Today has been a little about frustration and stress. We caused the stress for ourselves and Elvis was the cause of our frustration.

When we were sitting in the comfort of our lounge room in the ghetto looking at the map of Kruger and planning out where we were going to stay we didn't factor in that Shingwedzi rest camp where we were booked to spend our last night here is 198k's away from Satara and when you factor in the 40 to 50 k speed limit and the amount of time you stop to look at stuff it's about an 8 hour drive. Then to leave the park tomorrow we would then need to do the same trip again to get out and then on our way along the panoramic route - oops. So we speak to the people who run the park, no problem, as long as you have booked and paid and there is availability you can stay at any of the rest camps. Excellent. That is the end of the stress that we caused, in comes Elvis.

Elvis works at the reception desk at the Satara camp and we head up to him first thing in the morning to change our booking and head back to Skukuza. Their computer systems are down so apparently Elvis can't help. He gives us a number to phone and tells us to sort it out with their central reservations. He would love to phone them for us but they don't start until 8am and its only 7:30. I won't bore you with all the details except to say that by 9am we had jumped into the car with no more phone credit on our prepaid SA mobile and hightailed it back to Skukuza as fast as the speed limit would allow with no idea if we had a room for the night. Disaster averted, we have a hut - phew! Now where are those customer service feedback forms.

Now we can head back out and drive at a more respectable 30k's and spot some game.

There was another lion spotting today but he was hanging out on the crest of a hill and too far away for pictures. There were more rhino, elephants, giraffe and of course impala. We drove out to the Pretoriuskop rest camp where the landscape was so different to that around the camps we had been to with rocky hills and very few animals around. This is the oldest camp in Kruger and still has the first tourist hut there that was built in 1930 so it was worth the drive.

After seven hours of driving we headed back to Sukuza. I was entertained for the longest time by the naughty monkeys that roam the park. Most of the huts have little kitchenettes on the patios and you have to turn your fridge so the monkeys can't open the door and raid them. Unfortunately this isn't something that they warn you about so you learn from seeing them do it or by experience. They found a fridge with yoghurts, sour cream and fruit so they had hit the jackpot. It was so funny watching them run around with their loot and fight over the food. I had to follow them for a while to snap some pics. The fridge owners must have thought a fellow camper had stolen their food. We then went and sat on the boardwalk along the boarder of the camp that over looks the Sabie river and watched the hippos playing while the sun set. I don't know if life gets any better.

While we were there we started chatting with some other people staying at the park and they had seen a pride of lions sunning themselves with their little cubs on the road down to Lower Sabie rest camp. They had the most amazing photos. We were more than a little jealous.

We had booked a night safari drive earlier in the day and the nights have been so cold so we decided to put on as many layers as possible. 2 pairs of socks, pj bottoms with the ankles sticky taped tight and cargos over the top, 2 singlets, a t-shirt, a long sleeved top, 2 hoodies, a spray jacket, a beanie and a scarf. That should do it. They also gave us a blanket to put around us and at the end of the drive we were still cold. It wasn't a very successful trip in terms of animal spotting though and we were left wanting more.

We still need to get a photo of the very camera shy lions and we are due to leave tomorrow, check out is at 10am and the park gates open at 6am. That gives us 4 solid hours of lion hunting. Ok the alarm has been set. 6am start it is.