Sunday - Imfoluzi Game Reserve

Early start this morning; the whole team were woken at 4.30am and bundled bleary-eyed but excited into two open backed safari trucks for an hours drive to the Imfoluzi Game Reserve. Carl had warned us that the drive up there would be cold, and our drivers provided us with blankets for the journey, but we didn't realise how cold a South African winter can get in the hours before dawn - it was absolutely freezing (no brass monkeys here though, apparently) but the sunrise was an incredible and welcome sight. We arrived at the wilderness reserve and set off in search of what's generally referred to as the 'big five' - lion, rhino, buffalo, elephant & leopard. It wasn't long before we spotted Impala and Zebra, and then encountered our first White Rhino, such an unbelievable sight, considering their scarcity - our driver Musa explained that white rhino are being bred on the reserve, and that there are now over a thousand - however, this number are scattered across 96,000 hectares of reserve, so for us to spot them was amazing. We then spotted a giraffe in the distance moving through the trees, and before long stumbled across three lions basking in the sun at the edge of the riverbank below us - they were a fair distance away, but were easily visible, particularly through binoculars. Within a few more minutes we were treated to a full herd of female wildebeest with two males fighting to become the dominant male over the herd. The two males locked horns as fought for some time, which was really dramatic, and resulted in one finally giving in and being resolutely chased off by the other. Alex spotted circling vultures which we followed in the hope of more lions, but as our vehicle was restricted to dirt tracks, there was obviously quite a lot of ground we couldn't cover. After several more sightings of enormous white rhino, impala and zebra, we stopped for a barbecue lunch and basked in the sun ourselves, before setting off again to find what was rumoured to be a herd of 26 elephants. Before long, it was time to leave, with no elephants spotted, and on the road to the gate, Alex screamed in my ear that she'd spotted another Giraffe cresting a hill to our left which was amazing, and we left the reserve having not 'bagged' our elephant, and within 200 meters Alex screamed again 'EEEELEPHANT!!!!!!!' The driver slammed on his brakes and turned off his engine to let us watch a beautiful African elephant while it completely demolished a tree for it's afternoon snack (Musa informed us that an average elephant has to eat at least 300kg of vegetation a day). Just amazing!

It's been a long day today, everyone is really tired, so it's going to be an early night for all - we're being treated to a chip shop supper and a camp fire, but I can't see any of us lasting much past 8 o'clock. Heading back to Durban in the morning, more tomorrow.