Kruger National Park and Home

Oct 1 - Sat - Cloudy, rained overnight

We were awoken with our usual 5:30 wake up call and headed out again at 6am. Two of our jeep partners decided to sleep in and the other 2 stayed only long enough to drive by the kill site. No easy way to get to the lions since the fields were too wet to drive on as they don't want to damage the brush. We did see a pack of 5 more hyena though on the way as well as vultures circling above.

After dropping off the 2 guys we had the jeep, our Ranger and Tracker to ourselves. We drove for about 1 hr seeing zebras, waterbuck, kudu and,of course, impala. The rain kept a lot of animals hidden,but then out of the corner of our eyes, we spotted what looked like a leopard but was a cheetah! It is extremely rare to see leopards and even more rare to see Cheetah since there are only 200 left in the entire park. We were able to get some good shots before he headed off through the brush. We were so lucky as we were the only one of the 18 guests to see a Cheetah and Leopard.

On our way back towards Tinga, we saw another troop of baboons on the side of the road with lots of babies on backs and clinging to bellies. We also saw a fish eagle and large owl. We didn't see any elephants today even though we saw lots of tracks. It was truly a great last game drive though having seen the Cheetah.

Raymond is a treasure trove of knowledge. He pointed out an Appletree and took one of it's leaves and crunched it in his hand demonstrating how it got it's name. It sounded just like the noise of biting into an apple. Then he showed how, as a child, whose mother always had him brush his teeth, he was able to make a toothbrush, instead of buying one, by cutting off a branch, peeling the bark from the ends for about an inch, then squashing those ends and wetting them until they fanned out and formed a brush. One twig thus was good for two uses at least. By the way, he had beautiful teeth.

Back in time for a great breakfast with our tablemates and then off to shower and get ready for the long flights home.

One last look at the immense Jackleberry tree on the front veranda. The berries fell continuously, 1/2" in diameter, and edible. Of course Mike had to peel one and eat it. He said it had a fig-like taste. It also has two big pits, bean size, which you have to spit out. Many birds, and especially the Civit a small catlike animal, love it. The Civit likes it as he is able to leave his dung, which is full of the seeds, for bugs and insects to munch on and thus he can return, eat his own dung and get a full meal of those bugs. Yummy!

On the ride to and from Mpumalanga airport the roads at time were lined with Jacaranda trees with briliant dark pink and red flowers, almost too bright for the eye to stare at.

We arrived at 1:30 and checkin went quick with our bags checked through to Dulles. We'll decide after we clear customs if we carry them on or check them again to DFW. The flight to JNB was just 25 minutes and by 6pm we were ready for some dinner (we won't eat on the plane before arriving at Dakar in about 8 hours). By 6:45 we were at the gate waiting for our 9:30 departure. Just 26:15 hours from now we'll be home (or at least DFW). Since we got up at 5:30am (that's 10:30pm Plano time), we'll have been up, and mostly awake, 40+ hours. Such is the price to pay for a lifetime of great memories.

This was truly an unforgettable experience and the Tinga lodge and staff were wonderful. We will definitely return again some day.