We are woken up by the alarm and finish packing and have breakfast before our transfer to the airport for travel up country. Sue’s clothes have put on weight as they are now 4kg over the flight weight.

We leave the hotel on the coach at 08:00 and get to the Airport in 30 mins. The rep puts us into a queue and when we eventually reach the desk they say we are too early to drop our bags. They issue the boarding card and send us to wait in an area with no seats for an hour.

Eventually, we get rid of our bags and take advantage of our lounge pass where they have seats and refreshments. We are called through to our gate, and after a slight delay, we take off for Johannesburg.

We are met by Maggie, our guide, who takes us to the coach, and we set off for the game reserve and our lodge. The drive takes about three hours, and we pass Pretoria and a mountainous area before turning off the motorway with the sun starting to set.

On arrival, we were introduced to form filling, dinner, a bottle of wine, and our rooms in that order, and told the first game drive started at 5am and we would get a 4:30 am call. It had better be good.