The morning came around quickly after a wonderful dinner. Another perfect morning with no scheduled Game drive or Safari, but the need to pack and be prepared to leave following morning tea.

We said good byes to our two American couples having enjoyed their company in our Jeep and sharing wonderful animal and Game experiences here in Botswana. We have particularly enjoyed this wonderful Sanctuary resort and Camp here on Chief's Island.

The guide picks us up from the lounge area and we enjoy a quick coffee, say our farewells to the Managers and staff before departing in our Jeep for the drive through the savannah and Game Park to the airstrip.

As we drive we observe the animals for the last time, with elephants roaming through the forest areas, several Giraffes, many impala and the mandatory Warthogs as well as the beautiful Zebras.

We arrive at the airstrip and there are several groups awaiting transfer from This and one other lodge in 2 small aircraft. We fly to Maun, quite a large township and the airport there is bustling with the comings and goings of many small aircraft servicing the many small dirt strips at the range of camps. We are checked in for our flight of almost 2 hours on the small jet operated between Man and Johannesburg by South African Airlines.

At Johannesburg Airport we are enthusiastically greeted by Elly and Berndt Mestrum, who are joining us for 4 nights at Kruger Lodge Resort just outside Kruger National Park. They drive us to their new home in XXX! Where we have a drink, sit and talk before an enjoyable dinner. We have to repack our soft sided bags, with clothes from our hard sided cases which they have stored for us over the last 7 days during our Botswana experience. Berndt is particularly interested in the overall holiday because he recommended a number of activities. He is delighted that we have had an excellent and enjoyable time. We eat at a local Italian restaurant and have a most enjoyable evening. Elly drives home. A long but very enjoyable day.

We sleep soundly but hear them packing the car at 6.30am in anticipation of us departing at7.30 with a long drive up the N2 covering almost 5 hours thirty minutes before we arrive in the Kruger Lodge Resort in Mpumalanga. The drive takes us through interesting scenery before we again climb to somewhere near 5,500 feet above sea level ,and also before we begin the descent to the Kruger National park area. We are between the Kruger Gate and one other gate.

Dinner is a superb meal prepared by Elly and Jeanette. We eat inside because the evenings are getting a little colder. We do talk incessantly as to what has occurred in our lives over these last several years. They explain the business changes, the decision to purchase and build their new comfortable home in the new city of Watersxxxxx. We update them as to our family, our changes re our home and our continuing desire to travel.

Finally, we agree a schedule for tomorrow visit to several important environmental and tourist areas.

We do get to sleep in a little with departure at approximately 9.15am and travel to the area of stunning geographic and geological formations known as "Bourke's Luck Potholes" where we observe a flooded river flowing through spectacular water falls and over unusual geological structures before flowing back into the river. We walk down a pathway of rock steps to several raised platforms overlooking the rapidly flowing stream.

It is a stunning walk through quite amazing and stunning rocks and geological formations. We then walk across to the bridge across the river and witness the rapids as they pulse across the rock formations. It is also unique.

Following this we drive to God's Window another platform overlooking stunning granite cliff faces which then reflect back to the valley below. It is another stunning vista, despite the mist and haze which is slowly covering the valley.

We also visited the Blyde River Canyon nature Park and see some beautiful plant life. Here we also take in stunning scenery, beautiful plants and stunning topographical and geological structures.

Earlier in the day we had visited the Lowveld National Botanic Gardens, where we walked through beautiful gardens with unique South African plant life. We then walk through several pathways and find a restaurant for lunch, where we enjoy lunch a drink and the scenery of this unique botanical gardens. We then drive on to another totally unique environmental area with Lake Panic Viewing area and viewing platform, where we sat in serious still environments watching quite unique bird life.

Another interesting area was the unique African Rainforest, where we observed totally different types of vegetation, which was totally outside anything we had previously witnessed in Africa. This was a unique area created in the Lowveld National Botanic Gardens and clearly reinforced the amazing diversity of animal, plants and bird life that we gave again observed over this 5 week holiday period.

On our 2 visits to travel with Elly and Berndt they have shown us an extravaganza of totally different geographic and typography, given that the animals and bird life are just an accepted unbelievable framework, with our expectations very high in relation to the lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, hippos and rhinos as well as water buffalo, zebras, impala and Giraffes, crocodile etc.

The geography is simply stunning.

We also are excited as to a superb dinner with cooking on the brai (BBQ) with hot vegetables and salads together with outstanding wines. This has been a stunning day of contrasting experiences, with the rock formations, the waterfalls and river flows, the simply stunning plant and bird life, the gardens, the lakes and waterfalls.