Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Early on in the trip I was worried that maybe 9 nights in the Kruger Park might be too many…and that we might actually start to get bored. But that hasn’t been the case at all. Every day has been exciting and offered us something new. If I didn’t get bored, I was sure Curtis might, but he has been right there with me mentally on all of it. With the exception of the moments he was feeling sick, of course.
It was nice to sleep in this morning, until about 6:00. We had breakfast and I couldn’t help but feel sad that the wilderness trek had come to an end. Not so much because I would miss our little hut and camp area, although I will. But because of the wonderful friends Curtis and I have met during these three days. We exchanged emails and in fact are going to meet our Joberg friends on Sunday for a braai before we leave, but I can’t shake the sad thought that I might never see Obert and Andre again. I will certainly try and keep in touch with all of them, it was a magical experience and the opportunity to meet and get to know everyone is certainly the highlight of the experience.
They drove us back to Satara and Curtis and I headed out on our own again. I really had figured we’d seen everything but a short distance out of Satara Curtis blurted out an excited “Dad!” I looked up (I had actually been looking at the map while he steered) and there were eight or so cars stopped on the road. I told him to get the cameras ready, it had to be cheetah or leopard…or a kill. Something big. We pulled up to the side and two adult cheetah were resting under a tree not far from the road. We took pictures and watched them for a good 45 minutes as they casually looked around, groomed, and then rolled over for a nap. I had figured there was no chance we’d see cheetah, it just doesn’t happen too often so this was a real treat. That pretty much completes everything…we’ve seen it all. We have been very lucky to have so many great viewing opportunities.
Now we are at the Lower Sabie camp for our last night in Kruger. We’ve been listening to some baboons fight not far away, hippos are bellowing, and we looked over our pictures from day one. Curtis went to take a shower and came back into the room complaining he didn’t want to share it with a gekko…there was a huge one in there. I scared it away but it ran up into the top and was sitting on the netting above him. So he had to shower with an ominous silhouette hovering above him.
Oh boy! I checked your blog site just before I was going to head to bed … it was already 1:00 in the morning … and I had to stay up and read every word of the last 10 days. What an awesome experience the two of you have had! I was so sad when I read how sick Curty had been but was glad to hear he felt better. I can’t wait to see all of your pictures. I can’t even fathom all you’ve seen and done. You two are sure alike. You’d never catch me going all day without food or being as thirsty as you got and not do a lot of whining about it. I can’t imagine trying to sleep in such heat and sweating so much. I think it has been a great adventure for you and I am sorry it has to end. I’m sure it seems like it went very fast.
I love you both!
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