The Kruger Park

The Joburg part of the trip again formed a filler between a sandwich of travels - but we had some great time with family, a big get together with the old London crowd (Simpsons, Pats, Kotsies and Saskia) over a feast of the finest SA steaks and beverages at the Local Grill, and a lovely leisurely braai at Charl's house with the Fouches and Davis clans (with Charlie on top form as ever).

An early start for the long drive on the 26th May took us up to Pafuri gate, at the Northern tip of the Kruger Park (and South Africa). Once in the park while driving to our camp in Punda Maria we encountered large elephants (yes I know they are big anyway, but these were elephants who gym a lot!) fighting & playing in a water hole, so close at times that we were getting a little worried about our escape route. Passing zebra, impala & kudu, we carried on to our tented accommodation. The tented accommodation here was lovely, it is a permanent tent structure built onto a wooden deck complete with toilets, open air showers, kitchen and most importantly the braai. Sitting on the deck, looking out over the bush was simply stunning. With visits from a resident civet (ferreting for food below our deck) and a bush baby (sitting on the braai grid outside) in the middle of the night, we really felt like we were truly in the bush.

27th - a day of adventure. A sunrise drive took us around Mahonie loop, where we saw nyala females, sharpes grysbok and a terrapin. We stopped at a water hole with baboons, impala and a kudu all milling around - opening the car windows to look at them. A few minutes later Sean turned the key in the ignition…nothing…we could not even shut the windows (a little worrying when you are next to baboons)!! After many attempts, and exploring all options in the car (fuses etc) we realized we were stuck there. You can't exactly get out and tinker in the engine - one because of the potential danger from animals and two because we are both clueless in that department! Finally a car passed, we flagged it down and they kindly went back to the camp and asked the rangers to come and assist us. After a long wait the rangers arrived and towed us back to camp. Immediately getting there one of the staff from the camp came and fiddled with the battery terminal and realized it was just a loose collection.....how frustrating! This was right up there with the other times we have felt stupid - but having had dodgy electrics with the car before (passenger windows that wouldn't close and dodgy hazard lights going off when they choose) we assumed they had just died. With relief we went back to our tent and had lunch.

Lunch was accompanied with a constant buzzing, which we realized was courtesy of bees buzzing into the rolled up canvas window cover. Sean unrolled this to have a look…evidently no one shuts the outside window flaps, as it had not been opened for some time and unleashed a family of very unusual bees (white tails) and lots of cotton wool looking pods…which Sean found bees wax in. Understandably for having destroyed their home this unleashed the anger of the bees, and while I hid inside Sean tried to re-roll the curtain, and other things, to no avail. Luckily later on one of the staff from the camp came to let us know Avis were at the gate, waiting with a new car for us (advantage of hire cars) and he also brought someone to come and sort out the bees nest, or what he thought were spider pods. On the way back to camp we drove around Kruger, stopping at a water hole to watch buffalo wallowing in the mud, and male nyala as the sun set behind them. We also had a loud midnight visit from a baboon or some big animal trying to get to our food in the outside kitchen.

The 28th saw the start of our journey to cover Kruger from north to south. After a sunrise drive and a quick breakfast stop we packed the car to drive to Mopani, via Shingwedzi, where we lodged in a rondavel. En route we saw black backed jackal, crocodiles, giraffe, bush buck, steenbok, warthog, tsesbe and ostrich. After a long day in the car we grabbed a bite to eat and it was time for bed.

29th of May - Noisy neighbours! Driving from Mopani through Letaba to Phalaborwa gate we saw a herd of buffalo crossing the road, giant eagle owls, waterbuck, a tortoise (one of my favourites), hippos in the water, another hippo family grazing, a giraffe who got a surprise as did we when we drove right up to him around a corner on a track, lions on a rocky hill, steenbok and a spotted. At Phalaborwa gate we checked in to stay at the Sable hide, were given a massive 1.5m candlelight torch and a huge set of keys (and wished good luck). We drove out to the hide as sun set approached. The hide is literally that - a wooden structure that people use to watch birds and animals which overlooks a dam. As the evening went on the sun set and we fired up the Braai - realizing very quickly firewood would have been helpful to light up the boma enclosure, briquettes are good for braaing but give off very little light! Light would have helped not only to see what we were doing, but also to provide some comfort being 2 people stuck in the middle of the bush with only a thin fence separating us from the wilderness that lurked in the dark beyond.

We also soon realized we were the only ones staying there that night (despite it sleeping 9 people) as the park gates were long shut. We started cooking and almost instantaneously heard lions roaring in the night (as if approving of the menu). Searching with our torch proved fruitless but luckily a night game drive came into the area with huge spotlights, illuminated the area and picked them up just the other side of the dam (big male and female). They (vocally) started to get annoyed with the game drive's bright attention and started walking around the dam towards our spot. We followed them for a while and then settled back to cooking when their growling, roaring and low gutteral noises indicated they had moved closer to us. We could no longer see them with our dwindling torchlight. I started to wonder whether they liked the smell of toasted sarnies, or us......

Another night drive came along and we found the lions on a ledge of the dam, about 70 metres away from us! This was seriously close given the thin wooden fence. I was getting quite worried by this stage, and made Sean get our toasted sarnies and we ate in the hide (you can lock yourself in).Things quieted down, to Sean's disappointment, and we carried on cooking our meat on the braai a little concerned that the smell of cooking meat would attract animals, but leaving raw meat outside all night would probably be worse! Unscathed and fed, we pulled down the beds from the side of the wall, and climbed into our sleeping bags. In what would be deemed the still of night in the city it is amazing the amount of noise in the bush, the crickets and insects, lions joining in from time to time and we even had a bat in the hide flapping around too. We went outside a few times to see what was around and it was amazing just being out in the middle of nowhere on our own with not a light in sight. A few impala didn't seem phased at all by the lion's presence as they grazed only meters away, but the rest of the animals seemed to steer clear of the watering hole courtesy of the king of the jungle's roaring. We did spot (excuse the pun) a spotted genet. Even without many animals the unbelievable sky glittered with more stars that one could even imagine existing which. The Milky Way is unbelievably clear out here!

30th April, we drove (slightly tired thanks to the night's events) via Olifants camp to Orpen, which took all the daylight hours. We spotted elephants on the way with a big male even charging the car as we crossed the road! A pride of lions drifted through a river valley and Sean saw a leopard peeping up just before he went to sleep after what looked like he had been feeding on an impala. We waited patiently hoping he would appear again, however briefly, but sadly we eventually had to carry on to ensure we got to camp before the gate shut.

1st May we drove from Orpen via Tshokwane, where we hired a "Skottel" braai (like a gas wok really) to made a real farmer's breakfast (boerewors, lamb chops, bacon, eggs and tomato). It was fascinating to watch the starlings (birds) scavenge from the Skottle - piping hot they were still prepared to land on it to get to the food! You have to be on close guard to ensure you don't lose your breakfast not only to them but also to the vervet monkeys that loitre in the tree waiting for an opportunity to sneak in and grab anything. We continued down to Pretoriuskop where we stayed the night in another rondavel. On the way we saw wildebeest, lion (very lucky with so many sightings) and white rhino. I saw a shape (possible leopard?) climbing out of a tree but by the time we had reversed it was gone, so who knows! Our adventure for today was eating Red Hartebeest sirloin steaks on the braai for dinner (stunning)!

2nd May: our last day in the Kruger. We drove down to Malelane gate - it was a very quiet a trek. Very few animals wanted to say goodbye with the only new sighting a klipspringer on a big outcrop. We were sad to be leaving after spending a week in the bush looking at amazing animals, landscapes and sunsets/rises, but the next adventure awaits. We have driven Kruger from north to south, so next time we look forward to picking one or two camps to base ourselves at so we don't have the travel each day and can do things at a more relaxed pace - we have covered almost 1,300km in the park, and our total to date is over 6,500km through SA!!!!