We’re up at 7am, and the power is still off. It comes back in time for breakfast, and with everything packed into the car we head off to the border.

At the border crossing, we get stamped out of Swaziland, and stamped (again) back into South Africa for the third time. We drive through customs with nothing to declare except a lot of Swazi dirt which is now attached to the car.

On the highway, we have to run the toll gates again. This time I manage to stop the car at the booth without stalling, but the money Nick hands over includes some Mozambican coins. This causes much confusion and I end up almost driving away without our change. We don’t seem to be very good at the toll thing.

The rest of the morning is spent driving to Gwala Gwala, a game reserve on the western fringes of the Kruger National Park. At one point we realize we’re driving in the wrong direction, but we get there in the end. We sign in at the gate and drive 7km within the reserve area, past numerous other reserves, until we reach the big GwalaGwala gate. We sign in again, and follow a dirt track to the edge of the actual reserve, and enter it by driving over a cattle grid. It’s difficult to make much further progress, as there is a giraffe standing in the middle of the road. It moves away eventually, and we continue (slowly!) to follow the signs to ‘reception’. It’s another 2km before we actually reach the car park, and we’ve seen numerous antelope and some zebra by the time we arrive.

First impressions of Gwalaguala are that we’ll probably survive. Our tent is equipped with a wooden deck floor, power, a huge standlone bathtub and a veranda, all raised up on a wooden platform built amoungst the trees. There is a bar/restuarant in a treehouse, a lounge area under a thatched roof beside the river, and a small swimming pool.

After the long drive I’m eyeing the pool longingly. After a quick change we get down there to find a Mancunian couple on honeymoon who are sitting in deckchairs, and a finnish woman in the pool. They are arguing over whether the pool is too cold, with the Brits (who are not in the water) saying it is, and the Finn (who IS in the water) saying it isn’t. I dip a toe in and decide a slow entry is going to be too tortuous, so I take the plunge in one go. It’s actually fine, particularly as the air is so warm.

We don’t have long before ‘high tea’ (the lodge’s late afternoon version of lunch), so we make it a quick swim. At High Tea, we meet Ann, one of the lodge’s owners, who asks after Edd and forthrightly denounces him for not coming. She’s friendly and very funny but I’m not sure I’d want to get into an argument with her.

The other guests comprise a gay couple, one half of which is a hilarious ex-canadian now living in Sweeden, a swiss amateur pilot who flew directly to Gualaguala (as in, he flew his plane into an airstrip walking distance from the lodge) travelling with a South African co-pilot guide, and the Manchunians.

The first game drive is straight after high tea, and is a local ‘Gualaguala’ drive on Gualaguala’s own 500 hectare reserve. They don’t have any of the ‘big five’ here, but because it’s a small reserve, it’s easy to find loads of giraffe, zebra, antelope, warthog, guinea fowl, and water buck. It’s a long drive but we can barely go 100 yards without seeing some other animal. We stop at the lake for the sunset, where they have a hide – a wooden hut built n stilts on the edge of the waterhole. After sundown it’s back in the land rover for some night driving. We find some more giraffe – now sitting down, but fail to find any hyena.

The South African pilot suddenly pipes up “Hey, back up we got sex going on here”. Sure enough there’s a giraffe making concerted efforts to mate with a female, but she doesn’t seem to be in the mood.

Dinner is a brie, and a very smoky one, but the food is delicious – five meats to choose from, potato salad, and sadza/pap. We have to be up at 5am for the morning game drive so we make it an early night.