On Friday at around midday we left home with caravan in tow and headed out towards the Pilanesberg to the Manyane camp. It took us a bit over 3 hours to get, a bit slower than usual due to the caravan behind us. At the entrance we were informally greeted by a few warthogs and plenty of mongooses who were grazing on the grass by the entrance. I say we were greeted, in all honesty I don't think they even noticed us the way they were getting stuck into that grass. Once signed in, we choose our site and set up caravan and tent for the next few days and nights. We just stayed around the site that evening, but it was only once the cold beers had been cracked open, the striking orange sun disappeared behind the trees and the fire had been lit did I really feel like I was out in the bush. This is what holidays are all about!

Saturday morning started nice and early with a game drive as soon as the gates opened. The sunrise was beautiful, but then again it mostly always is out there :) We drove around for a few hours and saw the usual game here and there plus an awesome sighting of a few rhinos fairly close to the road and car. Definitely the highlight of the morning game drive.

Beck at camp it was the classic Skottel fry up for breakfast, then just a chilled out afternoon and walking around the park. That evening we were off for another game drive and among the usual animals we came across a massive herd of elephants a bit off the road. They were quite active but didn't take too much notice of all of us cars sitting watching them. With the gates about to close we left the elephants and made our way back to camp for the evening braai under the stars.

Sunday morning started off with another early morning game drive and yet another amazing sunrise. Never get tired of them to be honest. We came across a massive herd of elephants again, a lot closer to the car this time, and most likely the same ones from the previous night. After the elephants we made our way to a look out hide to see what we could find from there. There seemed to be plenty of action going on with photographers and some birds in the tree nearby. They turned out to be White-fronted Bee-eaters who are apparently rather rarely spotted and hardly ever so close to people or the hide, so these guys were going crazy with the ultra telescopic lenses and cameras!

After the hide, it was back to camp and down to the restaurant for lunch which was nice and then another easy going walk around the park. The afternoon drive had a lot fewer sightings, just the usual suspects gathered around here and there. We also decided to stay an extra day in the park, thought the three nights were way too few to properly enjoy the bush. So called the family and let them know we'd be back on Tuesday instead of Monday. So rather nice to have the extra day and couple of game drives still ahead. Then as usual, a braai that night under the stars... I do think that anything other a braai would just seem wrong, and never taste as good :)

We started off yesterday with another morning drive, and tried a new dust road along the edge of the camp in the hope we'd see something of interest, and the most we saw for those few hours driving were two red breasted birds. Nothing else. Not even some buck. A bit disappointing, but I guess it's not a zoo, it's just a bit of bad luck. Towards the end of the drive we decided to stop of a hide and see what was there. Inside the water was a hippo who was full of energy and fun - throwing the water around and playing games by himself, even rolling over onto his back with his feet out the water. Never seen that before, but he certainly had all of us enjoying it. Quite the entertainer! On the drive back to the park we spotted some rhino, so at least the morning drive turned out to be fairly successful in the end.

Back in the park, we again just chilled out around the camp, and I spent some time playing around with the camera and my remote shutter, and snapped a few decent pictures of the hornbills who were hanging around in search of food. The afternoon we decided to return to the same hide as yesterday morning in the hope that the hippo might still be there and maybe a few friends of his would come down and join. We headed out the park, the quickest option to get there, and straight to the hide. He was still there, fairly active and entertaining as in the morning. It was just so peaceful and quiet there, and spent a good part of the late afternoon just sitting looking out, listening to the wildlife, soaking up the sunset and enjoying a couple of sundowners :) The tough life...

After sunset and before park closing, it was back to the camp to sit down to another braai under the stars. This morning we decided against a game drive, just thought it may be a bit too rushed for time, so instead we had the awful job of packing up and shutting down camp to head back home. But nonetheless a fantastic few days away in the bush and loved every minute of it!