The Mighty Kruger – 17/08/10

Named after Paul Kruger, an old president of the Transvaal Republic, Kruger National Park is the largest game park on the African continent. Stretching 360 kilometres down from Zimbabwe and along a large part of the border with Mozambique, Kruger has been a haven for African wildlife for well over a hundred years, and is arguably the most famous game park in the world.

We have about two and a half days in Kruger, time to get our final fill of game parking before we head home. After our twelve hour marathon game drive in Hluhluwe, I have insisted that we do things a little differently this time. To avoid my brain turning completely to mulch we have agreed to drive until mid-afternoon, take a break and then go out again for an hour before sunset. We make these plans with such misguided optimism. For our three days in and around Kruger we are staying in three different places. On paper the two hundred kilometre journey between camps doesn't seem like much of a challenge. What we both failed to take into account was the fact that the average speed you travel is about thirty kilometres an hour. With stops. And lots of reversing for glimpses of imaginary animals. And lots of detours along dirt roads as Nick is truly convinced that just around each and every corner will be that big male lion asleep in the road that every person we know that has visited Kruger has pictures of.

For our first day in the park we were staying at Lataba Camp, which is about halfway up the park. In the days before coming to Kruger we had been advised by lots of locals about the best areas for spotting game. Everybody had their favourite and 'guaranteed' place for lions and leopards, and we tried to fit as many of these into our drive north through the park. The day started well with a rare glimpse of an African wild dog crossing the road in the distance. Sadly, it was all too brief and a bit far for me to really make out. After that disappeared we saw nothing living for at least an hour.

Kruger is the seventh game park we have visited and after all the hype and 'guarantees' our first day was bound to be a bit of a let down. The temperature rocketed and with the windows down, the air-con off and little air movement, we roasted in our little hot-box of a car. The blazing sun also meant that any animal with sense was hiding in the shade and therefore invisible. After hours of searching in ever increasing heat, and a few frustratingly near misses of lions and leopards, we realized we had covered only about a third of our distance and would not make it to the camp before the gates were locked if we carried on at that pace. We changed our route and joined the busier tarmac road that our local advisers had told us to avoid as much as possible. Surprisingly we saw far more animals from the busy roads than on the dirt roads through the more remote areas. A well hidden leopard is far more likely to be spotted when twenty cars go past it instead of one. With all those eyes looking somebody is bound to spot it. As much as we tried to avoid those busy roads, preferring to spot our own animals than rely on others, we did eventually admit that our best chance of seeing something is to just look for the collection of parked cars. The lazy man's safari.

When we eventually rolled into camp, tired, dusty and hungry, we quickly got our braai going for our much anticipated BBQ. Annoyingly, when we went to the kitchen to collect the tools, we found that our provided 'full kitchen' only actually had a sink in it. We then had to run around the camp looking for somewhere we could buy paper plates and plastic knives and forks. While we enjoyed our food we were joined by a large hyena who, drawn by the smell, then paced up and down ten feet away from us on the other side of the fence. 

 

The next day we were up at 5.30 am and joined a 'bush walk' that took us on a game tracking expedition into the park. We were told there was little chance of seeing predators, but we did come across some fresh leopard and lion prints. The walk was more to teach us how to spot the small signs that help you track the animals. We followed a bull elephant quite closely for a while and then visited a pool where we were peered at by a semi-submerged hippo.

Following the bush walk we made our long, but slightly less baking way south to Skukuza Camp, one of the biggest camps in the park. The day was a lot more successful for spotting animals, we saw all of the big five in the space of a few hours. The day was long again, but we only have two more nights until we go home so the excitement is keeping any boredom in check. In about three days I will be home. I feel like a kid at Christmas.