Going home

Marwaan and I got up for Fajr. The plan was to take wudu at the camp so as to not do the long walk, but we needed to go. Towards the end of the path I saw something odd – it looked like dung but mashed ! Marwaan was convinced it was there before (or maybe he was trying to convince me) but as I had taken particular note the previous day, I KNEW it was fresh! Apparently this is what happened last night :

The rhino hid in the bush (the one alongside our path to the toilet) chewing whatever rhinos chew. He came out – did his thing on our path and walked up to our camp! He then cut through the shortcut to the other camp (the same one we had used !) and broke a branch ! He squeezed around the cars, trailers and table scratching them, making his way to the communal tap behind the tour guides car! All this while the big fire and noisy campers were on site !!

Marwaan felt like he missed out! Convinced I felt the trailer move again last night, I checked for tracks around us, Alhamdulillah nothing – my protection bubble worked !!

Jumped in the car to do our rhino sighting. Marwaan moaned that we were out too early again ! We saw a kudu and Muhammad shouted “CAMEL!” , he is is father's son !! We saw wildebeest, giraffe, ostrich, zebra  – blah blah where are the rhino ? After almost 2 hours we still saw nothing! It looked like it would rain, so we came back to camp to pack up. We had missed most of the campers leaving. We ate, packed up, hooked the trailer, said farewell to the tour guide and tried once more. We saw dung and prints but no rhino. The km home are too many to spend time hunting Mr Rhino! Another time insha'Allah !

We started the trek home.....

  

Marwaan initially said he'd sleep along the way and drive like the wind! So I threw all our pjs in the laundry and we were down to our last set of clean clothes.

As we approached Gabrone the kids got hungry, Muhammad asked for 'col-drink and pizza!' We found a shopping center called The Square and Nandos was halaal so we indulged. The kids even got a kids meal – and the toy kept them (and me) busy for a while!

No more vet fences and the border crossing went quickly. On the SA side, our petrol tanks were checked – but they only checked one, which happened to be the only empty one of the lot!!

I saw a hoopoe bird in Mafikeng!!

Marwaan hinted at sleeping over in Mafikeng. We had only just entered SA and still have hundreds of km plus it wasn't even late yet ! Saw a masjid and made our way there, made it in time for magrieb salaah. Still pretty full from lunch, so we drove on – only to stop when we saw some of our campers stranded on the side of the road. Their car broke down and the wife left her bag at the border ! Fortunately they had help so we moved along, making our way to Vryberg. The kids were moaning so much, that I decided we'll spend the night. Aasiyah got a toasted sandwich from Captain Dorego's (halaal). We booked a room at a lodge. It was very basic (more so than in Windhoek) but hot showers and a heater (and a tv) had all of us happy. It got terribly cold and Marwaan was grateful that we didn't opt to sleep in the car.

7am we left Vryburg. We had a choice of paths home and dates for Ramadaan led us towards Upington. Muffins and Hot chocolate from Engen garage was our breakfast. We saw a masjid on N14 just outside of the town. The drive was uneventful, we barely stopped as we just wanted or needed to cover ground to get home. This was the last stretch!!

We found dates, but not plenty. One pack was very yummy, juicy and wet !

So in an attempt to cover a shorter distance, Marwaan opted to take the R364 to Clanwilliam. This would have been ok if it was still daytime, but it was around dusk, the dusty road was muddy at places and even though Marwaan managed to drive at a higher speed and save time, I was clinging to my chair! The kids started offf laughing at the bumpiness and downhills, but the darkness soon made us weary as we could just about see the path and which way it winds. Botterkloof – I refused to look left and see how far up we were! Marwaan's spot lights we loose so they shone up to the stars or against the hill – which would be great if we were looking for rhino or leapoard! A sigh of relief when we finally hit tar. By 8pm we were 150km away from home, so we had to keep going. 9pm and we felt exhausted ! We got home at 10:30pm. Alhmadulillah!