We were up to leave again at 5:30am which with an 18 month old is pretty impressive. We wanted to go down south to Crocodile Bridge camp as a rarity (and what would have been a lifer for all of us) has recently been reported there. We didn’t have high expectations as no one had seen it in the last few days. It was about a 90 minute drive down and while we saw a reasonable amount of game (including two of the big five – elephant and buffalo), we did not see any predators and more unfortunately we did not find the rarity either. We did see another rarity for Kruger Park though – Capped Wheatear – though it is a bird we have seen elsewhere many times before, it is a rarity for the Kruger Park.

We had some coffee and hot chocolate at a dam nearby to Crocodile Bridge and stopped at the camp for a loo visit, nappy change and some purchases at the shop before we headed back up to Lower Sabie again. We took an alternative route back on a dirt road and some of us (excluding one person) had a fleeting glimpse of lion before it walked down a ravine not to be seen again. That was unfortunately the one sighting of predators today (it has been a bit of a dry spell on the predator finding). We got back to the camp just before 10am and one 18-month old was very grateful for a long midday nap (3.5 hours). While she was sleeping, we did some birding from in front of our house and added a number of birds to the trip list and H found a lifer for all of us – Green-capped Eremomela. H continues her raking in of lifers and is now on 65 for the trip (wow!) and 386 lifers in total. She has 158 for the trip and I am now on 151 because I stayed with I while she was sleeping and they walked to the shop and saw a whole lot of extras I had not yet seen. Some of us make sacrifices for love it seems!

We did go out on a short drive again this evening but given it was 37 degrees, the animals and birds were sparse. We did add a bird or two to our trip list but it wasn’t really a very successful drive. On the way back to the camp the road was blocked by an elephant. The car in front of us was pretty close (though they were at least in reverse) but the elephant didn’t really have anywhere to go and when they eventually moved it made it’s way into the bush and we could finally pass it. It is one of my irritations of the Kruger that people don’t seem to know how to drive when elephants are around. Earlier this trip we had a guy stop his car in spitting distance of an elephant and then turned off his car to take some photos. They should give a test to everyone about how to drive near elephants before they allow you into the park.

We had a braai for dinner again – chicken wings and ribs. One of our blog readers commented today that they like we say what we ate but why don’t I share what we drank. So for them – Castle Lite beer while braaiing (it’s hot) and chilled red wine (Cinsaut) and white wine (Chenin Blanc) with dinner.

Until tomorrow …

I, P, H (deserves 3rd spot for lifer find), M & O