Monday 29th August 2016: happy birthday David - we seem to be away every year for your birthday. We are up by 5.30, bags out, breakfasted and on the jeeps before 7 for the 3/4 hr trip through the park to get to the bus which is waiting to take us to Johannesburg. It's a quiet morning in the park, only seeing Impala, Nyala, Buffalo and Zebra.
We go through the town of Hazyview which I have had to put as our destination in the park in my blog - it is actually the main supplier for the Park and is a good size and nice town with good houses and lots still being built. From here, in 36 kms we will climb 1000m to the plateau and a change in vegetation with miles and miles of pine and gum plantations. We call at 'God's Window' for a view down the valley we have just left - it is very hazy from a fire so not good for photos. Depending on whether there is water for irrigation, we go from fruit growing to nothing and finally in rolling hill country for agriculture. We see some windmills, but mostly it is dams or rivers and they aren't all dry here. In one area there was acres of shade cloth covered crops. Each time we stop and get back on the bus, Steve comes down the aisle with hand sanitiser. Our next stop is at Burkes Lucky Potholes - quite impressive with rocks, water, walkway bridges, looking down on pothole formations. Gave us a bit of exercise after sitting on the bus - left Kruger at 7 and expect to arrive in Joburg at 5. At Belfast we leave the country style road and join the big main highway to Joburg. 
There are lots of semi-trailer, side tipping coal trucks going either way, plus open cut mines and power stations. We see what looks like smoke going up, but it was blasting in the coal mine. As we get closer to Johannesburg it is gold mining with yellowish slag heaps and there is also some diamond mining. Johannesburg began with the gold rush and now although it isn't a capital, it is considered the economic heart of South Africa. 65 km out there is a 'match box' village' which has been an enormous project to replace the shanty towns - but I can't understand why so far out - maybe they all work in the irrigated vegetable farms that are here. We have also seen lots of large scale farming - some tilling up done in preparation for the summer rains - doesn't rain here in winter, so their growing season is opposite to ours.
 
We say goodbye to Steve, our SA guide, the joke teller, story teller and his informative commentary on SA. Our hotel is the D'oreale Grande, which is old worldy, combined with a casino, restaurants, theatres and shops. We have a plane to catch tomorrow, destination Victoria Falls.