River Club – Rhino, Impala, Baboon, Zebra, Giraffe
Back at the hotel later in the afternoon a much more leisurely boat trip up the river was offered. The obligatory sundowner drink and apero was taken watching a spectacular sunset.
My flight home via Johannesburg started at lunchtime the next day but I could not leave without taking part in the walking safari in the nearby Mosi-Oa-Tunya Nationalpark. This park is small but offers the opportunity to see white rhino which I had not seen in Botswana. It would complete my sighting of all of the ‘big five’ – lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino. These animals were originally so named because they were the most dangerous to hunt. I was collected at the hotel at 6.45am and driven to the park with two other guests who were taking part in an elephant ride safari. Walking through the park made a change from the jeep drives I had made in Botswana but the amount of game seen did not really compare. Not until after 9.00am did the guide announce that we would have to drive to another part of the park to see the rhino. This involved returning to the main road and was quite some distance but the exact location of the rhinos was known. The group was able to approach them on foot sufficiently close for photography but the view was unfortunately partly obscured by the bushes in which they sought shade. It was already quite hot. Nevertheless my ‘big five’ was complete in the nick of time. I then had to cut my visit short and go directly back to the hotel for my transfer to the airport which I almost missed. Once at the airport the usual waiting was involved. I was surprised that my yellow fever vaccination certificate really was checked for entry into South Africa – good job I did renew it. Five hours at Johannesburg airport passed surprisingly quickly choosing souvenirs – for myself chiefly a set of 6 DVDs of wildlife in Botswana including the much acclaimed ‘Eye of the Leopard’.