Arriving in Johannesburg to 32 degrees was an extremely pleasant surprise and we were met at the airport by our 4 x 4 supplier Stephen Becker.   Stephen co-owns Overland 360, a safari vehicle company and part of his service was airport collection as well as hosting us for dinner B&B in his own beautiful house.  We had read many horrors of Joburg so being baby sat for the first day was perfect.

After dinner and over night at Stephen's, today’s main event was picking up our 4x4 and receiving a good hours hand over on the finer details of the vehicle. Deflating and inflating the tyres for deep sand driving, erecting and packing the roof tent, stowage of all the kit, differential locks and how to keep your beer cold in the fridge.

We managed to do our 4 x 4 handover and depart JoBurg by 10 am. After a good few hours driving we called into a motorway service station for a leg stretch and coffee. We were both totally amazed that a couple of fuel pumps and coffee shop had its own water hole with a dozen rhinos, zebras and multitude of other animals all with odd shaped horns.  Great start and still two hours from Kruger.

By late afternoon we had the first 450 Km under our belt, enough food and water for two weeks, so we overnight-ed at a little guest house 3 km from the Phabeni Gate right on the edge of Kruger National Park.