The last camp we went to in the Kruger Park was Olifants, our favorite.  Here you can see it in the distance on the hillside--it overlooks the Olifants River.

The significance of the picture taken from here is that on one trip we saw a magnificent lion here and that on this trip we had a flat tire here.  You are not allowed to get out of your car except in special designated places in the park.  We flagged down the second car that past us and it was a young man who said sure he would change the tire for us.  So we broke the rules and got out--he changed the tire in less than ten minutes.  Bill helped and I watched for lions.  You should have seen the glares of some German people driving by, seeing us outside the car.  They couldn't see the fellow with the tire who was on the other side.  He was so fast that I asked him if he was a mechanic by trade and he said that he was just a strong farm boy--that is just what we needed right then!  We went on to the camp, he with a large tip and us with a good feeling about mankind.  When we got to the registration at the camp those Germans began berating Bill in very accented English for being out of the car.  He answered them in faultless high German explaining our predicament and that we didn't want the young man to have to jack us up with the car too.  I loved the look on their faces then!

Here is the rondavel we stayed in at Olifants Camp and the car we rented.

Staying in the rondavel next to us (they arranged it) were our old friends, Erika and Tony Cheetham, you may remember from the two previous trips.  We got to be friends on line and we have visited them twice and the plan is that they will finally visit us this October.  Here they are cooking dinner.

They brought all the food and prepared the meals during our stay--good friends indeed!  Tony is a gourmet cook and had planned some feasts!

We drove around together game viewing.  On the large bridges you can get out to stretch and look around.  Guess they feel you could see animals coming there.

I'm watching the elephants in the distance.  You can see on the right how high the flood waters went in early 2000--to the top of that bank.

We would have just tea and a rusk early in the morning and then drive till about nine when Tony would fix us a wonderful breakfast.  We often stopped at Letaba or Satara for our meals because they have a nice eating areas there.

There are smaller places for picnicking also that are not fenced--one we liked was Timbavati.  Erika makes marvelous salads.