It is a sad day at Umkhumbi Lodge today as we say goodbye to three of our crew.
After counting down the days till they got here, their four weeks with us went by in the wink of an eye 
But, as quick as it went, they still managed to squeeze in a lot!
Ollie made a new friend for life in the form of Carly!
Playing pirates
They helped with the telemetry project.
She's over there!
They met Donald Schultz, the star of Wild Recon and Venom Hunter, and helped him on a snake release.
Luckily the girls didn't swoon into the snake box
They jazzed up all the snake enclosures for us – good for the snakes, not so good for the one feeding them! Now, Mr King Cobra… where are you hiding? 
They went and played with elephants, including a little baby one! You never forget the feel of behind an elephants ear…
…or his tongue for that matter!
They got lots of hands on (well, hexarmour-gloves / snake-hook) experience with the snakes here at Umkhumbi Lodge and next door at Zulu Croc.
Even little Ollie helped to show the Zulu Croc visitors some of the stars of the show.
Say cheese!
Making more friends!
Feeding time at Zulu Croc was also a chance to help out.
They went on a game drive at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi (35 minute drive from Umkhumbi Lodge), saw 3 of the big 5 (Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo) and even managed to see 3 Cheetah run in front of the car!!
But then, even better, they got the chance to hear one purr, not to mention snuggle up with it at the Emdoneni cat rehabilitation centre which is only a 25 minute drive away from Umkhumbi Lodge.
Mum, can we keep him?
Then there was the estuary cruise at St Lucia, Becky loves hippos and had never seen one in real life before – her smile was even bigger than Ollie or Lyndsay, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the hippos long enough for a picture!
You can't see it, but the smile on her face is huge!
There was no such thing as too close to the Hippos as far as Becky was concerned.
Thar' be hippos off the starboard bough!
Trees were delivered to a school building site to be planted with the students.
Lyndsay tree hugging in the back of the cruiser
They were joined by Gareth from Zulu Croc and our newest crew member Eliz when they went Rhino tracking at Falaza game reserve.
They even rescued Amorello – the restaurant next door to Umkhumbi Lodge – from a giant python.
Phew! That was hard work!
But, help was on hand!
In fact, lots of help was on hand!
They made new friends.
Issie and Carl at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi
and I quote "We got a really good picture of Gareth!"
Then Becky tried to kill him, poor guy!
But what holiday would be a holiday without a little romance…
Come back soon!
