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This morning I squeezed everyone's luggage into the rental van one last time. We had only about a 30-mile (50 km) drive to the airport, and had plenty of time, but leaving was difficult.
On our way out, we had one last sighting to remember our trip. A large male lion just walked out of the bush and spent a few minutes with us. 
It was quite fitting that the "king of beasts" was our final wildlife encounter at the end of our three weeks in Kruger National Park.
We saw over fifty species of mammals and reptiles and over 120 species of birds. We saw the "Big Five" in a single day five times and, on one day, we saw the "Big Five" twice. On one day, we saw all of what we determined to be our "Big Ten" - lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, rhino, cheetah, giraffe, hippo, zebra, & kudu.
The African Wild Dogs were the only species we didn't see that we really hoped to. We also searched for a Black Rhino, which is a bit elusive and much more shy than the White Rhino. We thought we got a glimpse of a Black Rhino a couple of times, but we just couldn't say for sure. And we would have liked to have seen the beautiful Sable Antelope, but that didn't happen either.
With that said, our sightings were phenomenal, and we got to see far more than I thought we would. It was a trip of a lifetime. We exited Kruger National Park at the Numbi Gate on the west side of the park. Soon, we were at the Kruger Mpumalanga Airport where we took the short flight to Johannesburg. Jackie & Tony were staying in South Africa another week to visit more family, while Ed & Marilyn and Linda & I checked in and went through baggage inspection for our flight back to the United States. After an amazing 28 days in South Africa, we arrived back in the U.S. It was the year of our 25th wedding anniversary, and we certainly can't think of a better way to celebrate. We'll have long-lasting memories from this one.
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