South African Safari : Part 2

Wednesday 23rd March was Mylene's 50th. We were all on the move again. After lunch in Alldays, we check in at Mapungupwe and set up camp. Carol and Jane arrived as a surprise for Mylene and we celebrated with a food and wine pairing in the bush. There had also been a lot of rain here and so the bird and game watching were not as amazing as we had hoped. Mapungupwe is a big 5 game reserve at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers;and from the picnic site you can see Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. Mapungupwe is also a World Heritage Site where the Iron Age Kingdom of Mapungupwe has been discovered. Next stop was Pafuri River Lodge just outside the Pafuri Gate of the Kruger National Park; right up in the northern most corner of the park. A combination of the recent flooding and subsequent heat wave affected the game viewing and bird watching here too. Luckily the campsite had a shady pool because tempretures peaked at about 46 degrees celcius. Mylenes family joined us here for the Easter weekend and our campfire parties continued. Coemy enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt in the bush and instead of chocolate, the rest of us played the present sharing game usually reserved for our Christmas in June parties at the farm! Our next stop was Punda Maria Camp in the Kruger for 3 nights; followed by the last 2 nights at Letaba Camp. Game viewing was much better here than further north and we added lion, leopard and hyena to our list of sightings.