Morris is gone, Lewis is gone, so sad, sad sad

It was a very sad day today as we said farewell to the beautiful people and our great new friends at Shiduli. Morris and Lewis are especially missed tonight as the reality hits that there will be no 5.00am phone call in the morning and Max has to give up his trackers seat and stick back to Lewis. However we will always remember Morris' bird calls: "so sad, sad, sad".

Our final safari this morning was again another personal family tour and once more extroardinarily memorable. Another run in with Zero, this time a chance meeting after losing his tracks across the river, then finding him fresh on a Wildebeest kill a few blocks away. Once again we were way too close as we watched him devour the soft internals and then wander around us roaring to the female lions to come and feed. Scarily awesome stuff, it is just impossible to express the incredibleness of this front row experience. Some people never see this king lion, we have seen him 4 times in 4 days! The Leopard, however, did elude us.

Following straight from Zero and on a huge high, we tracked down the Cheetah brothers we couldn't find the day before and got to watch them up and about. We sat alongside them as they stretched and limbered up before following them for a long time as they wandered the roads marking their territory and on the prowl for breakfast.

Probably the funniest encounter though, on the way to our last morning coffee in the bush with our trusted guides, was barging in on a private moment between two gay giraffes! No holding back, these boys were going for it! You don't get any of that action at the Pyramids and can't get taught anything like that at school!

Anyway, with Egypt cancelled a few stressful days were spent scrambling for options to fill the void. After the disappointment with each subsequent choice falling through, we are now extending our stay in South Africa. We have toured the Panoramic Route today over the Highveld with spectacular views over the Lowveld down to Hazyview for a couple of nights stay. We will self drive the Kruger National Park now that we have certified expert guides in Max and Jack before heading into Swaziland. From Swaziland we will continue to Kwa-Zulu Natal on the east coast of SA to watch the turtle hatching and ending in Durban before continuing on to India as planned.

Stay tuned for more of the boys' stories once we all get some rest...