I was up very early (3:10am!) and simply couldn’t get back to sleep so I did some work and just enjoyed the calls of the wild until the sun rose and we went out for our morning drive. Everyone was ready promptly at 5:30am. We decided to head over the Sabie River (which has fortunately stopped flooding – it was 2 days ago still not possible to cross the low water bridge) and then head north and back to camp again. It was a pleasant morning drive though the picnic spot/lookout over the dam was unfortunately still closed which would have been a nice place to have coffee. We didn’t see any predators but did add to our bird list. We did see buffalo which now means H and I have seen the Big 5.

We spent the balance of the day in the camp just enjoying the river view, doing some birding and generally relaxing. Some of the younger generation also needed to catch up on sleep as 5:30am seemingly isn’t a time they usually get up.

We did go out again for an evening drive but this time headed south. There are a lot of elephant around this area as they like being close to the river and the vegetation around this area. You pretty much can’t drive more than a few kms and see elephant. We did add a few more birds to the trip list which now stands at 132 for H and I but unfortunately again no predators.

It was overcast the whole day but it was definitely not cool at any point. At 5:30am it was 24 degrees C. By the time we were finished dinner, the older generation were feeling the very early morning and so we headed off to bed and were asleep shortly after 9pm.

Until tomorrow (or later today if I have the energy) ….

P, S, K (they deserve their places higher up because they cooked for us last night), H & B (she tried to bribe her way higher on the list today … S kindly pointed out that isn’t how it works and more likely to get her stuck at end the whole day)

PS: There was a long discussion around whether wives get the benefit of their husbands rank in the list order. Just for the sake of clarity – list order is earned on your own merits.

PPS: Sorry no pictures – cellphone signal not strong enough!