We took back roads and our time getting to Lower Sabie.  On the way, we saw a giraffe that let us get very close.  We stopped at a dam that Tom had been to several year ago where he saw much game late in the afternoon.  We were there mid-afternoon and there wasn't much going on.

Just before we got to the turn for the rest camp, we met a fellow who told us some lions had killed a water buffalo and were just the other way a few kilometers.  We decided to take a look.  There were 10 other cars there, but there were huge lions eating a disemboweled water buffalo about 20 yards off the road.  I was impressed by how big the lions were, and how they tore the meat from the carcass just like Marlin Perkins showed us on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom years ago on Sunday evenings before the Wide World of Disney, and Walter Cronkite's Twentieth Century.

After the lions, we got to Lower Sabie just before gate closing and it was almost dark.  We had a little trouble finding our accommodations - but we eventually found our tent cabins.  These are very big tents, with separate bedroom and bathroom, all zippered walls with screens and walls.  The tents are constructed on wooden floors.  They have porches with a kitchenette and a grill, chairs, electric lights.  The porch has a rail and faces the river, where the hippos snort and grunt all night long.  They are very close and loud.

We are warned to keep the tent flaps fully zippered to keep the baboons out, and to keep all our food locked up.  After dinner in the restaurant, we get some beer to go, and relax looking at the stars from Tom's balcony.  The stars here are brilliant, since there is no light pollution like in America to drown them out.  Of course, the constellations are all different here in the Southern Hemisphere and we don't know them.  I think I recognize the Southern Cross but I'm just guessing.

Beer gone, I return to my tent and chase a mouse out before zippering up for the night.  It's pretty chilly here tonight also.  More sniffles, but I'm starting to think it's an allergy, not a cold.  I don't want a cold for Comrades, and I did have a similar reaction to mouse droppings and etc. in the Adirondak Loj when we stayed there to get our guides license.  Definitely an allergy.  Right.

In the morning we plan to leave as early as possible - the gates open at 6.  We have a big day planned, and as we pack the car I snap some photos in the mist.  Finally, as we're backing out, I spot a baboon on the peak of the roof of my tent.

The giraffe has amazing vertical extension, and makes a very straight line from front toes to tip of nose.

Form the get out point at Mlondozi Dam...

35mm:

At Lower Sabie Rest Camp...

In the morning as the sun begins to rise and burn off the mist above the river...

Tom's tent, showing the porch, the doorway, refrigerator, cupboard, etc.  Notice the rain fly over the tent, and the net layer above the rain fly.