GBRT : South Africa 2012

Our first morning in Springbok Lodge and our first real view of the lodge and the surrounding reserve, and very nice it is too. The day saw the team split into three groups; one group off on an early morning game drive in the private Nambiti game reserve, one group with a slightly later start heading off to the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift, and a third group that decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have a lie in.

The game drive group managed to add a new animal to the list, with the sighting of a hippo mother and baby, and also sighted the now usual (if you've spent the last few days in a game reserve that is) complement of zebra, giraffe and wildebeest.

Our last day in Mohlabetsi has come all too soon. The team eschewed the usual early morning game drive, having a long drive ahead of them and so having to get away relatively early. Saying our goodbyes to Lena and Seline, who have been excellent hosts/drinking partners throughout our stay, we packed and boarded the buses for a seven and a half hour drive to Springbok Lodge in Kwazulu Natal, hopefully arriving sometime before the daylight faded, making the lodge easier to find.

Or at least that was what was hoped for. In the event, the drive was more like eleven and a half hours with a few short stops for lunch and fuel, thanks at least partly to the South African habit of closing some very long sections of road for "roadworks" (despite not seeing a soul actually working on the road), entailing some (approximately eleven according to Micks count) lengthy pauses en-route.

Our second day in the Kruger dawned bright and early, with the majority of the team heading out for a second early morning game drive - technically, a game walk for some of the team, as they were on foot on this occasion. Unfortunately, the merriment of the previous evening had taken at least a 60% casualty rate (Ben, James and Gareth, and to some extent Pete) who had enjoyed the previous night's entertainments too much, and failed to set an alarm, or wake up to the morning knock on the door.

The game walk thankfully didn't result in any casualties, although Hamilton, one of the park rangers, did manage to attract some lions closer by using himself as bait...

Readers may be astonished to learn that large portions of South Africa (especially the bushy parts) have no internet access!

We have now arrived at Nottingham Road and full service will be resumed tomorrow (Saturday).

Off to Nottingham Road Rifle Club for a braii now.

First full day in South Africa, and what a day it was. We started bright and early at 5:15 with a wake up call for the morning jeep safari. Conditions were perfect, not too hot, and with no sign of rain, except for Simon, who managed to get a bit damp whilst still indoors, courtesy of a sightly leaky monkey above him.

We were soon hot on the game trail, spotting white rhino, zebra, giraffe and lion in quick succession, with a smattering of smaller animals thrown in as well. No sightings of the world’s largest leech (1m long) however, but that's probably just as well, given Lauren's warning - "Three sucks and you're done". 

We have arrived at our first destination - I sit typing this looking out at the unbroken expanse of the Kruger National Park, sitting under a shade tree, with nothing more pressing on my mind that wondering when to try out the pool.

We awoke this morning in the air, having got somewhat differing amounts of sleep - eight and a half for Lauren, who was only just awake for long enough to eat dinner, before trapping her fellow passenger into the window seat for the entire flight.