The trip home 15 July 2014

I could not sleep, so got up early and finished most my packing, had a bath then went taking some photos before breakfast, it was unusual to have nothing to do, apart from sit around and chat, breakfast was, as usual, a pleasant experience, our ranger Evan I’d offered to let us have copies of his photos, whilst waiting for him to do mine. We chatted about photography, I had not realised that it was Evan the Rangers last day, but he was moving on to a new job after this day, some of these photos were quite stunning, after we had something to eat, then off we went after saying our goodbyes for the trip to Johannesburg, we had a short drive until we reached the transport to take us there. Interestingly, the ride in the vehicle was worse than the four-wheel drives, we were travelling around in during the Safari, it seemed a long trip with only a short break for the toilet and a snack, it took nearly 4 hours, part of which I slept through.

When we arrived at the airport it seem much more disorganised than Heathrow, with poor signage, eventually I found my way to the desk, but this time it seemed to take a long time in the queue, on the seem to be some problem with the conveyor. For reasons I do not understand I was told I could no longer have the seat I wanted, so was offered another one, on that particular row, it seemed that none of the three seats had been booked, so I could choose which was most convenient for me. I mentioned that I could cope without assistance at this airport but would need help at Heathrow, so this was logged, I then went through security and passport control, then up to the lounge to relax. There were problems with my card, but I was surprised at the lack of efficiency at this particular desk, I mentioned wanting a shower so was given three packets wrapped in polythene and pointed in the general direction, quite different to that at Heathrow. I had my shower, then relaxed in the lounge with a drink and snack, then went to board the plane.
There seemed to be a long disorganized queue waiting to board, eventually it was my turn, and I was directed to my seat, I now understood why the people did not want to see it in the seats, this was because they were immediately next to the toilets, I decided I would sit in the middle seat, which seemed to be the most spacious, when a flight attendant came along, he said he could move me to a better seat, which also would have more legroom, so I took advantage of this. Yet again I struggled with the sound system and then gave it up as a bad job and had a read of the paper. The evening meal was pleasant and afterwards I settled down to go to sleep, I slept for a while, but then found for the rest the flight I had brief periods of sleep and wakefulness.

Finally we arrived at Heathrow the rest of the passengers disembarked apart from those of those who needed assistance. They seem to have a crazy system to get us to the exit, it consisted of a wheelchair for part of the trip, then an electric vehicle to take me on the next leg of the trip, finally and another wheelchair through to the baggage hall, unfortunately at passport control, there was some sort of problem, at the two passport desks, there seemed to be some sort of difficulty. So we waited for nearly quarter of an hour before finally passing through, my case was ready for collection. So I set off to find the vehicle to take me home, it was a different driver and vehicle to on the way out, not quite so luxurious this time, but the driver was pleasant enough, it took about four hours to get back home, so in total. I’ve been travelling for over 20 hours, first task was empty the case and do some washing, then check my mail, yes the holiday was finally over.

Our Last Day 15 July 2014

Another early start, just for a change, we received no wake-up call, it seemed warmer this morning, I went for a walk round the grounds and took a few more photos whilst it was peaceful and quiet. Eventually other people arrived, and we went in for a drink, and cake before setting off, a few decided not to come on this last trip out. It was much pleasanter on the drive because it was so much warmer, as usual, there was a range of animals, in some ways it had reached a point where it was normal to see, wildebeest, zebra and certain other animals on a regular basis, we had never seen a more baboon since the first day when we arrived, nor did we see leopard.

Return for breakfast, then afterwards because the weather was much improved, we sat outside in the sun chatting, I explained to one of the others about Wi-Fi and how to connect to the Internet without using their own allowance, it was a relaxing morning. We had lunch at 1 o’clock, then later went for another Bush walk, we ended up high overlooking the valley. The scenery was absolutely stunning, the only amusing point, was that I and another person got into discussion about our hearing difficulties, not realizing everybody else could hear us, but waiting to move onto the next point of interest. On that subject, I suddenly realized that there is little hope for people who have hearing difficulties on the Safari’s maybe it’s worth a letter to saga about this.

Then it was back to the lodge for high tea, again it was a chance to chat to the other people on the holiday and to wind down, for our evening meal, we were served in style at the Lakeside Boma, after the first course, we were entertained by the staff by singing and dancing in a native style, we then finished the meal and spent the rest of the evening at the bar chatting, that night the weather seemed much milder, on my return to the room. I started all of my packing to make it easier for the following day.

Warm at last 14 july 2014

I woke up early and it seemed not so cold, checked outside and already it was warm at 8am to put a lighter shirt and shorts for the first time before venturing out for a wander before breakfast, then spent a little time catching up with e mails, how did I manage before free Wi Fi.

Then chatted to some of the other guests for a while. One of the things we had been warned about was to keep doors closed to avoid the monkeys getting into the rooms, well the nice couple next door to me had forgotten to lock their back door so a monkey had got into their room and stolen a packet containing insect repellent, before they got rid of it, just as well it was not needed.  We had breakfast then I went back to my room and there was a monkey outside the window, so got my camera and found a group of them around the rear of the properties, they seemed to be oblivious to mine and others presence as we took photos, later it appeared they had no problem opening doors if not locked, as another couple had fallen victim to their theft that morning.

It as a free morning so we sat chatting outside which made a refreshing change, after lunch off out to the wildlife centre,  by now on the holiday we seemed to of got into the habit of sticking with drivers, in my case it was Given and usually we tended to sit in certain seats, today our vehicle was full, obviously some had wanted a change so I ended up with Even as driver so i sat in the back row which unfortunately did not help my spine but also restricted what i could see due to my height. first we saw the rare white lions, they had been rescued when young and brought up in the reserve, they would be encouraged to mate but, it would be unsafe for them to be released back into the wild,  but that hopefully any young would be, they were beautiful beasts,  such a shame that people had hunted them, that now there are so few left alive and needed protection to survive.

We then visited the replica Pedi village and had an informative talk about the people explaing their background the strict rules how the village was run and oddly that the women of the village had been masters of poisin making, to use as punishment, we were offered a range of traditionsl dishes to drink and eat, I only tried a couple one was catapiller which was quite nutty. We then went to see the buffalo but they also now are very rare, but also we were warned that they were dangerous, well it may of bern the wrong day but they seemed quite laid back and oblivious to us taking their photos, we finished off by having high tea and looking at a range of birds including peacocks and parrots.

Then on with the drive,  a sighting of rhino was made so off we sped, it was a family of 4, it seemed that it was the day that the male was going to procreate with the female well I thought this is going to be exciting, but sadly not it seemed to go on and on with little real activity, he mounted the female a couple of times whilst we watched,  maybe it was us watching and recording with our cameras was what put him off.

Then a further drive it was now getting dark, eventually we reached Ranenside Lodge and our latest meal, then after we went into the Astro boma for a talk from Giiven on how to find south and some of the star formations,  before returning to our lodge, for a chat and a drink then off to bed, as we had a long day the next day, I forgot to say earlier the weather was much warmer so the room was not as cold as it had been previous nights.