Heading to Idube Game Reserve - Day 1

Well after a good nights sleep we had a lovely breakfast, a swim in the pool which was absolutely freezing, and were collected for our one hour flight to Hoedspruit. What an amazingly different terminal as you'll see from the pics. We were collected by our great driver Clifford, who took us on a short cut through some local villages and he was a wealth of knowledge.  If he'd have stayed on the main highway the trip would have taken about 4 and a half hours, but going the "back way" we made it in 2 and a half - great driving! Fortunately for us, because we'd made such good time, we were able to quickly check in and get on our first safari at 4pm!
Words really cannot explain what we've already seen.  So quickly into the safari, we came across elephants, a giraffe, lions, hippos and a leopard! Absolutely amazing and so close to us! The area is in drought at the moment, and it's amazing that the herbivores can survive. Of course the carnivores can as they just eat each other! We stayed out until around 6.30 or so then stopped and watched the sun go down with our "sundowner drinks". Unbelievable! Got back to the lodge about 7pm and a huge bbq dinner was served, gathering us to the table by the beating drums at 8pm, after drinks around the bar sharing stories.  Idube Lodge only holds 20 guests and takes out 3 jeeps, but not all guests go out all the time, due to flights in and out etc, so we have 6 people in our jeep.
The barbecued meats were delicious and in abundance.  We all sat around a semi-circular table, met

Boarding our flight to Hoedspruit

Crossing the Tarmac in 36deg heat at Hoedspruit 

to get to the terminal

The Hoedspruit terminal!

Inside the airport terminal

Locals jumping in for a lift

A village we rove through to go to our lodge

Another village. Still no running water but they have electricity.

Waiting for the cattle to cross before heading off!

Our first sighting of an elephant - wow!

The jeeps from the lodge. Up close and personal

Our first giraffe

A lazy leopard

Another leopard

Wilderbeast

Beautiful African sunset going for "sundowner drinks"

Hippos in the river

Our majesty!

Full young lion just sleeping

Inside our cabin at Idube Lodge

Monkeys in our trees outside our cabin

 the other guests and really really enjoyed our first night here. After dinner we had a couple of wines at the bar then flopped into bed to get woken up at 5.30am in the morning for the 6am safari out! It doesn't get much better than this.