Don't want to come home!

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Well this will be my last blog from here 😞 I've had the time of my life and can't believe I've done so much within this month!

My last few days have been fantastic (just like the rest of the trip!). We did what was meant to be a 2 day tour to Kruger National Park and the Panorama Route but it actually ended up as a 3 day trip due to the car not starting on the second day so we were forced to stay another night in the lodge in Nelspruit and just ended up having a big party night which was great fun!

Kruger Park is amazing, I expected it to be slightly too touristy with too many people at every animal sighting but it wasn't at all. We saw so many animals including zebra, kudu, warthog, baboons, waterbuck, nyala, bushbuck, bush baby, hippos, crocodiles, mongoose and so many birds (quite a lot were rare ones like the grounded hornbill) as well as lots and lots of elephants - there were so many that day including mums with babies and they all seemed to be right at the side of the road so got some excellent pictures! I had to create my own drama though (just in case the day wasn't exciting enough!) by choking on a kudu steak burger at lunch time! I literally couldn't breathe so had to stand up at the table and tell everyone and just as one of the lads was contemplating trying the heimlich maneuver, I managed to put my fingers in my mouth and extract the offending piece of meat! Of course once I was OK this ended in about an hours worth of giggling fits by everyone and lots of jokes about the dangerous dead kudus!

At the end of the day we travelled about an hour to the lodge where we were staying in Nelspruit and had a braai and party night. The next day we got up to find that the combi wouldn't start, this was fine by us as it gave us time to relax in the sun and take in the views. After a couple of hours it became apparant that the car needed to be taken away to be fixed so we asked the site to open the bar for us so ended up having a few drinks and playing pool. By the time the combi was fixed it was too late to set off and do the drive along the panorama route so we ventured out to get supplies and had another party and braai at the lodge bar with Afrikaans rock music blaring out!

Then Saturday we actually managed to get going and do the Panorama Route which is a beautiful scenic route through the Drakensburg Mountains with lots of stopping points to see the views. One of these stops is at a gorge where there is a big swing which is like an upright bungi jump with a 75m drop and then you're left swinging in the gorge. A few of the guys did it as tandem, I thought I might try it before I got there but when you see the people being dropped of the edge and the look of fear on their faces I couldn't do it! I did the high wire though which was enough excitement for me - you swing across a high wire which is at the top of the gorge with a harness on and then slowly get pulled back again, it's very high but gives you a good view of the scenery.

So that's about it really for my stay here, I think we're going out to one of the hides later today to see the sun setting at my request for my last evening and you never know we may see a herd of buffalo or elephant walk past - anything is possible here!!

So I guess I'll see many of you in the next few weeks but til then I can only say that I've had the best experience of my life and I've got to come back to this amazing country soon with it's lovely people, nature and countryside.

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