August 12th evening game drive - we went to the big dam waterhole just before dusk. A wide range of animals came along. There were many elephants and giraffes. It was fascinating watching their behaviour. Two of the elephants we're play fighting. The setting was spectacular. When the giraffes left their long necks were visible above the scrub for a long time.

We had two other couples on our truck; Terry and Jill from Australia and Charlote and Paul from Durban. Terry and Jill are originally from South Africa, and lived in Christchurch for quite a few years before retiring to Australia. Charlotte is a district court magistrate. They were both lovely couples, and we had a great time with them.

Another beautiful three course dinner outside, then we retired to our rooms at 9pm.

August 13th: After a good night's sleep we got up at 6 in order to have everything ready to leave after breakfast. When we arrived for coffee at the lodge, Tyrone said he wanted to leave as soon as possible as there had been a kill nearby for us to go to. I had heard an animal screaming around 6 am for about 15 mins, and this was the victim of an attack by two hyenas.
So we departed as soon as everyone was there, and soon reached the scene. There were two hyenas ripping apart a wildebeest. It was something that many seasoned game safari visitors seldom see. We were parked within metres of the site, and could hear the hyenas pulling at the dead animal and could smell the blood. We got some amazing photos, many not suitable to display without a warning.

A lone grey hyena -a beautiful looking animal - circled cautiously, but did not come in to challenge the other hyenas. The sky was a lovely clear blue, and the day was warming up. Some vultures started circling overhead.

We left the scene to allow other trucks to come up to view. There is a rule of a maximum of three trucks at a viewing at any one time, to give people a better experience and also to leave some space for the animals.

Tyrone then said he had something else to show us, so we drove quickly to the northern edge of the park and along the fence line until we came to where a pack of wild dogs was resting - probably after having had a feast - lying in groups in the sun. There were 10 in number, and Tyrone explained how good they are at running down and killing prey. They can devour 10kgs of meat in 10 mins.

We headed back towards the lodge, stopping for a coffee break along the way. On our ride we saw so many animals - zebra, rhino, wildebeest, warthog, impala, kudu, elephant, and buffalo. There were also many different bird species. For our previous two days drives it had been windy, so many of the animals and birds would have been hunkered down. Today it was so calm and still and they were all out.

After breakfast we finished packing and left the lodge by road transfer around 11.30. We had had three amazing days at Impodimo Lodge and had seen so many different animals and birds. Tyrone, our guide, had explained about so many of the animals and birds, and their various habitats and shared his love of the animals with us.

  Now in Johannesburg about to head out to meet Amy and Jeromé, Kashi and Vivita and have dinner.