Day 20. Out of Kruger.

We started our day with another early morning visit to Lake Panic Hide. On the way we saw a whole lot of vultures circling around, so there must have been a kill somewhere bult we didn't see any lions!  The hide was very quiet although there was quite a lot of bird life including the Goliath heron again, and grey herons plus the cormorant. We also saw a woodland kingfisher sitting on a branch ready to dive.                             Then we spotted 2 rather large crocodiles out on the sandbank between the reeds basking in the early morning sun. We hoped they had had their breakfast!! No other animals came down to the water hole so we headed back for breakfast and to pack the car ready to go back to Wendy's. On the way we were told there had been sighting of lions but they were too well hidden in the bush for us to see. When we got back to the house the bush pigs were on the grass outside having their breakfast. We left the house in the staff village and set off back towards Numbi gate still keeping our eyes peeled for a big cat. We had seen so much else but longed to see a lion or a leopard. But no. We did see more giraffes and elephants and a herd of water buffalo along with lots of Impala and Kudus etc.

All in all we have had a wonderful few days on safari and seen many animals up really close. It was a great  experience.

We hardly had time to recover from all this before we were off out again to Nelspruit Methodist Church garden for a 'Chimes' concert. We had no idea what we were going to so were greatly surprised when we got there. The 'Chimes' are an instrument that sounds like a large glockenspiel but are actually hanging chimes. Too difficult to explain so see the photos! There are only 4 of these instruments in the world and this is the only one still being played. It is 126 years old and came over from Australia by boat in 1895. The family gave it to Bethlehem Methodist Church ( not the one in Israel but here in SA) on the condition that it was played. It was played by 4 women and they played a selection of Christmas carols, hymns and other music. It was a delightful sound in the open air. We then returned home for a good nights sleep!