Today sees me leaving Cape Town for a month and heading off to Kruger National Park to complete my Safari Guide training course.

Over the last week in Cape Town, I've taken a conscious decision not to fill every minute of the day doing touristy things. I've spent time just exploring the city, spending time at the beach, going to the pub to watch the Newcastle game, buying the remaining items that I need for the rest of the trip, in general just chilling out. I've got another week in Cape Town in December to do more of the touristy things - already booked a trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and others were imprisoned.

I'd already arranged for Mpondo (pronounced Bondo) my paraplegic taxi driver from yesterday to take me to the airport (he offered to take me for about half the normal fare) for the two hour flight to Jo'burg. On the way, there was a story on the radio news saying that police had arrested a number of people at a local graveyard last night. They had been digging up the graves in order to get bones to grind up to use in their black magic…

At Jo'burg I checked into my hotel and met a few of the other students on the course. Tomorrow we're being picked up at 7am for the 6 hour drive north to Karongwe Camp in Kruger. We'll stay there for 2 nights and then move to Makaleke Camp a further 5 hours drive north, on the border of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. After spending 4 nights there it'll be back to Karongwe for a further 21 nights.