Last nights steak dinner was amazing. I don't even like steak. I'm now a convert! Before we went to bed the hippo and water buck were moving around near the river, then there were suddenly 10 elephants standing, munching the trees as close to the fence at the bottom of the garden as you could physically get! Too dark to get photos unfortunately because the baby elephants were so cute!
In the morning we were up at sunrise again to see if the elephants were still around. We only saw 2, in the distance on the opposite river bank unfortunately. Not even the hippos were splashing around this morning! The beautiful birds were out in full force though. There is nothing quite like a sunrise breakfast with the sound of the dawn chorus to accompany you.
We had a look around the little shop on site and bought some gorgeous wooden napkin rings shaped like animals. We had them on our table at every meal and I just loved them at first sight.
We said goodbye to Leanne the owner and Anzelle, who had catered to our every need on the trip, and got going with our driver, Sam (and his wife - they were making a trip of it). It took 6 hours in total to get to Johannesburg. We stopped again at the Nandos with the watering hole. No rhino today, but plenty of ostrich, buffalo, zebra, ibex and impala.
Because its winter here, lots of farmers are burning their fields, so that in the spring, fresh new grass will grow there. We've seen plenty of controlled bush fires, but today's one was crazy! The huge fire was about 30 feet from our car, but we could still feel the intense heat from it. Smoke was all over the area, but at one point we had to stop the car because we couldn't see the bonnet of the car, or out any of the windows. We crawled the car forwards and suddenly we were in clear air. I feel like it was actually pretty dangerous. Not so much the fire, but the potential for being hit by another car!
We made it to the Hyde Park Guest House after a 6 hour journey. The room was OK, but nothing compared to the lodge we just came from. Our room was very cold, and even had a free standing radiator and an electric blanket. Our door onto the terrace didn't fit properly, so there was a towel wedged at the bottom, presumably to keep out the cold... Or bugs. That's only just occurred to me! There was a generator on our terrace that made noise 24/7 too, so Matt hasn't slept well since we arrived.
Anyway, we arrived and decided to get an Uber to Nelson Mandela Square for a photo with his huge statue. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer/coconut and pineapple mojito, and ended up staying for a few, plus burgers. I got the local one, which you can only get in this particular Hard Rick Cafe. We even got to choose some songs for the playlist (all my choices were Queen - I've always loved them, but watching Bohemian Rhapsody has renewed my love. I must unearth my best of Queen albums...)
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