Kruger National Park is one of the premier game parks of the world.  Rivalling East Africa’s legendary Masai Mara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater national parks, Kruger sets a very high bar for game viewing and boasts probably the best chance in southern Africa of seeing the Big 5.  We planned to spend at least three days in Kruger, camping at different official campsites and exploring the park as we continue our search for Africa’s wild game. WARNING – this blog post contains a lot of animal photos!

 

Of the Big 5, we had already seen elephants, buffalos and rhinos – they are relatively easy to spot in most top notch game parks.  But the hard guys to see in any game park are the cats, and that means lions and leopards, because they lie low in the grass and out of the heat, playing very hard to get.

Kruger is an enormous park, running for a couple hundred kilometres along the Mozambique border.  We started in the southern section, paid our very high fees, and took to the tracks that criss-cross this rich park.  And we were instantly rewarded by seeing a number of animals we had only seen briefly before – like the wildebeest, kudus and waterbucks – along with many of our favourites, including elephants, giraffes, zebras and the beautiful impalas.  And we added to our list of wild creatures the hyena and dwarf mongoose, which was very cool.  But no lions or leopards.

After camping at the popular Skukura Rest Camp that night we opted for one of the paid guided sunrise tours the next day.  We hoped this would give us an advantage in seeing the cats – although in game viewing there is nothing ever guaranteed.  In fact, we had often commented that game viewing is such a frustrating game of chance – you could come around the corner and see a herd of mighty elephants cross directly in front of your path but if you come one minute later you miss everything. 

Our 5am sunrise game drive was successful in that we saw two beautiful male lions, their long mains, killer teeth and big paws confirming they truly are the king of the jungle.  Kruger before coffee and breakfast was worth the effort, dawn over this vast beautiful land with life’s creatures going through their paces to start another day.

 

We spent the rest of the day on a long looping drive south following the Sabie River, wildlife plentiful and the scenery just magnificent.  We then turned north through more remote terrain, following smaller rivers, up and over a number of kopjes (hills) and across vast open plains that were coated in deep green grass.

While we saw 21 different animals during the day, including a crocodile in the river, a rare klipspringer (small antelope which lives in the rocky hills), male kudus with their magnificent one metre long curled horns, a spotted hyena and hippos the day belong to the elephants.  We lost count of how many we saw but estimated it was more than one hundred elephants during the day, usually in groups of five to 15, grazing near the river in the long grass, guiding their young, crossing the road around us on many occasions and providing many hours of fabulous spectator entertainment. 

Perhaps the highlight was near the end of the day when we came across a large male swimming in a dam, splashing about, spraying water, diving down and blowing bubbles, sitting on the bottom like it was a chair and generally having great fun in the refreshing water.  It was that sort of a day for that elephant and for us.

We picnicked on the banks of the river on kudu biltong (dried meat) and sandwiches with ostrich pastrami, bush bucks grazing in the grass nearby.  It reminded us that the glory of Kruger National Park is not limited to its wonderful animals but also to its sublime beauty, the rivers, the long grassy plains, the thorn trees, the rising hills on the horizon.  The days are stinking hot, the night skies are clear and the stars sparkle like no other.  Kruger is the full package and deserves its global status as one of the true kings of the game park world.

That night we camped at Satara Rest Camp, like the other places in the park it is a heavily fenced and electrified arena so that no large and/or carnivorous animals can get inside.  The camps are an oasis for travellers with camping, tented and rondavel accommodation, restaurant and bar, sometimes a swimming pool and of course the rip off curio gift shop.  You feel safe inside even if the hyenas are prowling the fence line looking for a way in and the lions are calling out from nearby.  Africa in spades.

The next day we continued our game drives through the park, moving slowly northward and exploring new areas.  The theme of the day seemed to be giraffes – we probably saw 25 of these odd but wonderful beasts during the day, some of them extremely up close.  It was a more modest day of game viewing but we also saw two huge herds of elephants – between 40 and 60 in each – moving slowly across the open veld.  Magnificent stuff.

That night at Letaba Rest Camp we camped on the perimeter fence, a high electrified fortification, and enjoyed a barbeque South African style.  Called a braai, the locals usually use charcoal and lighter fluid on a small fire perched up on a little round stand so they can barbeque their meats.  We haven’t seen fire pits down on the ground which allows long post-dinner philosophical discussions while staring into the hot embers.  We were also visited by a number of hyenas which patrolled the fences from the outside and look longingly for a way into camp.  

 

Our fourth and last day in Kruger was more of the same, game drives along the Letaba River where we spotted many hippos, crocodiles and water bucks, and inland drives for the elephants, impalas, wildebeests and much more.  We then made our way north to the Giriyondo border post to pass into Mozambique. 

We have loved our time in South Africa, and particularly Kruger National Park, and look forward to returning to the country at the end of our circumnavigation of southern Africa in a few months. We’ve certainly fallen for Africa and can’t wait to see more.