In the Venda region in South Africa

We are at the Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa, but today we leave this beautiful park to continue our journey; we have breakfast in our little house, we load Dr. Livingstone, our car, and we leave.

We leave the Leokwe Camp and head towards the gate, along the way we admire once again the wonderful baobabs and the beautiful rock formations, that, in the morning light, seem even redder.

Even if we are going out we look around, the animals are unpredictable and they could be anywhere.

Soon after, on the branch of a bush near the road, we see a beautiful Crested Barbet, we had never seen it before, another species of birds that is added to our check-list.

We also see a beautiful male kudu, so far we had only seen the females, it is also not far from the road and it is busy eating a bush; usually the kudus escape scared for a non-nothing, but this specimen instead is there quiet and almost seems to pose for being photographed.

When we are almost at the gate we see, a bit in the distance, a herd of elephants, they are extremely quiet, they are there in the bushes eating while walking in the direction of the river; we wonder if they are the same pack we saw yesterday morning, from this distance it is a bit difficult to understand it.

We arrive at the gate, return the key of our cottage and leave the park.

We follow the R 572 that runs along the border of the park and heads towards Musina.

Musina, that was once called Messina, is a small town that does not offer much, usually travelers stop here to make fuel and to shop along the road to and from the Kruger National Park; for the rest, it is a support town for the Venetia diamond mine.

We have to do some shopping, where we are headed, we hardly find shops and there is no restaurant in the lodge tonight so we have to cook dinner; Tracks4Africa tells us about a shopping mall and we go and see how it is.

It does not look bad at all, in fact it seems very new: we enter the gate and park.

There are also 3 banks, we are spoiled for choice to withdraw money; here there are both Pick'n'Pay and Checkers, our favorite, and in fact we go into the latter.

We find everything we were looking for, especially different types of vegetables and meat for tonight, since we will have braai, or BBQ.

We also buy the Savannah, our favorite cider and Amarula: we had not bought it yet, but what a trip to Africa would it be without the Amarula?

We fill up the car with diesel fuel: 107 liters and we were not even empty; to fill up Dr. Livingstone it is always challenging, thank goodness that here in South Africa, petrol and diesel are cheaper than in Italy.

We take the N1 and drive South-West for about 80 km, then turn left and we venture into this area where there are small towns inhabited mainly by blacks, at the edge of the road we meet many children who come out from school; this is the Africa we like the best.

This evening we will stop in this area, in this land are the Venda who, despite having adopted a modern and Western lifestyle, have kept intact their traditions, both in terms of customs and as regards the sculpturing of wood and weaving.

We are happy to find us here!