Leaving the bush, on to Durban!

We took advantage of the fact that we were not leaving until 10:00am to take one last Range Rover drive:  The rangers had tracked a female leopard and her 2 cubs, and we were hoping to see them.  We did follow her tracks for over 1 hour – the process is very interesting, and seeing the rangers figure out, from rather faint paw prints on the sand, which direction she was going and when she went by was fascinating.  Unfortunately, she outsmarted all of them, and managed to remain hidden.  So we had to “made do” with a few lovely zebras, kudzus and birds.

and, as always, lots of impalas:  in fact they are so common that we became very blasé about them…  “oh, it’s just another impalas, what a bore….”- but they are cute.  They are known as “the McDonalds of the bush”, because from behind, their markings look like a big “M” (i.e “a golden arch”) and because “every one eats there (i.e:  there are the most common prey for everything that eats meat: leopards, lions, hyenas, cheetahs, etc…)…

Back at the camp, we said goodbye to the playful monkeys, and the noisy baboons.

One last breakfast in the outside dining room overlooking the bush, and off we were.

We took 2 hours to make it to Hoelspruit airport – mostly on dirt roads through a series of villages made of small houses most with outside plumbing.  But each little village seems to have a nice school, with lots of children (all in uniforms) going to and from them.

We arrived in Durban after dark, so did not see any of it.  We are staying in Umhanga (pronounced Umshcanga), a ritzy suburb of Durban, about 15 minutes north of Durban, on the Indian Ocean.  Our bed and breakfast is exquisite, in a gentile andvery “old English” kind of way:  they serve port and sherry every day at 5:00pm, and a nice reading room overlooking the ocean, It’s all very beautiful and relaxing.

More about Durban and Umhlanga in the next entry.