Part 1 - The Wedding (Safari)

So after the wedding it was time for the honeymoon. Being in Africa, this meant it was Safari time. Being us, this meant dragging seven of our friends along with us.

We drove from Johannesburg to a fantastic spot near Sabi Sands called Djuma and stayed in the Galago camp. We arrived at night and were stunned at how The Pig had excelled herself in organising this place for us.

It's a fantastic place for a group of friends to go to and experience the bush in all it's beauty. Clean, functional rooms. A big open space for a camp fire and to cook. An outside, covered dining area. All curved around a view of a grassy plain. We sat around and aclimatised ourselves to the sounds of the bush and the millions of insects. Then it was an early night so that we could be up for the morning bush drive.

What a drive. Our rangers got a call that some leopards had been spotted. Leopards are very difficult to see when you're holidaying in the bush. We drove to where they'd been seen and caught a glimpse of them through the shrubbery. It was incredible, but it was only the start. We drove on a bit further and saw another leopard in the trees, with a kill. It dragged it down and the rest of the family gathered around it. Our driver took us to within a couple of meters and we watched as mother, father and two juveniles took turns to crunch through the body. No words, or even photographs can get across how unbelievable it was.

The rest of the drive just continued in the same vein. We saw a cheetah, we saw a family of lions, we saw an elephant, we saw buffalo. We even saw a hippo as we stopped for a cigarette break.

It took us until the evening to see a Rhino, otherwise that would have been the entire big six in one morning.

The rest of our time at the camp was just as good. Everything we asked our rangers to track down they did. We saw herds of elephants, with babies playing in a waterhole. We saw more leopards (one - a cub on it's own, playing at stalking gecko's, probably the cutest thing I have seen in my life). We saw a pair of cheetahs, slinking their way through their territory. More lions. Our rangers could even spot cameleons in the trees at night.

There were so many highlights, that I keep thinking of more as I type. The elephant that almost came into the camp to drink from the pool. The trip to our ranger's village. The dung beetles.

Just an awesome experience.

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Oh, and Zinnia - those comments were directed solely at the people who've said those things to us in person. Thanks for the links and please don't let my ranting put you off from commenting again.