The African Adventure with HERO 4x4xplore

Hi to everyone who read my website from The Great China Tour in May 2004.

Our car in Tibet on the way to the base camp of Everest

Well here we go again, this time it's Southern Africa and an 11,000 kms drive through Soth Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. You can read all about the Tour on the HERO 4x4xplore website by clicking on the link, on the right, HERO African Adventure and then click the African Adventure icon.

The Tour starts on the 3rd August 2005 from Cape Town and I will endeavour to post to this site as frequently as possible.

The photo above is of the car at the Barking London container depot being loaded for shipping in June. It's the same Toyota landcruiser that we took round South America in 2001 and China and Tibet in 2004. The container ship left London on the 28th June and arrived a week ago in Cape Town. It has just cleared customs and the Landcruiser is awaiting collection on the 1st August.

That's it for now, but I will post once more before we head south.

SAA Strike!!

Well, with our preparations almost completed, out the blue SAA have gone on strike and all their flights have been grounded! We are due to fly with them on Saturday. A few hasty phone calls and we have seats reserved on the Sunday evening flight with BA to Cape Town. The delay of a day isn't a disaster but the fact that the fare is 60% more, certainly is! The hope is that SAA will resolve the dispute over pay quickly enough to ensure that the weekend flights are back to normal. The latest news is that they are back talking with the unions.

Are we going or not?

Still don't know if today's flight will go or not!

Flights resumed on Thursday but there are so many stranded passengers around the world that there is no guarantee that our seats will be available. Other participants from the UK and the USA have been hit by the strike. Just hope we all get to Cape Town for the start on Wednesday.

Next post will be from Cape Town.

BA it is

Now we know. No SAA flights to Cape Town from London today and, its seems, the same tomorrow. Our flights are cancelled and all we can hope is that the full refund promised comes through in our absence.

So, finally it's sorted and we fly with BA tomorrow evening, arriving at 8am on Monday. The first group of participants are off to collect their cars at 11am on Monday, so it will be touch and go for me to get to the hotel in time. If we arrive too late then we'll arrange to pick up the car on Tuesday, which will be a shame as we were hoping to have a free day sightseeing.

I hope that others flying with SAA have managed to rearrange their flights to make sure they get to Cape Town in time for the start.

We are off

Well, the day to leave on our African Adventure has arrived.

At 7.35pm the BA flight from Heathrow will leave the UK and then arrive in Cape Town at 8am tomorrow.
Don't know what other participants flying with SAA have done to get to South Africa but the BA flight is full and I expect the same goes for the other airlines.

Weather in the Cape is warm with rain in the afternoons.

View of Table Mountain from our hotel

August 1st - Cape Town

Surprise meeting at Heathrow with Mary English, daughter of Terence. They were both with us on The China Tour. She was seeing off her aunt and uncle travelling on the same flight as us to South Africa.

Good night flight arriving in Cape Town at 8am yesterday. Short cab ride to our waterfront hotel where we met up with Jingers and several of the group. Our hotel has wonderful views of Table Mountain across the Waterfront shopping complex.

Next, in three cars off we went to collect our cars. No problems at all and seeing my car being washed was an added bonus. Everything was OK with nothing missing! The drive back was fine and we filled up with diesel at 50p a litre!!

More meetings with old friends - David and Patsy Mitchell from New Zealand and Jim Taylor from the States.
Tomorrow it's a trip up the mountain and then to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years

August 2nd

More participants arrived this morning from London and the States. John and Joanna Brown and the rest of the HERO team are also here, ready for the pre-event meetings tomorrow.

Good weather for our trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years in prison. The island is only 7 miles from the mainland and a 30 minute boat ride. The tour was very interesting made especially so by the guide who was himself a political prisoner on the island. The prison was finally closed in 1991.



At the end of the tour we went and saw the penguin colony. Apparently there are over 58,000!

August 3rd

Last day before we start the African Adventure. Signing on from 8am and we all get T-shirts, hats and safari waistcoats with the tour logo. Two route books give us 'tulip' directions for the complete route as well as detailed information about the countries and each day's journey.

Signing-on in Cape Town

Once the formalities were over we decided to drive about 80 miles up the Atlantic coast to the West Coast National Park, which is open at this time of the year for visitors to see the spring wild flowers. We took Dee Anne Croucher, while Kenny sorted out their hire car. It was well worth the drive. Spectacular carpets of white, yellow, orange and purple flowers were everywhere in the park. Ostriches, springbok, eland, herons and even a tortoise that we had to stop for as it crossed the track. An hour later and we had to head back for the medical and event briefings.

The day finished with coach taking us to a fish restaurant at Hout Bay about twenty miles from Cape Town

August 4th - Day 1

8.03am is our designated start time. The cars are leaving at one minute intervals. At long last after months of preparation the start the Tour has arrived.

John Brown waving off Car No.1, Antoine, Maria and Victor de Hullu from Holland

The cars lining up for the start

The first part of the day's drive is down to the Cape of Good Hope, about 45 miles. As we approached the Cape park we stopped to look at several baboons eating pine cones in the road.

Baboon in the road near the Cape of Good Hope eating a pine cone

A short while later and we were at the Cape of Good Hope. Not, as we were to discover, the southernmost point of Africa, that is at a point some 200 mile east. 

False Bay from the Cape of Good Hope

The drive then took us up the western side of False Bay to Simonstown and Fishhook. On the way we saw a colony of South African penguins. Such wonderful animals, ungainly on land, but beautiful in the water.
Next through the beautiful wine growing country to the east of Cape Town and on to our lunch halt at Stellenbosch. A lovely town with many old colonial buildings.

 

Beautiful Stellenbosch

Then south through marvellous scenery to our overnight stop at the five star resort near Kleinmond, some 15 miles west of Hermanus.  So far there does not appear to have been any serious problems with the cars. Let's hope that continues.

August 5th - Day 2

Spoke too soon about the cars having no problems!!

Up at 6.30am for an early start only to discover that I have a puncture. Get the tyre changed with the help of Jingers as the wheel was jammed on and I needed his expertise to remove it. We left only 15 minutes later than we had planned, at 8.15am. The drive took us south through Hermanus and on to the southernmost point of continental Africa, Cape l'Aghulas. The route was through some stunningly beautiful scenery. Very green, almost like England and quite unlike how I expected South Africa to be. Across wide open fields along gravel roads to Cape l'Aghulas. About ten of the cars were there when we arrived and everyone took turns taking photos at the plaque marking the southernmost point of Africa.

Edo, Veronique, Lynette, Quint and Terry-Lynn Weening at the southernmost point of the African continent, Cape l'Aghulas

An hours drive due north took us to the town of Swellendam. Wonderful old buildings, nearly 200 year's old.

Lunch in Swellendam with Antoine, Maria, Victor, Wendy, Jim, Kaitlyn and Leejun Taylor

The afternoon drive took us due east for about 100 miles to Mossel Bay, our overnight stop. 8 kms short of our destination and disaster strikes for a second time and we have another puncture!  Still, I have two spares, so all is not lost. This time it's Mike Johnston from one of the back up cars who helps and an hour later we are on our way.  Into Mossel Bay and straight to a tyre place to get the punctures repaired.

Let's hope tomorrow brings better luck.

August 6th - Day 3

We left Mossel Bay at 8am hoping that the puncture problems of yesterday were behind us. Continuing fine weather makes the driving so much more fun. Empty roads and wonderful scenery make the miles fly by.
We headed north for about 100 kms to our first stop at an ostrich farm. A good short guided tour explained to us what strange birds they are. They weigh up to 125kgs and with a brain of only 60 grams they are not the brightest of animals.

Rosalie Gatsonides 'riding' an ostrich!

We then drove into the Little Karoo, the start of the dry areas away from the coast and then up the Swartzberg Pass, a gravel road that wound its way up to 1500 metres with magnificent views on each side of the pass.  Shortly afterwards we stopped for lunch in the delightful old town of Prince Albert.  Lunch was followed by the drive taking us east and then south to our resort hotel at Kynsna. The road took us through lovely gorges and mountain passes that were built in the 19th century for coaches.

 

Following Richard Smith in his Toyota through a gorge north of George

Lady luck was on our side for once as we drove the final few miles into Kynsna. There were terrible roadworks and we came up behind a huge stationary queue of cars and trucks. As luck would have it there was a turning into a small village and the car in front reversed back and turned off. I thought I'd follow and three or four miles later, through narrow lanes, across a railway bridge where we drove on the railway track and then through a small national park and we were back on the main road! We couldn't believe our luck! We arrived at the resort an hour later as the first to arrive. Such a great drive through fantastic country again made me wonder how John Brown finds these way-out places for us!

August 7th - Day 4

A chance to chill out! Today is the first rest day of the tour. We are staying at the Pezula Resort Hotel just outside Knysna. It is a very well designed development of low rise apartment units carefully concealed in the rolling hills. The resort was opened earlier this year.

View of Kynsna Lagoon from Pezula Resort Hotel

The day has given some a chance to play golf, others to whale watch and us just to walk towards the ocean a mile away. Is it the Indian now, or is it still the Atlantic?

We took a short drive into Knysna and had a marvelous meal at South 34 (named after the latitude) on the waterfront. Knysna is on the edge of a beautiful lagoon and in the evening a trip had been organised on the paddle steamer that cruises the lagoon.

Protea bush in flower

We ended the day, as usual, drinking in the bar with the many new friends we have made. Tomorrow there are two alternative routes. One takes the mountain road into the wild country away from the coats and over 250 kms of gravel with some very rough sections. The other goes along the main road to Port Elizabeth, about 400 kms from here. We have decided to take the easy route to get there quickly and then have my tyres checked and tubes removed from the three remaining wheels. I don't want any more punctures because tubes are failing.

August 8th - Day 5

As I said yesterday we decided to take the coast route to Port Elizabeth rather than the inland road over the Baviaanskloof, an area of wilderness, with mainly unmaintained gravel roads. Our route took us along the old coast road through lovely pine forests. The road alternated between narrow twisting sections and long straights where 120kph was the norm.

View of the 'highest road bridge in Africa' on the main Cape Town to Port Elizabeth highway

Before lunch we stopped by the sea at the Tsitsikamma National Park. The park embraces a wonderful coastline of mountains and rocky shores with fantastic surf.

Rocky shore at Tsitsikamma National Park, 100 miles west of Port Elizabeth

We met up with kenny & DeeAnne Croucher. Kenny rented scuba gear and went diving.

Kenny doing his interpretation of 'The Graduate'

Lunch followed as a picnic by the ocean, with the waves pounding on the rocks close by, sending up great clouds of spray into the air.


The drive to Port Elizabeth took about two hours along a great, virtually deserted, highway. This will be our last view of the sea as we head inland towards Lesotho and then the Zulu battlefields in KwaZulu Natal, before we return to the Atlantic in Namibia, some two weeks away.

August 9th - Day 6

Today was our first real experience of African big game. Some 100 kms north of Port Elizabeth is Addo Elephant Park. You can drive your own car through the park. So, it was great fun to tour the park at our own pace. We saw elephants, kudu (large deer) and warthogs.

Then jackals, zebra, hartebeest and vervet monkeys.

The park also has lions, black rhinoceros and buffalo. We spent three hours filming and taking photos. At one point an elephant walked across the trach in from of the de Hullu's Landrover.


Just as we were about to leave someone said there were elephants at a water hole next to the park restaurant. Sure enough four adult elephants were drinking at the hole, only a few yards from us.

 

Watering Hole at Addo Elephant Park

Leaving the park at lunchtime we drove over the Zuursberg pass, a twisting rough track through rugged scenery. Shortly after we returned to tarmac and drove about 200 kms on deserted roads to our overnight stop at the Katberg, a small resort at the end of an extremely muddy track. At one point the road was blocked by a local car being pushed by six or seven people through the mud. A detour over a grass bank, and the help of the locals in providing planks to get over deep ruts, enabled us to bypass the worst section of road. 50 rand changed hands to thank them for their help. My clean car is no more!

August 10th - Day 7

Tonight we are close to the border with Lesotho staying in Rhodes a small town which is a protected heritage site.

This morning we left the Katberg Hotel in mist and drizzle. A steep, very rough and muddy track took us over the Katberg Pass at an elevation of 5,500 feet. We were now climbing into the higher regions of the Southern Drakensberg mountain range, with truly impressive wide open scenery. What has surprised me is how unpopulated the countryside is. After leaving a small town called Queenstown we had a text message from Richard Smith (car 10) to say he was skipping the drive to Rhodes and driving directly to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, our overnight stop in two day's time. That's one of the good things about these drives; you can go 'off piste' at any time.

Our drive then took us into some really remote areas of the Eastern Cape. We climbed up to nearly 7,000 feet on the Dr. Otto du Plessis pass (I haven't found out who he was). The pass was totally deserted and we were the only people using it. We emerged into a high valley with sheep farms and very few houses or people. The last 60 kms were on good fast gravel roads and we arrived in Rhodes at 2pm.

Outside the Rhodes Hotel with a very muddy Landcruiser

After many hours of driving on dusty roads it was time to get the car cleaned. A local sheep farmer allowed his farm workers to clean our cars.

Tomorrow we climb over the Drakensberg, apparently covered in snow, and then on into Lesotho. More fun for us all.

August 11th - Day 8

We left the picturesque small town of Rhodes at 8am and immediately we had a very hairy climb up the mountain pass to Tiffindell, the ski resort area about 25 kms from Rhodes. The climb took us up an extremely steep track which emerged in glorious sunshine on the top of the Drakensberg's with snow all around us as we drove towards the ski resort area.

Snow in Africa!

Tiffindell ski resort in the Drakensburg Mountains

All along the road cars from the event stopped to take pictures of the wonderful landscape. The drive down the mountain was not so steep but the view across the valley below was breathtaking.

On the way down from Tiffendell, looking towards Lesotho

Our drive then took us along the border with Lesotho, passing villages that cannot have changed in hundreds of years. Small round thatched houses, painted in many different colours with children running all over the place. Everyone is so friendly and waves as we pass by. The only problem we have is that the children run into the road to try and stop us to get money or food. We made the mistake of stopping and handing out colouring pens but soon realised that once you start doing this then children appear from everywhere and you simply cannot satisfy them all. 

 Typical houses in Lesotho village

We arrived at the border at 10.45am and quickly entered Lesotho. John Brown's car was there with us as were the Mitchell's and the de Hullu's in their Landrover.

Crossing into Lesotho from South Africa

The scenery in Lesotho is truly impressive. The country is mainly above 5,000 feet and the mountains all around make an impressive backdrop to the wide open spaces. The hills are dotted with small villages and goat herding and some corn growing seemed to be the main activity. It is quite obvious that the majority of the population are very poor. A sobering sight was to see so many placards giving HIV/Aids warnings and it seemed to us that in every small town the only businesses that advertised were undertakers. The aids problem is huge in South Africa and it is only when you come face to face with the reality of the situation that you realise how much damage is being done to the lives of these people and to the economies of these poor countries.

We traversed more passes and lunched at a really out of the way holiday lodge, the Malelela. Great lunch and the usual spectacular views we have come used to on our drive. Three hours of hard driving took us to the captial, Maseru and our hotel, the Lesotho Sun.

So far everyone is getting round OK and apart from a few punctures no one has suffered badly. Some of the hired Nissans have front guards that are coming loose, but apart from that all seems OK.

Tomorrow we cross Lesotho and head back into South Africa at the Sani Pass. Hopefully I will be able to post again then but the mobile signal in remote areas is not 100% certain. Reminds me of trying to get a signal in parts of London!

August 12th - Day 9

As our timetable only allowed one night in Lesotho, we had to make an early start as we had to reach the border with South Africa before it closed at 4pm at the Sani Pass in the south-east of the country.
Today's run took us right across the magnificent central highlands and then over a succession of mountain passes. Lesotho is desperately poor and as recently as 1998 there was an invasion by South African forces to overthrow the government because of fraudulent elections. Everywhere you go you see signs of extreme poverty. Most agriculture is carried out by manual labour with the help of oxen and donkeys. It is difficult to convey how hard the lives are of the people who live and work in the country.

Two Lesothon woman carrying loads on their heads

Back to our tour. We travelled on mainly gravel roads which varied from bad to horrendous but always accompanied by unbelievably beautiful scenery. Great gorges with rivers winding through unspoilt landscapes.


3,000 metre plus mountains were always in sight and one mountain pass followed another. The sign below made us pause for thought about what lay ahead!


At one point we crossed a bridge that had a plaque on it that reminded us of the time the British Empire ruled in this part of the world.

This bridge was opened on

19 - 4 -1956

by

E.P. Arrowsmith

Resident Commissioner

Basutoland

More mountain passes followed and I took this photo of two of our cars winding up one of the pasess far below us. The telephoto lens was set on maximum magnification.

Unfortunately the Weening family Landrover broke down and, at the time of writing this, I am not sure if they have managed to make it to the hotel.  Our journey ended at 3pm when we crossed back into South Africa and drove the 20 kms to the Sani Pass hotel.

 

My Landcruiser with Dave and Patsy Mitchell's Niissan on the summit of Kotisephola Pass.

At 3,250 metres the highest point of the whole tour.

August 13th - Day 10

The end of the Weening's extraordinary long wheelbase Landrover! After breaking down several times yesterday they decided that the time has come to change vehicles. They live in the Cape Town area and are having their Range Rover delivered to the hotel, and the Landrover taken back for repairs. It's a shame as the Landrover is such a special vehicle. Six litre American engine, three rows of seats and every conceivable extra you could want for a trip like this. Unfortunately, the roads John Brown has found for us are simply too much for their car.

 

The Weening family Landrover at the Sani Pass hotel before being returned to Cape Town

It appears that most of the Nissan hire cars have broken shock absorbers, so this morning the new heavy duty replacements arrived. Early this morning Jingers and Mike Johnson started to fit them.

Jingers with Dave Mitchell fitting new shock absorbers to the Nissan

  

We have now started the long drive north which takes us as far north as the Victoria Falls in Zambia. The route today took us along country roads with the mighty Drakensberg Wall always present on our left. We detoured off into one of the many beautiful valleys to see caves with ancient rock art. It was a long hike up to to caves on a hot day. We came away slightly underwhelmed as the paintings were very indistinct.

 

The long walk to the caves with rock art at the Giant's Castle, Drakensburg Mountain range

Lunch back at the visitor centre made up for any disappointment. A further hour's drive and we arrived at our hotel, The Drakensnberg Sun. This evening we have a talk about the history of the Zulu battlegrounds, which is where we drive tomorrow.

August 14th - Day 11

A nine o'clock start was a real luxury. An hour's drive bought us to the first of the three battle sites we wanted to see, the flat top hill called Spioenkop. The battle was fought between the British and the Boers in January 1900, resulting in a British defeat. It was very sobering to stand in front of the British war memorial to the Royal Lancashire Regiment and see all the English names, so far away from home.

 

Joanna Brown, Mike Johnson and others in front of the war memorial to The Royal Lancashire Regiment at Spioenkop

Just north of Spioenkop is the town of Ladysmith, which became famous in the Boer War for the siege by the Boers of the British which lasted 118 days. Next we drove to the battle site at Rorke's Drift, re-enacted in the famous movie Zulu, starring Michael Caine. Here the battle took place in January 1897 between 390 British troops and four thousand Zulus. The British held out overnight until a relief force arrived. Eleven Victoria crosses were awarded, the most in any battle.

 

War memorial to the British dead at Rorke's Drift with poppy wreathes saying 'Never Forgotten'

Our final site was at Blood River, so named because the river next to the battleground ran red with the blood of the Zulus who were fighting the Voortrekkers, settlers who were moving from the Cape Town area into the interior. This battle took place in December 1838 and 464 Voortrekkers fought between 12,000 and 15,000 Zulus. They formed a circle of 64 wagons and with only three wounded they defeated the Zulus, who lost over 500 men.

 

Wagon memorial at Blood River

The site has the most impressive reconstruction of the wagon circle which was completed in the early seventies. The wagons are like sculptures, made from metal and appear to all intents and purposes to be real thing. To stand in the centre, surrounded by the wagons, is a very moving experience.

A further hour of driving bought us to our overnight stop just south of the town called Vryheid. The day was rounded off by hearing that the de Hullus had sighted the first giraffe!

Tomorrow we cross Swaziland, on our way to the edge of the Kruger National Park.

August 15th - Day 12

Last night there were great birthday celebrations for Kenny Croucher our ever smiling and joking Texan. Two huge birthday cakes had been ordered by Joanna Brown and then served to everyone. A great way to finish the day.

This morning we were away before seven as we had nearly 500 kms to travel which included crossing Swaziland on our way to the edge of the Kruger National Park.

Just as we left our hotel the sun was rising above the horizon giving us the magnificent sight of an African dawn on the veldt.

A short drive of just over 100 kms brought us to the Swaziland border. There was very little delay as half a dozen of us went through the border controls. Swaziland is a very green country and we were both struck by how much more prosperous the kingdom is than its nearby neighbour, Lesotho. Our first stop was at the Mlilwane wildlife park where we saw hippos, zebras and several species of deer. We looked for giraffes but were unable to find them. Next we stopped at a Swazi cultural village which included traditional dancing.

Whilst there the de Hullus arrived with a 'sick' Landrover. As usual the mechanical skills of Jingers came to the fore and he quickly discovered the fault - a loose rear wheel. The roads here have been very punishing to the cars and once something works loose it doesn't take long for it to become a major problem.

We skirted the capital, Mbabane, and then to my amazement we joined a brand new four lane motorway which took us about 30 kms to the border with South Africa. Three hours more driving and we arrived at the Sabi Sun Resort Hotel. We were delighted to see the Weening family had made it in their replacement Range Rover. We are now just 50 kms from the Kruger Park, tomorrow's destination.

August 16th - Day 13

We had decided to skip John Brown's suggested highlights of visits to a pancake house, waterfalls and potholes which required driving 300 kms, and take the direct route to the Sabi Sabi Lodge in The Kruger National Park.

We planned to leave at 10am, but best laid plans nearly always have a habit of going wrong. Sure enough as I checked the car I noticed oil leaking from the front of the engine. Jingers was working next to my car checking the de Hullus Landrover to make sure no more wheels came loose. He came over to look at my Toyota and quickly discovered a leaking power steering hose. Thankfully it had only just happened and not much oil had leaked away. An hour later and it was repaired.

We left the Sabi River Sun resort by way of their hippo pool. There must have been at least a dozen hippos, both adults and very young ones, all wallowing in the mud. It made a strange site; the hippos in the pool and the resort's golfers walking close by!

 

Hippos at watering hole at the Sabi River Sun resort hotel

An hour's drive and we arrived at our five star 'Earth' lodge at Sabi Sabi. A wonderful apartment facing the bush and a watering hole where we can hear the hippos bellowing.

Four o'clock and we were off on our first safari. Six of us in an open Landrover with our guide Sven and a tracker, set off round the park. Three hours of touring and we saw, Cape buffalo , giraffe, nyala (a beautiful deer) as well as numerous impala and water buck.

Tomorrow we set off on our second safari at 6am, so another early start.

August 17th - Day 14

Even though today was a 'rest' day, we were up at 5.30am to go on our second safari of a three hour drive in the bush. Our driver and guide, Sven, gave us a running commentary on the animals we saw. This time we came upon two groups of white rhino. We were within ten feet of them as they grazed. Two adult females and a young male. Apparently their skin is about an inch thick! Shortly after we saw two more, again grazing and seemingly quite unconcerned about us.

White rhino grazing five yards away from us!

I was quite ignorant of how many different species there are of African deer. Here are the ones I can remember that we saw: Springbok, impala, water buck, nyala, kudu, gazelle.

The beautiful Nyala

Male Kudu

Oryx or Gemsbok at waterhole

All too soon the drive was over and we were back at our lodge. Sabi Sabi consists of three lodges several kilometres apart from each other. We are in the most modern called Earth Lodge, which is a wonderful piece of architecture. As you approach the lodge you cannot see it at all as it is set into the side of a bank overlooking a large waterhole and the unspoilt bush. There are thirteen individually domed roof apartments, made out of a mud coloured concrete which has been mixed with grass to imitate a termite mound. From the front you see a low structure which very successfully 'melts' into the background.

Our 'termite mound' apartment at Earth Lodge, Sabi Sabi

The other two lodges are very traditional with grass roofs and one has only oil lanterns for lighting. They are all five star luxury lodges with impeccable service.

The highlight of our three safaris was the afternoon/evening, drive, when just after dark, we came upon a pride of nine lions lying in the road! We stayed with them as they slowly moved along the road and then into the bush. Always in single file, it was the most fantastic sight as we filmed and took photos. Unfortunately, as you are not allowed to have mobile phones with you on safari, I wasn't able to use the mobile phone's camera to take a photo of the lions. I am using my mobile phone to post photos to the website and so photos of the pride will have to wait till our return to the UK when I will post them to the site.

Back to the lions. They didn't mind Sven's spotlight which enabled us to see them so clearly. At times they walked alongside our Landrover and we could have touched them!  Finally, we watched them disappear into the darkness of the bush. Thirty minutes had gone by in a few seconds.

It has been a most wonderful experience to see African big, and small, game in the wild. Tomorrow we drive halfway through the Kruger, a distance of 250 kms, on our way to our last overnight stop in South Africa before heading north into Botswana.

Another elephant, this time close to the lodge