Thanks for the comment Chris...but I am not a toruist. I am an ambassador for South Africa!

Monday night ended with a Braai (bbq) under the African skies with plenty of chops and boerwors (farmers sausage). For those who haven’t had boerwors, you don’t know how good a piece of sausage can taste. We had 2 different flavours.
Our flat has 2 glass doors at the entrance, only one of which opens. As I was braaing I needed to come back indoors. I walked straight into the closed glass door. I was travelling pretty fast, but the glass won! There was an almighty thud, I’m surprised the glass didn’t break. I now have a sore bruised head.

Tuesday morning we got up at 4am. We left here at 5am to go to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve. We got there just after 6am when the gates opened. Compared to the Kruger park (the biggest reserve in SA, and where we have been in the past) it was a lot lusher and greener.
Initially we didn’t see much but as we got deeper into Imfolozi we saw more. (They use to be 2 parks but became amalgamated into 1)
We managed to see plenty of impala (a type of bok, and you always see millions of them), Kudu, Nyala, Bushbok, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Warthogs, Bush pigs, Zebras, Vervet monkeys, Baboons and then 3 of the big 5 Buffalo, Plenty of Rhino (white) and then a….leopard!

We got pretty close to some animals, at one stage I could almost touch a zebra and an impala out of the car window! But my father-in-law scared them with his ugly mug!
It was probably the most Rhino we have seen. Initally when they were more endangered, Hluhluwe was the place that bred and saved them (I think it was more the Black Rhino that was more endangered)

Rheanna had wanted to see a leopard (well we all did really), and I didn’t think there was much chance we would see one as they generally come out at night and are very rare and hard to spot during the day. As we were leaving Imfolozi, our leopard walked across the road in front of us and into the tall grass on the left of us.
There was pandemonium amongst the wild animals sitting in the car!
He then moved into a slight clearing and got down quite low, his leg muscles rippling in the heat of the African sun, and then he moved away into the taller grass. There were about 4 impala approximately 20-25m away from us, and the leopard was hunting them. We were there over half an hour watching the leopard stalk his prey. He was very patient, moving only ever so slightly.
Rheanna was using the video and I was watching with binoculars, as he was so hard to see. He obviously blended into the grass and was trying to remain hidden. It was an awesome experience to see a leopard in action, he took a long time to prepare his meal however and didn’t quite do a good enough job, being unsuccessful on this attempt, so he had to go hungry.

After this we saw more bok, zebra and wildebeest but as we drove through Hluhluwe, we didn’t see very much at all. Disappointing that we didn’t see all the big 5, as we had certainly spotted the hardest member. My lions were a bit shy. I don’t know why, they have no reason to be scared of me…

We came home and were all exhausted, as it takes a lot of concentration to keep on the lookout for animals. We were all in bed by 7pm!

Photos
1. Road in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National park
2. Zebra across road
3. Male Impala
4. Baboon
5. Wildebeest
6. Giraffe
7. Rhino
8. Leopard (best we could do off the video!)
9. Kid pumping water (life in SA outside the big cities)