Day 5. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We headed off at 6am to Nduma game reserve an hour and a half away. It started to drizzle as we arrived there, and we had planned on having a skottle breakfast before setting out for some bird and game watching.

Nduma can be described as a sub tropical mini Okavango. Its situated on the Pongola river flood plain bordering Mozambique There are 2 long pans; Nyamithi Pan, 4kms, and Banzi Pan 6kms, which host a diverse avian population and Nduma boasts more than 400 species of birds. It also has the highest density of hippo and plenty of crocodiles.

We arrived at the Picnic area and the drizzle had subsided, so we whipped out the gas and I started to make bacon and eggs. This is where the beginning of the wheels fell off the bus. The kids decided on getting as muddy as possible and running around me whist cooking. Despite Rob’s threats of a smack and then a good smack each, they continued to run wild. Afterwards, our best attempts to clean them up failed, and I wasn’t prepared for the amount of mud in our car. Then, they started fighting in the back, and so that made bird watching impossible. Next, we tried to go to a bird hide. We spotted a Palm Nut Vulture, which is unique to this area! I was very thankful that we were alone, as my hooligans, then continued the fight over the binoculars.
Jordan has suddenly become petrified of crocodiles, and so, when she spotted one she then went ape. Adam kept running up and down the hide, as only a 2 yr old could and so we took a deep breath and decided to go home, chalking this up to a very bad idea.

We both really want to go back there, but the next time it will be minus the kids.

Rob took some nice pics of a Steppe Eagle.