My last one on one out in the park with Chris turned out to be awesome!  In fact, it was the best drive of the week!  We left a little earlier than scheduled cause Chris decided we should get some distance in before we had to turn round and head back to camp, keeping our lighting situation in mind.  Normally the dunes one crosses to get to the road that heads for Mata Mata is rather quite, so we stepped up our speed a little. 

We had not gone far when Chris suddenly spotted the 5 Cheetah … they had crossed the road minutes before we got there! Had our timing been right we would have had the perfect light and the perfect position… but alas, we were JUST too late. A jackal suddenly appeared from nowhere, with a kill in his mouth that he had obviously stolen from someone, and headed off down the road in the direction we had just come from. Within no time, Chris had the car turned around and we headed off after the Jackal – who was luckily running in the road!  What happened next was the most incredible photographic experience for me…. We were driving alongside the Jackal, probably at about 20km per hour… both our cameras firing away rapidly!! How Chris managed to drive AND hold that lens of his up, I have NO idea!! I was over the moon when I looked and the photos I had got…

The rest of the afternoon was a tad quiet out in the park.  I did manage to get pics of the mongoose and bee-eaters… which was really lekker too.  On the way back to camp, and racing a little against time, we spotted a Kori Bustard on the crest of the dune.  We stopped to watch what it would do, and I was rewarded with this…

We made it back in through the gates by the skin of our teeth.

Dinner on our last night was a little quieter than normal! We were all rather sad that our time on the photographic course was coming to an end.  After dinner we had our crit session, and I must admit that ALL the photographs put up for the crit were outstanding!  After exchanging contact details with our new friends, and good night and goodbyes said, we headed for our cottage…. With a little less of a bounce in our step!!   At least Jackie still had something to look forward to… her last one on one with Chris, the morning we left the park…..