozambique.  We also saw our first giraffes - I love giraffes and was starting to miss them...

It is also baby season, so lots of baby buck, baby giraffes, baby elephants etc etc.

We saw our first waterbuck - can't miss that target...

And some baboons..

With baboon babies...

And an elephant crossing the river...

And some very feisty bird things that had a nice fight in front of us on the road.  We had to wait whilst they finished their fight before being able to drive around them.

And so, back to camp.  The sun was going down, and so SS now had his first opportunity to "man make fire"...

Considering he hasn't done another fire since our last South Africa trip, it all came back to him very quickly.

And here is our corn, steak and veg all braai-ing away

The bugs were terrible - large flappy beetles trying to get in my hair.  No mosquitoes, which I would actually have preferred as I had mosquito milk with me, and no anti-bug/beetle spray.  I trapped one large beetle under the glass ashtray, and then we had the accompanying noise of the beetle trying to muscle the heavy glass ashtray off him.  Flump flump flump.  He got pretty close a couple of times.  We also cooked the chicken ready for lunch the next day.
And the end result.  I had done the corn by microwaving it first, and then putting it on the braai.  It still caught a little, but interestingly the charred bits tasted of coffee - not what I was expecting...

And to follow - a little of the local cheeses in honour of SS...

We did not sleep hugely well - next door's airconditioning unit kept SS awake.  I was woken at midnight as a beetle had got into the cereal box in between the inner bag and the outer cardboard and could not get out. Buzz buzz, bang bang, flutter flutter.  Oh dear.  Finally found it, and let it out.  I got some sleep after that.  And all set for another early start for Lake Panic again.