Another 5 a.m. wake up call and coffee & rusks at 6. Rusks are similar to a rectangular hard biscuit and are well suited to dipping in your coffee to soften them up. We had decided the night before that we would have a full breakfast at 8:30 or so on our way south to our stop for tonight at the Berg-En-Dal Camp.

    
    
click picture to enlarge

Again, we were spotting game almost from the time we cleared Skukuza.

      
      
click picture to enlarge

For breakfast we pulled into the Afsaal Rest Stop and had a good breakfast of eggs, back bacon, fries and toast. After breakfast we hit the road again, continuously working our way south. Our goal was to spot all five of the big five before we left the park. The big five in Africa consist of African Elephant, African Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceros and Cape Buffalo. As we had seen elephant, lion and cape buffalo the day before, our quest today was to find rhino and leopard.

    
      
click picture to enlarge

And we did find Leopard and White Rhinoceros, as well as Baboon, Blue Wildebeest, Burchell's Zebra, Elephant, Giraffe, Impala, Klipspringer, Kudu, Leopard Tortoise, Slender Mongoose, Terrapin Turtle, Tree Squirrel, Vervet Monkey and Warthog. Birds we were able to identify were the Coucul, Ground Hornbill, Helmeted Guineafowl, Lilac Crested Roller, Fish Eagle, Marabou Stork and the three different Hornbills.

      
      
      
      
click picture to enlarge

As we were all quite exhausted after another early morning and intense drive, we opted to check in at Berg-En-Dal Camp at 2:00 pm and take it easy the rest of the day. It was fortunate we did because shortly after we arrived the skies opened up to a hard rain accompanied by a lightning show and thunder.

Our air conditioned bungalow with its own kitchenette was very comfortable. Built of brick with a traditional thatched roof there was a spacious sleeping area and fully equipped bathroom. Lee and I caught up on our laundry, I brought my notes up to date and we generally just kicked back for the rest of the day.

    
    
click picture to enlarge

Supper was prepared by Andre again. Tonight it was an appetizer of grilled farmers sausage, garden salad with avocado, baked potato, bbq steak, maize and sauce. Dessert was a melktert (Afrikaans) or a "milk tart" to the rest of us. It's a South African treat with a sweet pastry crust containing a creamy filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs.

      
click picture to enlarge