Last week Saturday morning, the folks and I headed off north east out to Mpumalanga for a week in Hazyview with a few day trips into Kruger. On the way there we stopped at Alzu Petroport for brunch and then carried on to Hazyview Cabanas for our week there. After arriving just after lunch time, we unpacked the car, took a stroll around the resort, had ourselves a swim and of course, a braai that night.

During our stay, we went into the Park three times - the Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On the Monday we had a bit of rain in the morning and that afternoon we stopped by the shops at Hazyview Junction and then chilled out around the resort. We had also decided against going in on the Thursday as it was going up to 37° which was a bit too hot to be sitting in the car all day.

Otherwise, on the days we did go in, we made full use of each day, getting in early and leaving just when gates were closing. However, compared to the previous trips, we didn't see nearly as much as we did on other visits, but still, always good to be in the Park, even with fairly limited sightings. We did drive up to Tshokwane on one of the days and down to Lower Sabie on another day, but even on those days we didn't see too much. It was very hot, so more than likely most of the animals were making good use of the shade, and with the recent rains, they wouldn't have had to travel too far to find water. Good for the animals, not ideal for us :) The most we did see in a short period of time was the last hour of Wednesday while racing to get out the gate in time - we came across a small family of lions with their cub, sitting right next to the road, then further on down the road was a leopard spotting which we were so close to seeing but just kept missing her in the long grass. Later on was a rather large herd of very lively, but skittish zebra - also a vivid sighting of a warthog who popped it's head out the long grass into the road but disappeared very quickly. There was a chameleon in the road which we barely saw as we drove right past while heading for the gate and then just at the end, there was a kudu and rhino in the far distance which was pointed out to us, no idea how the other car spotted it out there, but at least managed to see one rhino in the fading evening light. After an intense last hour of sightings, we continued on to the gate and then headed back to the resort.

Then yesterday, our last full day at Hazyview Cabanas, we spent it around the resort and popped into Tanks Bush Pub, just down the road, for an afternoon sundowner there. We'd driven past it everyday to and from the Park, so figured we should stop in at least once for a drink, even though it was very quiet in there.

We left the resort this morning to head back to Jo'burg - passing through quite a bit of rain so a slightly slower drive home with the busy and wet roads. Just been at home for the afternoon now and planning to stay fairly local for the rest of the Easter Weekend until my flight back to London on Monday evening.