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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Agama
A female Tree Agama on a tree outside our room. Geo: -24.7605, 26.3246
Today we were starting leave. Before going to Johannesburg we were going away for a night. Paul would not tell me where we were staying and I really had no idea. I was sort of looking forward to the surprise. When we arrived at the gate that heads towards Johannesburg we did not exit through it, instead we turned right and drove into the reserve.
About half an hour later we arrived at Tuningi Safari Lodge. Our friends Gavin and Heidi are the general managers at this lodge. This was a nice surprise to be staying here. We quickly checked in, walked around the lodge and saw our room. Our room had a great view of the bush and was very spacious. We walked back to the lodge for afternoon tea. From the main deck of the lodge we were lucky to view a couple of elephants walk past that were on their way to the lodge's waterhole.
Luckily for us Gavin was able to take just the two of us for a game drive. We were looking forward to the game drive as we have not seen this part of the game reserve. He drove us to a
02 Sign
This sticker is on the back of their safari vehicles. small man made pan. It was very dry in the reserve as it has not rained for about six months. There was not much water in the reserve. Then Gavin drove to the nearby water pump and switched it on. We drove about 50 metres back to the pan. The water started to come out of the pipe. Within about five minutes elephants began to appear. Elephants have a very good sense of smell and would be able to smell the freshly pumped water.
There was not enough water for them and they started to get annoyed with each other, as they all wanted to be the one who drank the fresh water. They also began to trumpet at each other. I did feel sorry for these animals as they need a lot of water each day and it must be a challenge for them to find it.
Gavin parked us right next to the elephants. They were not bothered by our close presence. I think this is the closest I have ever been to elephants. Impalas and zebras also came down to drink. We had spent an hour here watching these few elephants.
There was a rhino nearby so
03 To the Waterhole
This elephant is walking past the lodge and is on its way to the waterhole. we left the elephants to find the rhino. We found the black rhino. It seemed to be a in a bad mood, as it mock charged one of the other game viewing vehicles. Due to this we didn't spend long watching the rhino and drove away.
Back at the lodge we went straight to the bar for a drink and then enjoyed a delicious three course dinner out on the deck. After dinner we were so full and decided to go to our room.
We walked into a beautiful surprise, (organised by Paul) there were red rose petals leading to the bubble bath, candles surrounded the bath, a bottle of Moet in an ice bucket and a marriage proposal. I was over the moon, accepted his proposal and we enjoyed champagne in the bubble bath.
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