We left Jo'burg at 5 o'clock in the morning in pitch darkness with our new group,just 3 people from NZ,a photographer from the local travel company and Sidney our local guide/bus driver. Our first stop was breakfast as the sun rose colouring the whole sky a hazy orange from all the dust presumably from all the coal mines and power stations that we could now see. The service station had its own animal park in the surrounding countryside and we could see buffalo,rhinos and emus.After driving through some old and rather sad wold mining towns we passed through some pleasant rolling hills and fields of cattle until we reached the Blyde river canyon. This is one of the biggest in the world and the only one with vegetation and there are some spectacular views.In the afternoon we visited the Molohopolo animal rescue centre who are trying to save the local big animal.The highlight was feeding the vultures as if they were Falcons with a giant glove holding piece of elephant meat. The birds were exceptionally heavy as they perched on ones arms.We drove onto a private reserve to our safari lodge accommodation and on our drive through the bush saw giraffes,kudus,warthogs and various other antelopes. An early night as we have yet another early start for our park visit and this time we are under mosquito nets.