Peking to Paris 2016

Usual morning routine and hit the road to meet our first passage control on the Swaziland border, this wait was longer than expected got our passports stamped and set of to the Kruger National Pk. This was a great day with awesome sightings of elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, zebras, giraffes and many birds. We took our time and arrived at the gate to find another long queue of cars, we were expected to arrive at Sabi Sands for lunch at 2.30pm however with the amount of cars queuing we didn’t get into Sabi Sands until 3.45pm. We were greeted by a much earned welcome drink and then asked to sit down and enjoy and very late lunch at 4.00 pm. Once we finished our lunch we were shown to our very luxurious rooms and then whisked away in a 4 wheel drive safari jeep. Bruce and I sat in the back and had the best view however at times had to hold on because of the rough terrain, the first of the big 5 we spotted was a leopard who displayed an awesome show for us within a metre of our vehicle, truly amazing rolling around the dirt, then we spotted a journey of giraffes and a herd of elephants, their young had a feed in front of us, these animals are very much at home with these safari trucks however if you got out of the truck they would attack. 2 hours into our safari trip we stopped for a sundowner in Sabi Sands park as the night was closing in on us we were all very wary we could be the next meal for these wild animals, a couple of strong drinks we relaxed and enjoyed watching the sunset. Fred our guide spotted some zebras so back into the safari land rover for more fun. We arrived back at camp 7.30 pm with another welcome drink then a quick shower for an a la carte meal for 8.00 pm sitting outside amongst the impala, monkeys, elephants and the odd leopard which can wonder through the camp. We were not allowed to walk to our rooms without a guide because the presence of these wild animals. A scrumptious meal was had by all in a perfect setting. Early wake up call for another adventurous safari trip where rhinos, elephants, zebras and a lion eating his kill were viewed 1 metre from our land rover. Today I would like to wish Bruce & Harry Washington’s a very “Happy Birthday”. While having breakfast Happy Birthday was sung to Bruce. We had 4 spare hours so Bruce decided to play around with the car with the other men they went to the workshop where they had a ramp did the usual oil, grease and spanner check bolted the steering column back to the dash and with the help of the locals mounted a set of Kudo horns to the front bumper. They all helped each other sort their cars and then allowed Fred our game keeper to drive the Mistress back to camp. Norah and myself decided to do a bush walk with Patrick our safari ranger who met us at 11.00 o’clock with a fully loaded rifle, two way radio and a belt of bullets, Norah just looked at me and I asked is it really necessary to have the gun loaded and the answer was “yes at all times”. We headed out of the gates and 200 metres onto the track Norah said to Patrick “is that an elephant over their” Patrick looked and moved us across the road where we walked in the scrub and said “thanks I didn’t see him” another 200 metres and we saw another bull elephant so again we avoided this one and walked into the other direction feeling a little uncomfortable now we were wishing we didn’t, start this adventure. 150 metres ahead we saw a baby calf and mummy elephant, this time Patrick held my hand and whispered “quickly we need to get out of here” by this time we were trembling and speechless, their was a waterhole we had to walk around and again I asked Patrick was their anything living in their and again us nervous girls were told something we didn’t want to hear, crocodiles, I couldn’t,t believe what we were going through and was wishing we stayed at camp. We headed in the only direction left to walk and quietly walked away with Patrick constantly looking over his shoulder which made us even more nervous. Five minutes later Patrick showed us the toothbrush and soap bush to calm us down a little however we were constantly looking around worried. We continued our walk following different tracks,where we thought we were nearly back to camp to find out we were standing on the hill we had our sunset drinks the night before. I asked Patrick how far away is the camp and he said it is right over their in the distance approximately an hour away, Norah and I looked at each other speechless and then asked if their was a quick way home, Patrick replied we will make our way down the rocks into the scrub. We had a drink of water and then very cautiously made our way down the rocks seeing lizards, impalas and kudos as we climbed down. We were very slow trying to balance our way down, it was very hot and extremely frightening however we made it to tell the tale. We then decided to do something much safer and swim in the camp pool, I ordered some drinks and decided to sit on the pool edge to discover some crab/scorpion insect 2 inches long which then made us have another look to find a spider which was on the bottom on the pool which gives you a nasty bite that was the end of our swim. We all had lunch and headed of for another safari trip which was full of fun and excitement, we spotted water buffalo, giraffes elephants, rhinoceros and zebras and ending the trip with champagne in the sunset singing Happy Birthday to Bruce. Back at camp we had a barbecue and traditional dance and singing plus another Happy Birthday song and dance with the locals which ending a wonderful two days at Sabi Sands