We arrived at the Pilanesberg National Park in the dead of the night. It was Friday the 22nd October and we had been travelling for at least 2hrs.
Ivory Tree Game Lodge lay in the darkness, and you could hear the distant calls of the insects, calling to one another. A slight shiver ran down my spine as the cold became more noticeable.
After we had settled into our room, there was an overall feeling that we were going to have a really fabulous time at Ivory Tree, and as we made our way down to dinner we were greeted by our guide who introduced himself as William. Little did we know he would not just become our friend but he would touch our hearts.
The next morning we got up nice and early and made our way down to the lodge to grab some coffee, and maybe a biscuit or two, and then made our way to the jeep. It was a very cold morning and the air was sharp. The sky was a mixture of blue, white and orange, and you could hear the distant sound of a bird that called “Work har-der” or “Drink lag-er” (whichever you prefer), in its own rhythmical tune. It was William that brought our attention to this, (William every time I heard this bird tweet this tune, it really made me laugh inside, as I could really relate to what you had said).
There were 8 of us in total including William, but it soon became 7 when one of the guests had to leave to go home. (Carlos) ha-ha.
The engine revved and off we went into the wilderness. I had my green poncho wrapped around me like a cocoon, with the cold wind blowing into my face. We stopped at some Impala, and our Ranger, William, described them as the McDonalds of the bush and showed us the M shaped mark on their bottoms before adding “mmmm,mmmm Pala.” The whole jeep laughed out loud.
We saw lots of very interesting animals that day. We saw two bull Elephants, eating from a tree as well as lots of Giraffes. I put in a special request, to see Wildebeest, and by golly did I see a lot of them, I was more than satisfied.
We stopped at a picnic site within the park and had tea and coffee and ate chocolate, toffee and blueberry muffins. William told us he had been up at 3am baking them and everyone believed him for just a minute. Even though it was still slightly cold, everybody was in high spirit and we all enjoyed ourselves. 
William continued to give us lots of interesting facts about the area. But the banter within the truck became hysterical e.g. the tree, dead dog with no bark and man-eating ZebrasWilliam found it funny that I had assumed the Zebra was one of the Big Five because I felt it had been hunted for its skin, after seeing the Zebra skin at the airport and I thought it would attack humans and animals with its hooves. We all laughed as we imagined a Zebra trying to attack us and the jokes afterwards were always about man-eating Zebras.
A lady on the trip referred to a Warthog as an Aardvark and this produced more hysterical laughter, and we referred to Warthogs after that as Aardvarks and everybody knew what is was.
It was very exciting when William located a Leopard, it was dark outside and so he shone his spotlight on it on the hillside. This was very exciting for all of us, and was one of the highlights of our trip, and we have William to thank for that.
On the journey back to the lodge in the darkness, William stopped quickly and after leaving his vehicle returned with a Chameleon perched on his hand. This was only one of a few interesting and unusual things that William pointed out, others included, lions footprints, spiders webs, birds’ nests, snake tracks and the effects of burning elephant dung. All of which were really interesting.William went to great lengths to show us a female lion and her 3 baby cubs, and this was eventually successful when the female lion and her three cubs walked gently passed our vehicle. We also saw 14 Rhino on the Sunday as we made it our mission to find as many as possible.
William helped to create a memory for me that I will never forget and will always treasure.
Dear WilliamAt the beginning of this story I mentioned that you had touched our hearts, and on the way to Sun City, after we had waved goodbye to you, we all cried our eyes out, but they were happy tears because we had enjoyed the trip so much.
You helped make Africa a really memorable experience. You really made me laugh, and I have learnt things about animals that I never knew.
If ever you come to England, you are very welcome to come and stay with us, and I hope I will be coming back to Africa very soon, as it is the best place I have ever visited, and is the only place I have ever felt truly emotional and sad to be leaving.
I hope to see you again, and I hope we can stay in touch. I enjoyed reading the stories you wrote and gave me, I thought they were really good. I miss Africa already and I have only been gone a day.
Have you had an English breakfast tea since the day you tried it?
Thank you so, so much. X
Jasmine Newton
