Kruger National Park – DO IT!

I have come to realise my initial target to write a blog post a week was maybe a little optimistic. I am blaming poor time management skills and general laziness to find something to write about. And then my friend John suggested I blog about the trips I have done. What a fabulous idea. So here is a post about my most recent venture to the lovely Kruger National Park (KNP).

Once a year my family takes a trip to the Kruger National Park, a real gem of South Africa (really, us South Africans should punt the hell out of this beauty – well much more than we already do anyways; maybe as much as we do Cape Town). We take advantage of the public holidays on the 27^th April and 1^st of May and make a long weekend out of the trip.

A gigantic buffalo bull!

The holiday planning is always quite stressful and harrowing. About two months before the day of departure we decide to go, then it consists of me daily using and abusing the work Internet to find us accommodation. This time is popular and usually is already full. However due to the payment policy (you must be fully paid up 30 days before your trip) we usually manage to get a booking right in the nick of time. This may not be the best way to book as you may not be able to book for your favourite camp. However we do generally get a booking for the southern part of the camp (slightly more lush with animals that up north, although also a lot busier). The booking system on www.sanparks.co.za is so user friendly and easy showing where accommodation is available for any selected date and I highly recommend it to book any trip to South Africa’s National Parks.

I love the Kruger so much. My parents introduced it to my sister and me at a young age, and it is always for me a truly African experience. I come home feeling so peace and rested. I mean there are wild animals in the wild there! What more can an African ask for????

This was taken somewhere near Pretoriuskop – isn’t it just magical?

After yet another delightful trip, here are some helpful tips, facts and dos and don’ts:

1. Be prepared – the accommodation in the main camps are BASIC. As in a bed, a bathroom if you are lucky and little else. Do not expect luxury. The bed cloths and towels are worn thin, there is little in the way of crockery and cutlery, you are lucky if one hot plate works on the stove top works. Lug a supply of paper plates and necessary kitchen utensils.  I chose to view it as part of the charm.
   

   View from our hut at Lower Sabie – the hut may be basic, but the view is magnificent!

2. Plan – plan your routes (a map of the park is a must) as it may take four hours to travel 50km due to the speed limit and game sightings (hopefully). I also suggest bringing as many groceries with as possible because although the shops are adequate, they are no supermarket and also because a braai you made yourself is so much better than any restaurant food.
3. Be patient – service will be slow, you have to drive slowly, but this is the pace of the Kruger. Wave to the car passing you, give them a smile. Slow it down, calm down, it is worth it.
   

   This was sunset at Sunset Dam just outside Lower Sabie. Just patiently sitting there we saw millions of birds, waterbuck, hippos, crocodiles and some elephants.

4. Be aware of the little guy – not only of the snake, tortoise or chameleon that may be crossing the road, but if you are in a SUV type car be aware the sedan that you have pulled in front of at a sighting can now see nothing. Maybe it is only because we were actually in a sedan that that all SUV drivers seem to be overly rude, or maybe they do view courtesy to others as a smug stare from a tween out the review window as they just pulled in front of you blocking the lion you spotted, or maybe it is just because their bull bars make them seem aggressive?
5. Stick to the rules – they are all there for a reason and if we all follow them everyone is happier. Don’t speed, don’t feed the animals, don’t get out of your vehicle, don’t litter, make sure you are back from viewing before the gate closing times.
   

   These guinea fowls came a begging while we were eating our breakfast. We did not feed them.

6. Relax and enjoy the peace – no need to loud music or radio – the veld itself will talk to you if you allow it to. No need for TV (luckily most huts are not equipped with one). Poor cellphone reception – just enjoy this one. After a delicious braai in the evening, I like to sit with a good book and listen out for lion, hyena and hippo. There is nothing as special and haunting as hearing this.
   

   These lions were not roaring – they were too full from feasting on a buffalo!

7. Take a torch – this for me is the most essential item (equal maybe with mosquito repellent and maybe binoculars). My hut was of the communal bathroom kind and a torch can very much in handy for a night-time run to the loo (note run – just in case of a lion).
8. Take in your surroundings – you are in the wild – it is so beautiful. The sunset is better, the clouds more beautiful, the veld vividly colourful and your never know – maybe you spot a giraffe head if you scour the savannah.
   

   Just look at the beauty of Africa!

9. Be courteous at all sightings – this has become more and more rare at spottings as the years have gone past (see note 4 for all the SUV drivers). Everyone wants to see the leopard or lion. Stop somewhere were you do not inconvenience others (as in not in the middle of the road that other cars have been using to vacate the sighting). Yes you have twenty lenses for your camera but are you going to be needing 50 shots of the same sleeping lion? No. So stop, enjoy the sighting, take a few snaps and move on. You never know what is waiting for in the next 10km.
   

   Was hard to see the wild dog – most cars do not think of others!

10. Go on a night drive if you can – I have been lucky enough to have gone to many in my lifetime and never can I call one unsuccessful. These may be freezing, but the opportunity to see nocturnal animals is too good to pass, and the knowledge that I have learnt from the rangers is better than any animal book you come across.

 

There have been so many changes in the Kruger from when I first started going. Yes it may not be as cheap as before (the prices for accommodation sure have gone up, but the quality remains the same – see point 1), chain restaurants are being added in at main camps, the cars have gotten bigger (yes I realise I have moaned about this a lot), the animals seem to be less (Migration? The stopping of water holes? Poaching? Who knows?). Yet still I go back every year and will continue to do so. It captures your heart with its beauty and promise of special sightings of animals in their natural habitat. Truly African.

My mom always says that zebras are Africa to her – so here are two greedy zebras munching away!

 In summation – go to the Kruger National Park, you will not regret it.