DAY 69: One day and counting...!

And so an adventure of a lifetime comes to an end. Today was our last full day on the Serengeti Trip 2011 and the feeling in camp Ji-and-Villiers was part sadness, because we only have one day left on the road, and part joy, because tomorrow we’ll be home! It was a treat to sleep in this morning in an air-conditioned room and it took us ages to become fully mobile. We spent a great deal of the morning in what must be one of the best swimming pools in South African National Parks. Leokwe camp’s lovely little rock swimming pool attracts a lot of birds, lizards and dragonflies, all of which Ji tried to photograph at close range. He managed to get some really nice ones of the bright red insects! 

Ji stalks the dragonflies with his Canon 100-400mm lens, sponsored by Outdoorphoto

...and the result!

Not only the dragonflies were flying!

Some time was also spent organising the just-over 10000 photographs we took during the trip. It was a near impossible task to choose a selection of our favourite photos, which we plan to share with those of you who will be joining us on Friday evening. Speaking of which – some of you might still be wondering who exactly is invited!? Regrettably we don’t have the space to invite every single person who followed the blog, but maybe we’ll have the opportunity to organise a mass get together in the near future. Friday evening’s braai is for close friends and family, including our friends from church and Bible study. It would also be great to see old school and uni friends, so please join us if you can! Like I’ve said before – if you’re unsure, just come! :) Please RSVP. Directions and details are on yesterday’s post. For those of you who we don’t know, but who’d like to ask us questions about the trip, don’t hesitate to contact me on 0827988817 or villiers@absamail.co.za to organise a coffee! 

Okay, back to today. We took a looooong afternoon nap before heading to the spectacular confluence decks next to the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers. Here we recorded the final interviews for our documentary, talking about our experiences, highlights and lowlights in Africa. Looking through all the photos today helped us a lot to choose favourite campsites, sightings, experiences and roads… To end the day we were treated with one of Mapungubwe’s incredible sunsets. 

The final documentary interview

The perfect sunset for our final evening on the road...

Ji is busy making toffee bread for us now and the plan is to eat, pack and then sleep before an early departure tomorrow. Thanks again to every single person who followed the blog, left a comment, gave us advice, support and sms’s, hosted us during the trip or sponsored satphone data or a piece of equipment. You helped to make the Serengeti Trip 2011 a huge success! 

For our loyal followers, don’t worry – we’ll keep posting at least until the end of the week! The last few posts will include some highlights, but also some interesting stats about the trip, so please keep checking www.serengetitrip.com until Sunday! For those of you who haven’t voted already, please vote for your favourite: 1) Wildlife photo, 2) Road trip photo; 3) Photo of Ji and 4) Photo of Villiers. Choose these by scanning through the previous 69 posts. Thanks!

Then I'd like to ask one last favour: Ji and I would love to have some "official" feedback about the blog. If you enjoyed the website and following our adventure, please leave a short comment that includes your thoughts about www.serengetitrip.com - what you liked, what you'd like to see added next time and anything else that might be of value. The plan is to use these feedback comments when we try to get sponsors for future trips, so your effort here will be greatly appreciated! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

See you tomorrow!!!

Villiers

Highlight of the day:

Villiers: The final interviews on video camera

Ji: The swimming pool!

Lowlight of the day:

Villiers: That it's our last night on the Serengeti Trip 2011!

Ji: The heat!