Military History Tours          On Tour - Boer War 110^th Anniversary Tour Extension - 14 June 2012

Today was our last day of touring and an end to this extension of our Military History tour. On the road by 06:00, we were the first vehicle out of the camp. Just before dawn, we made our first sighting of the day; a cheetah, one of very few in this area of the park. The cat was so close that I was able to use the flash, and had the animal equivalent of ‘red-eye’ in the resultant photo. Just before dawn, some zebra rummaging for salt on a huge termite mound. Dawn broke behind clouds making a magnificent display in the sky. We then proceeded skirting the mountainous terrain created by the end of the rift to another full bush breakfast stop, this time at an old wagon halt, complete with historic display. Then white rhino, very close. This was followed by two rarities, a braa buck; a type of antelope rarely seen; and finally one of the rarest of the rare, a black rhino. The black rhino is smaller than its white cousin and one of only 500 in the park. Some hippopotami spotted as we left the park were the last of our animal sightings.

If you do a tour of the Kreuger Park it is well worth taking the trouble to secure the services of an expert guide. Otherwise you would not find the animals or recognise the significance of what you were looking at. Touch Africa Safaris are well worth using.

We headed for Johannesburg on the way passing a couple of Boer War sites. The sataion at Waterval Boven where Troopers Ford and Whittington joined a train for Lorenco Marques, and the magnificent memorial to those Boer soldiers who fought to protect President Krueger’s train as he left for Europe in spring 1901 to garner support for the Boer Republics.

In Johannesburg, we checked into our hotel for the night prior to our journey home. Only four of the original Military History Tour group took this particular extension. All agreed it was well worth the additional time and very reasonable cost; after all if you come to Africa you should see what nature it has to offer; and we did.