Kruger National Park 2017

In August of 2017 it was back to the amazing Kruger National Park and what a trip it was. https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/ We entered the park at Orpen gate and traveled up the Timbavati river and back onto the H4-1 and up to Oliphants rest Camp. After a wrong turn we have to make our way very speedily up to the camp.

The highlight of the day was two or three herds of elephant having a wonderful afternoon in the small amount of water in the Timbavati river. there was 40-50 elephants, unfortunately I couldn't get a decent photo. A part from the elephants we did not see any predators but alot of the usual suspects.

Day 2 saw us go north of Olifants on a loop and come back south and down to Satara rest Camp. Our day started off at a slow pace. After our day 1 rush we had calculated that we would work on 15km per hour, thus leaving us plenty time to drive slowly and spend time at good sightings. Our first sighting of was a cackle of spotted hyena. Three came up the road, it wasn't long before we noticed that their behaviour toward one hyena in particular was rather peculiar. They were smelling each other and almost trying to dominate the individual. We couldn't figure out the behaviour but we thought that maybe the individual wasn't a part of this cackle.

We got to Satara and booked in, the order for the afternoon was lion. We took the H6 road east looping back to the camp and were richly rewarded. We saw a great deal of game including two female lion and a little later two very fat and full male lions right next to the road. One of which passed so close to the car we could have patted his back.

That night we went on a night drive hoping to see the nocturnal animals that we would not normally see. We were however very disappointed as the guide back tracked a lot, the group that we were with were terrible at handling the spot lights and the weather conditions were not in our favour. Dispite the night drive, this trip to Kruger was definitely the most successful.

Day three turned out to be a phenomenal day. It started off very slowly travelling from Satara to Pretorius Kop via Skukuza. After a slow start we found our first rhino of the trip but soon realised that we had forgotten to drop off the key to our accommodation to our Satara and had to race back. After our blunder our day began to significantly improve as we came across a leopard with an impala kill in a tree. The leopard had eaten a good meal but wasn't done.

Being friendly in the park is always advisable. When you get the chance, stop and chat to people, especially coming from the direction you are heading in. We chatted to a nice family who told us about a pride of 17 lions including cubs just before our tea stop and off we went to find them. We found them but it wasn't a great sighting.

Shortly after we came passed a herd of elephants. We watched two teenage bull elephants have a good tussle.

After we picked up a quick ice cream from Skukuza, we took the H1-1 to Pretoriuskop and it can only be described a sublime. The road went something like this: Rhino, Rhino, Leopard, Hyena, Cheetah, Hyena and anti-rhino poaching unit. I can't ever remember having such a successful afternoon.

The next cackle hyena had a wide range of ages in their pack which made for interesting viewing. It was very cute to watch the pups play together.

As we traveled the last couple of last kilometers to Pretoriuskop we watched as a light aircraft kept circling the area near the rest camp. A couple of minutes later a helicopter joined the plane we got to a point in the road where a ranger car on the ground and the helicopter were closing in on one point. the guys on the chopper, who had pretty big guns, waved us through. A kilometer down the road was another ranger car. It was awesome to see that the park was taking the fight against rhino poaching very seriously. 

Day 4 saw us see the big 5 between 8.00 and 10.30, an elephant herd stampede and an awesome surprise to end the trip.

We went down the old Voortrekker road and then up north and then east towards Lower Sabie, then onto the H4-1 and finishing the day on the S1. 

The old Voortrekker road offered very little but we did see a lazy rhino. As we went north we drove through a herd of about 150 strong buffalo.

We then saw a leopard lying at the base of a tree and then crossed the road and into the bush.

2-3 kilometers down the road a traffic jam indicated a big cat of some sort and this ticked off lion. There was a male and two females. We started up a conversation with a game ranger from a private lodge. He went on to say that two males (brothers, who quite happily look after each other and share females) and two females had been mating for over a week. The female got up briefly and so the male got up, she lay down and he lay down. Just before we left the female got up and went into the bush and the lion limped off after her. they did the deed in a brief roar and it was over.

We the poped into a few elephants to round off the big 5.

During our stop at the mating lions and our chat with the private game ranger, one of the rangers guests piped up that they had seen a pack of wild dog with 10 pups. We then no so subtly pushed for more information and a location. With a little reluctance the ranger told us. We gave ourselves a full hour and a half  to find the wild dogs. We drove along the road without looking too hard and got the point at which we realised we had gone passed that the ranger had told us. we then back tracked searching with painstaking persistence. We had no luck and decided that we had had an exceptional trip and it would be greedy to want more. So we started to drive to the gate and not two minutes after saying that wild dogs are one of the hardest animals to spot so I spotted the out line of a fully grown dog and three pups on a termite mound. Moments later we have to pack moving down to the road and running along it like a path with a lead dog in front, the majority of the grown ups keeping the 10 pups in line and two adults bringing up the rear.