Today was the last day that M, O & I were with us. Their flight from Skukuza airport was at 11:30am so we needed to get them there by 10:30am. We decided to let I sleep in a bit and only leave around 6:30am. We had planned to take the slightly longer drive to Skukuza but heading north on the dirt road and then east from Phabeni gate to Skukuza. It was a good call – the only issue was that I woke up with a very stuffy nose and we soon realised she had a cold or something. Not ideal for M & O as traveling with a sick kid is never easy.

The game life on the dirt road was brilliant but as soon as we turned onto the tar road heading east the game life improved dramatically. There was more of everything and we finally saw a hyena for M & O and there was another leopard in a tree (though in the distance). When we saw the hyena we also noticed a lot of vultures around and at the dam we found a dead (and rotting) hippo. The smell was somewhat overpowering so we could only manage a short time at the water hole before moving on.

We did also manage to add a few birds to the trip list before M & O headed off – they ended on 161 birds for 6 days (which is pretty impressive I reckon) and H & I are now on 196 for the trip as we added some more after they left as well. O added 9 lifers (she was hoping for 10) and M (I believe) added 5 lifers (what I could have missed one or two in his case). Helen is now on 405 lifers and is now targeting 100 lifers for the trip (though that might be hard to achieve but then again I didn’t think she was get past 400 when we started this trip).

We did one last bird hide stop at Lake Panic. It is one of the best bird hides (if not the best) in the Kruger. Unfortunately today it did not deliver anything special and in fact didn’t even add to our trip list. We headed into Skukuza camp and got some breakfast. M took I to play on the swings and found a vervet monkey stuck in the climbing net. Someone eventually came to try and free it and fortunately managed to do that much to I (and everyone else’s) relief. She was getting quite distressed at seeing the monkey trapped.

We got to Skukuza airport just before 10:30am and dropped them off and said our goodbyes as H and I headed north to Letaba camp. It was still another 160 kms for us to drive. The game though seem to recognise that we needed a boost for a long drive and we just constantly saw game of different varieties and usually in large quantities. We our 4th batch of lion as well – this time they were lying in the river bed in the shade of tree – from what we could see one female with at least 2 cubs. We saw large herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck, kudu (or duku if you’re I). We also saw another carcass in a river bed being fed on by 3 different types of vultures. It made the long drive that much easier for H & I. We stopped at Tshokwane picnic spot for a bio break and some drinks and then at Satara rest camp again for drinks and some leftover braai from the previous night (at least for me).

We got to Letaba around 3:45pm and besides a short walk to the shop we just spent the balance of the day chilling in our hut. We had planned on having pasta for dinner but that turned out to be harder than we thought it would be. Firstly, the hot plate took forever to heat up and we might have been waiting around until tomorrow am for the water to boil. Then we decided to give up on that and just heat up some of the pasta we had left over from last night instead but it is impossible to open the microwave because it hits into the stove plates! Seriously, how did they think it possible to fit the microwave in that spot?! (The cellphone signal is terrible and so I am not sure I will be able to post a photo of the issue – tried but wasn’t successful!)

We are both tired after the long drive and not in a rush to do anything tomorrow. We will just see when we wake up and then plan from there. It is meant to be cooler tomorrow with likely rain throughout the day. It certainly is pretty windy at the moment so that usually indicates a storm is on route.

Until tomorrow …

P & H (already missing I, M & O)