Kruger Park - 31January - 3 February 2011

Kruger Park – Claudina and I spent three nights in Kruger Park with Jan and Moyra at the beginning of February, two nights at Lower Sabie and one at Crocodile Bridge.  Kruger Park is found on the Eastern side of Mpumalanga Province bordering Mozambique.  Covering over 20 000 square km it is a huge park (370km North to South).  Maintained roads allow visitors to drive their own vehicles making it one of the great African parks to visit.  Currently one of the greatest problems facing the park is Rhino poaching.  The park has just over 9000 white and 300 black rhino presenting a tempting target.  Just to put the parks black Rhino population into perspective the above number represents a quarter of the worlds population of black Rhino.

Tall grass and low cars – Kruger has had an abundance of rain over the past two months, the grass is exceptionally long (difficult to see over)  this was compounded by a low vehicle (a free vehicle!!!  The best around, thanks Moyra) making it difficult to see anything but the largest animals and birds, smaller animals you do see you find on the road.  A couple of nice viewings included a cheetah, an African Civet, leopard (a first for us) and three jackal pups who hadn’t learned to be afraid of vehicles.

Black backed Jackal

Lower Sabie – Camp

We booked into two permanent tents at Lower Sabie.  Self catering units, they are comfortable but you need to try and get the units along the river.

Fireflies and the Milky Way

Hippo’s and Baboons. Every camp has night sounds, the dominant animal sounds at Lower Sabie are the grunting of the Hippo’s and in the morning the calling of Baboons.  The Baboons sleep in a huge tree with a river view just beyond the camp fence.  In the evening they trek past the camps perimeter fence, big males keep watch for predators while babies hitch a ride on moms backs. On our last night we heard a single male lion grunting in the distance chilling stuff if you are an Impala but lovely from the safety of a bed. 

Birds – Amateur ornithologists always have something to look for in the bush.  We were unprepared for our visit this year due to weight considerations (flights), no binoculars and bird book ( a Roberts Birds of Southern Africa or Sasol would have been nice).  Still we had some good sightings even if we didn’t always know what we were looking at.  The big birds of prey like the Marshall Eagle and the distinctive Bateleur are always easy to pick out, we got some good shots of vultures and a lone secretary bird posing on the top of a tree, but it is the little birds like the Carmine and White Throated Bee Eaters and the Rollers whose colours really grab the eye.  Fortunately they are readily available to photograph as they keep vigil for insects by the side of the road.

Born Free

Vulture Tree

Watching

Waiting for the thermals

The big five – we saw the big five although the pictures of leopard require a little imagination.  Rhino were plentiful although they were the first to teach us that it never pays to second guess animals, although if you do and its successful it may be spectacular, when it fails it may also be spectacular.  We spotted six rhino and thought they were making their way down to a drinking hole so we waited there.  In the interim the six found a nice mud hole right next to the road and enjoyed themselves while we waited, definitely an opportunity missed.

Confidence is, lying in the road in South Africa when a Taxi goes by.

Burchells Zebra

Elephant Crossing

Giraffes in the Lowveld

He's not heavy

One of the few animals visible over the long grass

Mixing of cultures?

Solitude

Sunrise and Sunset – the park seem dead against taking sunrise and sunset shots, the gates open and close just after and just before, pretty frustrating, apparently if we had arrived in January the times were an hour earlier and later.  Still the lowveld is spectacular and we were happy to stick a tripod out the window and snap a couple of typical lowveld scenes.

Crocodile - our last night was spent at the Crocodile River Camp.  Our first visit to the camp but it marked a milestone for us in that we have traveled the park from its northern boundary (Limpopo River, and the Tropic of Capricorn) to its Southern boundary at the Crocodile River.  We have also stayed at nearly all the camps although we have yet to stay at the main camp of Skukuza.

As we left the park I couldn't help wondering if we would be back, I hope so, it is definitely one of the world’s great parks and well worth another visit.