Kruger Park Mosaic

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South Africa 2008: Kruger Park and home

Last year Milord and I were in South Africa and we spent 5 nights in the Kruger National Park. This is a game reserve the size of a respectable country, where animals roam free with the barest human influence. Various tarred and dirt roads wind through the park and every couple of hundred kilometres there are rest camps: bungalows with a restaurant and shop enclosed in an electrified fence where you can stay the night. We had a blast – I’d not actually been to a game reserve before so it was new for the both of us. We drove many miles and saw oodles of animals, although we were disappointed not to spot a leopard – the only one of the “Big Five” that we didn’t see. We were very excited to be going back again for 4 days of our honeymoon!

It’s a fairly long way from Sodwana to the Kruger Park, so we left the dive resort by mid morning. For some reason I had no road atlas, so I had copied a few directions from someone’s Lonely Planet and we hoped that those combined with a compass would get us there! It was interesting navigating without a map, and the compass proved invaluable! Our route took us though the Zululand district, along the border of Swaziland (a separate kingdom which is apparently good for a visit too but we didn’t have time), over the Drakensberg mountain range, and into the Mpumalange province (have a go at pronouncing that… it’s mostly phonetic) where the park is situated.

Wow, what a drive! We travelled past dozens of little villages of grass huts huddling alongside tin shacks on bright green hillsides, and had to watch out for cows and goats and people in the road. It was fascinating – a side of Africa you don’t see when you stick to the big cities. I never felt unsafe, although I would not have liked to be driving there after dark (especially with the cows and people in the road!). The scenery was spectacular, especially as we climbed into the mountains. In the early afternoon it began to rain, getting harder all the while. We saw lightening and heard thunder getting closer, and then all of a sudden we were engulfed in rain so hard that we couldn’t see the road! I squealed and Milord coasted to a stop, and we sat there with the hazard lights flashing for several minutes until the storm moved off and we could see again! It was a bit thrilling!

Then onwards, out of the rain, out of the mountains, and finally into the Kruger Park. By this time it was late afternoon and we had been driving for 8 hours. Luckily I had assumed we’d be tired so we had booked into a rest camp just a couple of kilometres from the gate. We didn’t expect to see anything interesting in such a short distance, but as usual the Kruger surprised us… we came around a corner to find a huge elephant walking towards us in the road. And he had the biggest engorged willy you can possibly imagine – it seriously looked like a fifth leg! We couldn’t go anywhere, so sat as quietly as possible as this intimidating sight strolled past us, absolutely boggling at the appendage. By the time we got our wits about us and dug out a camera and followed him he’d, uh, calmed down and his willy was tucked away again. Not something you see every day, that’s for sure!

We stayed in a very nice modern bungalow in the Berg-en-Dal (Hill and Dale) rest camp. We bought steaks and salad and cooked over coals, then had an early night. The following morning we had a lazy start, and I relaxed in bed with coffee and my book while Milord showered. We’d left the screen doors wide open as there were no bugs and it was a glorious morning. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a cat walk through the living room… a cat? I jumped up and scared the daylights out of several vervet monkeys who were silently helping themselves to our bread rolls on the kitchen counter.

One thing to remember about the rest camps: While the electric fences keep the big bad animals out, little agile monkeys can jump over, and burrowing animals can dig their way under!

From then on we always kept our screen doors closed! Another camp we stayed in (Orpen, very nice, small and newly built) had baboons and a honey badger raiding people’s food (we saw them at it!). If you forget to turn your fridge (always outside for some reason) to the wall to jam the door there is nothing to stop the buggers helping themselves, day or night! It was cool seeing the honey badger slinking through the rest camp though, as you never usually catch sight of one!

Our days in the park were excellent, and we managed to spot all of the “Big Five” in one day: Lion (lolling around in the distance), Leopard (eating a deer under a tree), Rhino, Elephant, and one lone Buffalo at twilight. We were very chuffed! Apart from that we saw warthogs and impala and kudu and waterbuck and jackal and eagles and vultures and mongooses (mongeese?) and baboons and monkeys and birds and more leopard and lions and yeah, it was very very cool. Awesome.

Then we drove 4 hours to BestGirl’s place, freshened up and went to a family gathering, had a good night’s sleep, packed, drove to the airport and flew home. Back to reality, back to job hunting and renovations and rain.

sigh

What a fabulous trip. Perfect, all of it!

South African Holiday Part 6. Kruger - Pta - Sydney

Part 1 - Sydney - Saldanha
Part 2 - Saldanha - CT
Part 3 - Cape Town
Part 4 - Pretoria - Kruger
Part 5 - Kruger Park

The final camp we stayed in was Olifants, and although the closest exit gate to there is Phalaborwa Gate we decided to exit via the Orpen Gate as the best animal viewing is around Satara and we fancied a dramatic last drive. We were out of the camp at 6am, and left the Kruger at 11am on Saturday 18th March.

During the drive I was looking at the map and I realized that the Klein Drakensberg (small dragon) range was really close by, so we took a detour through the mountains on the way back to Pretoria. The mountains are stunning, they rear up from the lowlands in a wall of rock layers, and I couldn’t help thinking of the early explorers and trekkers having to find a way through. I’d also picked up a copy of Jock of the Bushveld (one of my favorite books as a child) while we were in the Kruger, so the ox-wagon era was fresh in my mind.


We had a glorious drive though the Berg, stopping at a few lookouts and pausing at Bourkes Luck Potholes. Milord reckons that is the most uninviting name ever for a spectacular river gorge, and if I hadn’t been raving about it he wouldn’t have stopped! (In my teens I did a 3 day hike along the Blyde River which ended at Bourkes Luck Potholes, so I knew all about them) In that area the Blyde River has carved a deep gorge, and where the water eddies it has created bowls and tubes through the rock, called the potholes, quite spectacular, and lovely to see running water after so long in the dry bushveld. We stopped to look out over the escarpment at Gods Window, and then made our way to Graskop where we grabbed a couple of burgers for a late lunch. Then down, down, down the mountain and south to pick up the N4 and head back to Pretoria.


We got back to Shane’s around 6pm, which meant we’d been on the go for 12 hours! Milord said it was such an interesting drive that he hadn’t felt tired. Even once night fell the “Hijacking Hotspot” signs on the highway kept him alert ;-). At Shane’s we had a very well earned couple of beers and I was asleep before 10.

Our final Sunday in South Africa was spent quietly. While Shane and her family were at church Milord and I burned all our photos to a dvd and started packing. Stephan cooked a chicken in the kettle braai and we had lunch sitting outside in the glorious dry heat. We were so lucky with the weather while we were in South Africa. Only one day of rain the whole time, only a couple of windy days in Cape Town, and generally hot. It was scorching in the Kruger Park, but so dry that it was bearable – at one point Milord said “How can it be 38 degrees and I’m not soaked in sweat?” We blessed the car aircon, and it was a pleasure to step into cool buildings every so often, but really we enjoyed the heat most of the time. The past summer in Sydney has been so disappointing that it was lovely just to be hot!

Shane and family dropped us at the airport at 3pm, we flew out at 5pm, and got into Sydney at 2:30pm Monday afternoon after 11 hours in the air. Argh, lost a day somewhere there! We had a shower, went out for dinner, and were asleep by 8pm and slept a solid 12 hours to 8am on Tuesday. Milord went to work and I started sorting out our photos. It took a week to cull and stitch them from 600+ to 300!

South African Holiday Part 5 - Kruger Park

Part 1 - Sydney - Saldanha
Part 2 - Saldanha - CT
Part 3 - Cape Town
Part 4 - Pretoria - Kruger
Part 6 - Kruger - Sydney

We were booked into Skukuza camp for our first night, which is a couple of hours north of Malelane Gate. After sorting out our entry permit we ventured into the game reserve. I have not really been in a game reserve before (unless you count when I was very small – all I remember is being bored in a hot car), and neither had Milord so we were quite excited. The speed limit in the park is 50km/h on tar and 40km/h on dirt, so we did 25km/h ;-).


As we beetled along the road Milord said “Isn’t this just like the Ozzie tourist – expecting to see game within his first five minutes?”. I’d just laughed with him when he hit the brakes and said “Rhino!”. “Bollocks” says I. “No, really!” And there, to my left under a tree, was a great big rhino! A mad scramble for cameras and much clicking (about this point I started to come around to the idea of the SLR) and we had bagged one of the Big Five (rhino, lion, giraffe, leopard and buffalo... we saw all of them except leopard).


That first afternoon between Malelane and Skukuza was simply amazing. We saw more rhinos, heaps of impala, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest… and we’d only been in the park a couple of hours! Fabulous.

At Skukuza we stayed in a permanent tent. This is practically a hut, with cement floor, metal frame and wooden door, but canvas roof and walls. It had a fridge, fan, lights, and the most comfortable beds we’d been in for over a week. The one downside was that it was pretty hot when we went to bed (it got close to 40deg C every day), but the temperature dropped a lot at night and by 2am I was looking for a blanket. The other irritation was having to dress, find shoes and walk across the camp in the night for a wee.

The rest camps in the Kruger are huge areas enclosed in electric fences, containing huts, campgrounds, restaurant and shop, and sometimes a swimming pool and play area. Apart from some exposed bridges and picnic clearings they are the only places you can leave your car in the park. The gates close at 6pm and open at 5:30am, and the only animals you may find inside are birds and monkeys (little bastards jump the fence and raid the camp). It’s very safe, and about the only place in South Africa I was happy walking around alone in after dark! If you aren’t self catering the restaurant does a buffet every night, which was pretty good considering I don’t usually like buffets!

That first night we checked in, had a shower and a couple of beers, went for dinner and passed out in the tent. Apart from one toilet trip I don’t think I moved – it was my best sleep since we’d left Sydney. I woke at 7am as the sun reached the tent and started to heat it up.

For the next four nights in Satara and Olifants we stayed in rondavels – round thatched huts with en-suite, air-conditioning, and kitchenette. They get cleaned every day, and are very comfortable. Each one has a little veranda outside where the kitchenette is, and we’d splashed out a bit to have views which was great (in Satara the perimeter fence, and at Olifants we overlooked the river). They also each have their own braai-place, and we grilled steaks, mushrooms and corn cobs a couple of nights.

Apart from the usual driving around, we also went on a few extra excursions. We did a dawn drive, a sunset drive, a night drive and a bush walk. The drives were interesting as these were outside the hours we could be out of the camp, and we saw a few creatures that you don’t see during the day like owls, hyenas and jackal.


The bush walk was amazing though, and I strongly recommend it! It starts with the dawn (which means leaving the camp before 5am) and two rangers with shotguns lead a small group of people though the veld pointing out tracks and scat and stuff. We saw skeletons and a baboon spider tunnel (and we teased him with a piece of grass until he came out, wow they’re big!).

This was all getting a bit hot and boring as we tramped along next to a river, when suddenly the rangers stopped and pointed. They’d just mentioned elephant noises, so I was scanning the reeds trying to see the damn elephant, when suddenly there was a roar and this lioness came charging out of the reeds! I nearly wet myself. The rangers gathered us behind them and we stood in a little herd facing her about 20m away. The next moment a cub went scrambling up the bank behind her, and she turned and followed, pausing on top to give an unmistakable “leave now” stare. Then she was gone, and we quickly left her territory! Spine-tingling stuff!



Other highlights include:


Reversing down a dirt road for half a kilometer as we were in the path of a large elephant who didn’t look like he was in the mood to go around us.

Gingerly edging around a hyena suckling her cub in the middle of the road early one morning.

Having an afternoon nap at Olifants only to find that the vervet monkeys got into our fridge while we were sleeping and made off with all the sweets and fruit. Luckily not the steak!

Something worth knowing:
You cannot buy petrol in South Africa with a credit card (how am I supposed to know that?! You used to be able to). The only ATMs in the Kruger that take foreign cards are at Skukuza and Letaba. Sometimes the ATMs will go out of order while you drive to where they are. There is a long story behind this, but you get the gist!

Part 6 - Kruger - Sydney