Christmas at Bonamanzi Game Park

We decided we wanted to get out of Johannesburg for a few days before heading to our tree house fro Christmas. Well, trying to find a room in South Africa during Christmas vacation is almost impossible. We finally found a 2-bedroom hostel in Phaloborwa, which is in the north east corner of South Africa. We rented a car and headed off. Dean did a great job of driving standard on the wrong side of the road!! We spent 2 days relaxing in Phalaborwa before heading south to our tree house.

The most direct route south was through Kruger National Park. It was wonderful driving through the park, but it was slow going having to stop for animals who certainly have the right of way on roads. We came across quite a few herds of zebras.

These elephants were a bit of a different story. We didn't see the baby at first and tried to drive around the adult elephant. She was not amused. When she headed towards the car, Dean quickly backed up to show that we weren't a threat. She stared at us for a bit and then lead her baby across the road.

After getting through the park and then driving through Swaziland, we arrived at our tree house where we were to spend Christmas.

We had a water hole right off our deck and we saw this warthog within the first 10 minutes of getting to the tree house.

After looking left and right for animals not cars, Campbell went out to fill the water hole to attract more animals.

We spent a lot of our time out on the deck of our tree house where we could see animals in all directions.

We had several nyalas on our "front lawn".

On Christmas Eve day we went horseback riding for the afternoon.

It was a whole different perspective seeing the wildlife from horseback.

I didn't get great photos of the animals, but here are a few we saw along the way.

For Christmas Eve, we had a wonderful barbeque. It certainly wasn't what we are used to having at the Arnie's, but we made the best of it.

We didn't have a Christmas tree, so Kelly decided to draw one on our window.


Lo and behold, Santa found us and left a couple of presents under our tree.

Santa also brought "stockings" for the kids in the form of grocery bags that they dug through out on the deck.

cI couldn't resist posting a photo of Campbell smiling. I guess he liked his gift.

And Kelly was happy to model her gift.

Later, we watched as the animals gathered at the watering hole.

There were also crocodiles to be seen.

We went to the restaurant of the lodge to have Christmas lunch. It was nice, but it still didn't feel much like Christmas.

One last look at the animals at the watering hole.

Then we had a gourmet Christmas dinner consisting of hamburger helper and beer. It will be a Christmas we won't likely forget, but it is certainly better at home with friends and family.