Kruger National Park II – Sensational Self-drive Safaris

13 – 16, 19 – 24 OCTOBER 2020

In the Kruger National Park, you spend most of your day driving slowly around the park looking for game. Because the park was only running at 40% capacity, we were fortunate that we drove long distances on the more remote gravel roads without encountering another vehicle. This made us feel like real bundu bashers conquering the wild. When we did see something exciting, we also did not have to compete with too many other vehicles trying to get their piece of the action.

Another tip that you might consider, is to break up your Kruger-visit into a few shorter stints. Game-viewing can be exhausting – especially when you are concentrating hard to find a leopard. We had a forced break after our three days in Letaba, because we could not find a booking inside the park for those three consecutive nights over the weekend. In hindsight, that was the best thing that could have happened. Ideally, we would have loved three nights at Satara too, and then another break before our three nights in Berg-en-Dal.

DAILY EXCURSIONS

We developed our own rhythm while we were in the Kruger National Park. Most mornings we left the camp quite early, but perhaps not early enough. We are night owls, which means that we struggle to get up early. On our second morning in the park, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:15am, so that we could leave the camp at 5:30am when the gates opened. Well, that morning we hardly saw any game whilst driving to the Engelhard Dam. Thereafter, it was impossible to convince Andre that we needed to get up early.

Every morning we packed our flask of hot water, our sachets with Nescafé cappuccino, and our tin of rusks and cookies. We would find a viewpoint from where we could observe animals whilst enjoying our morning caffeine injection.

EXPLORING OTHER REST CAMPS

We mostly drove circular routes to the other rest camps to have a look around for future reference. Unfortunately, the two rest camps that impressed us the most, do not have campsites.

The Mopani Rest Camp has a beautiful setting high above the Pioneer Dam. There are many viewpoints in the entertainment complex with spectacular views over the dam. We bought sandwiches in the shop and ate them on the lower level of the restaurant whilst looking out at the hippos playing in the dam. Behind us, a little swallow was building her nest underneath the roof.

We also had a closer look at the giant baobab tree in the rest camp. We drove even further north from Mopani until we reached the Tropic of Capricorn – the furthest north either of us have ever been in South Africa.

The Olifants Rest Camp is situated high on a hill above the Olifants River. From the lookout platforms you have incredible views over the river below.  Most of the chalets also look out over the river. We enjoyed creamy milkshakes in the restaurant with this incredible view over the river.

Apart from these two luxurious rest camps, we also visited Orpen, Crocodile Bridge, Lower Sabie, Pretoriuskop and Skukuza. Although they all offer more or less the same amenities, we were quite happy with the rest camps that we had chosen. Being able to camp right next to the fence was such a bonus, which would not have been possible in most of the other rest camps.

PICNIC SITES FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

The picnic sites in the Kruger National Park, like N’wanetsi and Timbavati, are really special. At most picnic sites you can hire gas skottelbraais for a nominal fee – and then they clean it afterwards. You can also buy ice cold cooldrinks from the friendly picnic site attendants. When we did not have lunch at one of the other rest camps, we always had our cooler bag with cheese, crackers, and our impala biltong with us. Supplemented by some fresh goodies from the park shops, we were always ready for an impromptu picnic in the wild. Andre felt a bit nervous that most of the picnic areas were not fenced in, but maybe that is because he has not forgiven me for the lion incident in the Karoo National Park yet! The bathrooms at the picnic sites were always in an excellent condition, neat and clean, and sometimes a real lifesaver!

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ANIMALS

Except for the thrills of our guided Night Drives, we were fortunate to see so many animals. We were impressed with the excellent condition of the veld at the end of the dry season. After the recent droughts, we were also relieved to see how fat most of the animals were, and how abundant they were.

Each rest camp has a pin-up board where visitors can mark spots with different coloured drawing pins to indicate where they had seen the scarce animals. We frequently had a look at those, but unfortunately, that did not help much. The animals do not stay stationary. We realised that it was simply the luck of the draw, or being at the right place at the right time, that determined what you saw and what you didn’t see.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS

I can understand why the Kruger National Park is so popular amongst bird-lovers. We saw such a wide variety of beautiful (and not so beautiful) birds. In the camps, the grey louries were ever-present, but we also saw many comical hornbills.

At the Afsaal Picnic Site we even saw hornbills feeding their babies inside a tree. (Although this idiot photographer forgot a normal camera cannot shoot a video in portrait mode.)

We saw vultures, different birds of prey, fish eagles and other water birds, Southern Ground-Hornbills (bromvoëls) and kori bustards.

The Kruger National Park is also home to many interesting smaller birds, like barbets, beautiful lilac-breasted rollers, and cheeky starlings with personalities larger than life.

ANTELOPE ANTICS

Yes, we saw many impalas, often accompanied by hartebeest and zebra in their fancy, striped pyjamas. But we were fortunate to see a variety of other antelope too. Starting with the shy, smaller breeds, we saw a few klipspringertjies and steenbokkies.

Almost as abundant as the impalas, were the waterbuck. Anywhere close to water, we were sure to see these fluffy fellows with the target circles around their tails.

One of the most beautiful antelope, to me anyway, is the bushbuck. I was intrigued by the difference in colour between the beautiful thick coats of the males and females.

Few antelope can brag with horns as majestic as the kudu. We saw less kudu than I expected though.

Then there is the proof that Mother Nature also has a sense of humour – the warthog. I suppose they don’t qualify as antelope, but they tend to graze close to the antelope. You cannot help but giggle when they sound a shrill siren, give a few grunts and trot away with their tails in the air.

Ag shame, and then not all of us can be pretty, either. The proportions of the blue wildebeest, with its long face and small hindquarters, just seem a bit weird to me. Mother Nature certainly gave them a unique look.

In contrast, the buffalo, one of the Big Five, is a majestic animal.

We stared in amazement when a herd of more than two hundred of these powerful beasts, and their cute calves, crossed our path.

WATER WONDERLANDS

We were privileged to see many hippos and crocodiles in the rivers and dams. Some of these crocodiles were massive! In the Letaba River, we saw vultures eating a carcass far out on the riverbank. We suspect that a crocodile caught its prey there, because we could see drag marks that ran all the way back into the river.

The most curious incident, however, was seeing a turtle getting a piggy-back ride on the bum of a hippo below the dam wall of the Mingerhout Dam! This dude was just too cool – sunbathing on a massive round moving rock. I did not realise that these river creatures all lived together in such relative peace.

THE TALL TREE-HUGGERS

Andre loves giraffes and I can understand why. They appear to be such gentle creatures with eyelashes to die for. We spent many hours quietly watching how deftly they eat the leaves off the thorny trees.

And they have such a strange, rolling gait.

They camouflage their babies so well that we would have missed a few youngsters if we had just driven past the mothers. We were lucky that one cheeky little fellow pushed and nudged his mother to stand in front of her, because apparently, he was just as curious to get a good look at us.

ECCENTRIC ELEPHANTS

I love elephants – perhaps because they love water almost as much as I do! They appear to be clumsy giants, and yet, they are so sure-footed and graceful. Apart from the giant male that welcomed us into the Kruger Park, we also saw another large male giving himself a mud bath. When you drive around the park over lunchtime, you don’t see many animals, but this is the best time to see the elephants bathing. I loved watching two youngsters wrestling and dunking each other underneath the water – just like teenage boys!

And I just wanted to adopt one of the cute, little babies – although I would not brave facing its protective mother.

We encountered a few large herds of elephants. We wondered whether the numbers of the elephants in the park have not become too high, because they cause so much destruction. No tree is safe when it is in the way of such a herd on the move.

GUARDING THE RHINOS

It is so sad to hear of all the rhino-poaching happening in Africa – even in the Kruger National Park. Near Letaba we saw a shift-change when a park vehicle dropped two game rangers with heavy semi-automatic rifles to relieve two of their colleagues. That brought home quite graphically what lengths SANParks had to go to protect the rhinos. Near Berg-en-Dal we were thrilled to come across three white rhinos that then crossed the road right in front of us. On our last morning, on our way out of the park, we were lucky to see a mother with a small baby close to the road. Unfortunately, the little one was a bit camera-shy!

PREDATORS ON THE PRAWL

Starting with the smallest, we saw a few mongooses scuttle across the road. Right at the Malelane Gate, we saw a poor mother trying to suckle her not-so-young-anymore babies. I love this photograph of the unfortunate mother with her legs totally splayed open to nurse her youngsters.

Apart from our nocturnal visits from the hyenas, we also saw a few during our daily drives. At Berg-en-Dal we saw a giant female drinking water in the golden early-morning light. My favourite encounter with hyenas happened as we were driving back from Mopani along the H14 towards Letaba. Andre spotted two small puppies in the grass just outside a culvert. We checked them out for quite a while. They were totally unperturbed by our presence and even seemed to “talk” to us. I would not call a hyena attractive, but the young of all species are just too cute.

We were fortunate to see four separate groups of young male lions on one day. The one group was having such a relaxing afternoon nap that I initially thought they had caught some prey. One of them was lying stretched out on his back with all four his legs sticking out into the air.

Perhaps my favourite incident in the Kruger Park happened as we were travelling southward on the H1-3, with Miss Daisy in tow, on our way to Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp. We spotted a young male lion lying in the grass. At first, we thought he was sleeping. Then we spotted a small herd of blue wildebeest about a hundred and fifty metres away from him. We realised that he was watching them intently. And then he started stalking them. He seemed focused on one wildebeest that was grazing apart from the others. We watched him for more than an hour as he made his way painstakingly slowly closer and closer to the wildebeest.

When we listened to other people telling us about kills that they had witnessed, I told Andre that I would not like to see that. I did not think I would be able to handle it if a lion caught a baby elephant or giraffe. All of a sudden, I found myself rooting for this young lion. He was working so hard for his food. And if he had to catch something, perhaps a wildebeest, wasn’t so bad…

This wildebeest wandered back to his herd, but then one of the other wildebeest started walking straight ahead on a collision path the lion. He was grazing in total oblivion of our young lion. The lion was camouflaged so well. Andre took a photo in black-and-white to show me what the wildebeest could see. Don’t cheat – look if you can spot the lion in the black-and-white photo before scrolling down to the colour version!

When he came too close, the lion jumped up, but in his surprise, his momentum took him straight up into the air instead of forward. The wildebeest made a faster U-turn and managed to escape. Our lion was totally dejected. His disappointment was palpable. He flopped down in the grass and just lay there. Shame, we felt so sorry for him! (I do believe Andre was even more disappointed than the lion!)

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LEOPARD?

Every day I would search intently in the trees for that elusive leopard. Andre and I had a running joke that the leopards were all lying flat on the branches – the people from SANParks had just forgotten to inflate them.

In the end, we left the Kruger National Park after a stunning roosterkoek breakfast at the Afsaal Picnic Site, without spotting that elusive leopard.

But we had seen and experienced so much, including four of the Big Five, that I could not justify being disappointed that the leopard (as well as the cheetah and wild dog) had eluded me! Anyway, that gives us a good reason to return to the Kruger National Park.

ANDRE’S ADDENDUM:

I suppose that we would like to think that the Kruger National Park is as wild as it can become in the 21^st century. Nonetheless, after visiting, I realised that even here, if you look closely, one can see the hand of man.

Over the last few decades, a special initiative in the park has been to protect the elephants in a cocoon. Because of the success thereof, the exponential rise in numbers is clearly visible. And I suppose it is this balancing act that makes conservation so difficult. Because of the elephants’ effect on their environment, it is now necessary to do what seems contrary to the conservation goal. I was interested to hear that SANParks believe that the conservation of this species has reached the point where they have decided that the intrusive hand of man can be withdrawn just… that… little… bit… further. Amongst other things, they have removed many artificial watering points that were provided specifically to help elephants in drier times.

Maybe, and hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will be able to report on a similar initiative regarding our next challenge, which is the protection of the grumpy one, the irritable one, but as much a part of our magnificent heritage – the rhino.