The Painted Dogs wished us farewell





It would be our final morning in Ngala and our last game drive in South Africa.  Andrew, Adam and the Americans loaded into the vehicle and we set out to find lions that we'd heard in the area overnight.  We were unable to find the lions, so Andrew decided to take us back to the watering hole where our adventure started.  It did not disappoint.

 

 

First we saw a bull elephant.  He was curious about the vehicle and came closer to check us out. 

 



 He made a few intimidating poses (flaring out his ears) and then he lost interest and went back to drinking.

 

In the distance, we saw a solitary hyena.  Suddenly, he took off running.

 

 

We could hear excitement in both Andrew and Adams voices and then suddenly a large pack of African Wild Dogs (also called Painted Dogs) exploded onto the scene.

 

There were almost 30 of them and Andrew estimated that at least sixteen were pups.

The dogs chased each other in an out of the water for several minutes before settling down to nap and rest in the sun.

 

It was the most animated that we'd seen Andrew the entire time we'd been at Ngala.  He explained that African Wild Dogs are very rare and that most South Africans have never seen them in person.  He said that other vehicles all across the reserve would be hurrying to our location for a chance to see the pack.  Obviously, we were very lucky...again.

 



Once we left the watering hole, we drove towards the lodge.  Andrew offered a bush walk to those interested.  Devon declined due to the heat of the day, but Rob went along and learned a great deal about tracks, bones and all different kinds of animal droppings.

Back at the lodge, we packed up our stuff and had a quick breakfast before departing.  Once again, the staff was kind enough to see us off.  We said farewell to Andrew, Adam, David and Dennis and set out for Hoedspruit airport which was just outside of the western entrance to Kruger National park.  The trip took approximately 90 minutes and then we had about two hours to wait in the very small airport. 

The flight to Johannesburg was non-eventful and our driver was waiting for us right outside of where we collected our luggage.  His name was Samir and he took us on the 45 minute ride to The Residence - Johannesburg.  Samir was originally from Cape Town and he was very passionate about the place.  He told us that he was glad that we were only in Jo'Burg for one night because there was nothing to do there and he was ecstatic that we were going to visit Cape Town later in our trip.

The Residence was located in the very wealthy Houghton area of Jo'Burg and was once a private residence (imagine that!) and the Chinese Consulate.  Our suite was beautiful and the service was impeccable.  While we missed the game drives, it was nice to reacquaint ourselves with civilization, albeit for one night.

 

We had dinner in the Dining Room, which was excellent, and turned in early.  We'd be heading back to the airport first thing in the morning for our flight to Botswana