Breakfast at 7:30am so that we could hit the road as early as possible to start making our long way home. It is about 1400 kms from The Cavern back home. The route back is fairly straightforward as it is all pretty much on national roads which tend to be well maintained. We had 600 kms to cover today and our navigation system said it would be just under 6 hours. We hit the road just after 8:30am and after doing two stops (one to de-fuel and one for fuel), we arrived at our our accommodation for the night. The drive was pretty much uneventful (which is the way we like it!). We did drive past the Sterkfontein Dam (3rd largest dam in SA) and the colours were striking from the burnt bush to the emerald water and blue sky.

We are staying at Tzamenkomst which is right on the Orange River. We stayed here last year on our route home and everyone loved it so we decided to do a repeat. B & S found it as they stayed here on their way home after my 50th birthday trip (which was during Covid times) so it is their 3rd visit. The sunset over the river looks exactly as it looks on their webpage.

A bottle of sparkling wine was secured from the bar so that we could celebrate the trip and especially the birding milestones of S (400 lifers), H (450 lifers), B (350 lifers), O (250 lifers). My trip list currently stands at 234 after adding a few more today (including one at a stop & go roadworks!).

Dinner tonight was in their dining hall and over dinner we did our usual reminiscing of the trip and sharing of highlights and lowlights. The general agreed highlights were:
– Mkhuze bird hide (Kamasinga)
– Lodge and bush walk with Siya (at Mpila)
– Drakensberg (The Cavern)
– Hilltop Camp and accommodation (and walk through the camp)

The general agreed lowlights were:
– 4×4 drive up north from Sodwana Bay to Lake Sibaya (we basically saw nothing because of the wind and the road was very enclosed)
– The wind (cold biting wind when we packed up and left Karoo NP, wind in Sodwana, wind as we drove into the Drakensberg and again this morning as we left). It seems August is a windy month in the places we visited.
– Accommodation at Mkhuze (bat in our room didn’t help that rating from H & I)
– Drive from Howick to Umhlanga (the trucks and road works)
– Dirt road from Sodwana to Jozini

One day of driving left tomorrow – 800kms. Breakfast at 7am and on the road as soon as possible after that. Unless something remarkable happens (which I am hoping it won’t!), I won’t likely blog tomorrow so until next time ….

P, H, S, B, A & O (she made the fatal error of trying to suggest I had made a factual error on the blog)