29 April – 1 May Started out after a good breakfast to Sabi Sands. The Newington Gate is about 60km away mostly on tarred roads, but the last 12km on dirt. We got to the gate and got our permit then headed off for Ulusaba (about 18km away) doing a slow game drive speed to see if we could spot anything along the way. Got to the Ulusaba airstrip around 12.30 and were greeted by champagne – very nice. Was lovely to see Trevor again and also Sam (he was our tracker last year as well).

Drove to camp and we were in River Room 4 which entailed crossing 4 swing bridges to get to it – very interesting walk home after a few drinks with dinner. Fortunately we are on our own in the game vehicle as Trevor was meant to be going on holidays on Friday, but has decided to stay until we leave now. Out for our afternoon game drive and I was not feeling so great, I think something disagreed with me at lunch! When we stopped for sundowners Trevor took a couple of photos of the two of us when I had ‘my moment’! Boy was I sick, very embarrassing, but my body wanted to purge out the bad stuff. Once we got back to camp I had a shower and crept into my lovely big bed – Martin had to go to dinner on his own that night.

The game drives in Ulusaba were fantastic as usual; it was great that there were a lot of cubs around this year. We were fortunate to see two different leopards that had two cubs each and got some great family photos of them all. Also there were three different sets of lion cubs, we managed to see two different lots and get photos – very cute! Unfortunately another couple arrived who insisted on having Trevor as their guide so we had them join us on Friday. We only managed to get in one game walk which was great, it’s always nice to be able to get out and stretch a bit and have a good walk instead of sitting in the vehicle all the time. Trevor as usual was teaching us how to use our cameras properly and especially Martins new one with the huge lens on it! We both got fabulous photos and I will attach a few for you all.

The food had improved 100% this year and we ended up having the late breakfast after game driving and then dinner only. On our last night there was a wine tasting evening, where a winemaker from Stellenbosch was there, quite a good evening and all the guests from Rock Lodge came down for it as well, so a full house that night. Trevor’s wife Taz managed to join us for dinner one night and also join us on a game drive so was lovely to catch up with her as well.

2 May Well we had a magic stay once again at Ulusaba and Trevor, Taz and Sam saw us off at the airport after lunch; the three of them will be going on holidays now for two weeks. We drove back out through the game reserve and made our way back to Merry Pebbles in Sabie. The trailer has worked perfectly and it seems as they have had no rain since we left which is great. We had a light dinner as we decided to have lunch at Ulusaba before we left.

3 May We got up at a sensible hour this morning, 7am instead of 5.30am which was nice and had breakfast before sitting down to work out the next week or two. Martin has decided that he would like to go and stay at one of the Singita Lodges that borders Kruger Sweni, so will phone James to find out how we go about this. James works for Singita and I am sure he will be pleased that we want to go and stay. Martin has taken the car to the Toyota garage in Sabie as an engine management light keeps coming on now and then and we lose power so will try and sort that out. Well it seems that the problem is the air filter, it appears to be full of fine dust which cannot be blown out and we are now waiting to see if we can get another filter. We have also booked two nights in the Kruger at Satara Rest camp and also 3 or 4 nights at Singita – Sweni Lodge. Just trying to get hold of Kerry now to see when he will be back in Maputo after Indaba and we will arrange our last few nights around that after we cross into Mozambique.

Love hugs and kisses to all and hope you are all well. xx