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My Recent Visit to the Kruger National Park

On the 1st of March 2007 my family and I were fortunate enough to return to the Kruger National Park for our second visit in one year. Our first visit was so enjoyable and full of excitement that we had to return for a second time in search of the leopard that we were not fortunate enough to see previously. Another difference was that we were camping in tents this time!

We spent our first night at Berg- en- Dal rest camp. After we had set up camp, I went to have a look at the ablution facilities. I stopped to read the sign outside the men’s toilet. What I read made me think what we were letting ourselves in for! The sign was warning people not to leave meat lying around because the hyenas would be attracted in to the camp. Only then did I realise that we were in the WILD, and if an animal had to make its way into the camp, we would only have one millimeter of nylon from our tent to give us protection! The thought of sleeping in the car, if necessary, had already crossed my mind.

After supper and a visit to the swimming pool, I took a shower and went to bed, forgetting my earlier thoughts of danger!

At about 4am the next morning I was awoken by the sound of a lions roar, which sounded as if it was right next to our tent! At first I thought I was dreaming but when I heard the other people in a panic, I knew that it was real. Needless to say that I never slept another wink, in fact, I didn’t even close my eyes, and I wasn’t the only person!

By 05:30am we were up and ready to see natures “alarm clock”. At 05:50 we were at the camps gate and waiting anxiously for it to be opened.

The gate opened and off we went with our eyes wide open. “To the left, at 9o’clock”, my mother shouted! There it was, a huge male lion lying approximately twenty meters from the road and fifty meters from the camps fence! We immediately started flashing away at the beast that lay before us. This was a sign that we were going to have a very successful animal spotting experience!

We continued along the Matjulu loop for a few more kilometres. We pulled up behind a few stationery vehicles. It seemed as though there were looking left. All of sudden, I spotted a hyena, with a piece of meat in its mouth. As we moved closer, it disappeared into the dense bush. It was feeding on a rhino carcass. By this time the vultures had also received the message and were crowding and scavenging around the remains, fighting over every meaty morsel.

We continued down to the Matjulu water hole, to find another price, a lioness. As my brother opened his window to photograph her, she disappeared into the thick foliage.

We were really having a good day, a male and female lion, hyena, rhino carcass and vultures doing what they do best (scavenging). A little further on we came to a fork in the road and decided to turn left. It proved to be a good decision as a few hundred meters on, we saw a herd of about twelve kudu, with little ones! Seeing the ghosts of the African bushveld, eating so peacefully was quite spectacular. On we drove to find our selves in luck once again. A herd of about twenty elephants were eating in the trees right next to us. The sighting was made even more spectacular by the presence of a calf playing amongst the herd. We arrived back at the camp only to find that the monkeys had got hold of our coffee and sugar.

After breakfast, we made our way towards Crocodile Bridge. On this road we saw many impala, zebra, wildebeest and plenty of spectacular bird-life. We detoured slightly and headed towards the Gardenia Hide. We were watching two Hammerkops fighting over food when suddenly a loud rumble, which sounded like thunder, filled the air. Once again the “thunder” rumbled, but this time it was much closer and it sounded more like a lion’s roar! We immediately exited the hide and headed for our car. I excitedly, but a little nervously, switched on my video camera and pressed the record button. (I figured that if we were killed by the lion, my video camera would be found and at least the cause of our death would be recorded.) We slowly approached the gate to the hide. We unlocked the car, had one last scan of the surroundings to check that all was clear, and ran to the car. All four of us dived in and closed the doors at record-breaking speed! Whew! We felt much safer in our car!

We slowly drove on, in search of the “thunder”. After no more than one hundred and fifty metres we saw a flash of yellowish-brown, then we saw a full view of a lioness. She seemed to be running away from something. Suddenly, she darted into the bush, and was out of sight. We continued on slowly, scanning so see what was chasing her. Then we spotted it! A male lion with a massive mane was walking straight along the road towards the hide. This fierce predator walked along calmly, totally unaware of our presence. He stopped literally a metre away from my window. This was an awesome, yet terrifying feeling: the “king” of the jungle was within arms reach. After “posing” for photographs, the king walked into the foliage. Our luck was not nearly over yet. A few hundred metres down the road, we saw a pride of lions with cubs.

On return to Crocodile Bridge Road, we were fortunate enough to see buffalo and a small heard of elephant. The highlight of the day was definitely seeing a pack of about twenty wild dogs with their pups. The calm looking animals were so much like my dogs back home. After watching these creatures for a while, we headed back to our camp at Berg-en-dal.

After a wonderful two nights at Berg-en-dal, we headed up towards Skukuza. We set up camp and took a walk down to the river. Here we saw five hippo and a crocodile. The next morning we left Skukuza and headed towards Satara. We saw giraffe, hyena, wildebeest, zebra, impala, kori bustard, buffalo, giant kingfisher, elephant and hippo. We returned to Skukuza and during the night, we were awoken by the sound of jackals at the fence.

After spending two nights at Skukuza, we broke up camp and headed for our final restcamp, Pretoriuskop. The night we arrived at Pretoriuskop, we went on a night drive, but unfortunately, we did not see much. The highlight of the night ride was seeing a larger spotted genet.

Early the next morning, we drove towards Afsaal. We made use of the Voortrekker Road. This led me to think about how brave my fore-fathers were to come all the way through the park in the roughest, wild conditions. Fierce predators surrounded them, but they fearlessly “trekked” on.

When turning into Afsaal, we saw cars parked further along the road. At this stage, whenever we saw parked cars, we hoped it was a leopard. A little further down the road we realised what all the commotion was about. An impala was hanging in a tree. The antelope had fallen prey to a leopard. We waited here for nearly an hour in the hope that the leopard would return. Unfortunately, our luck was out, so we moved on along the Malelane/Skukuza Road. Later, that evening, back at our camp, a man told our parents that he had waited at the “leopard kill” and saw the leopard. We were so angry with my dad for convincing us to leave that spot!

As soon as the gates opened the next morning, we headed for Lower Sabie, along the Napi Road. We had a very rare sighting of three Sable and also saw Rhino and elephant. In the distance, we saw a conjestion of vehicles. Once again, we hoped it was a leopard sighting. This time it was! An amazing sight of a leopard in a tree. This was all we needed. The excitement was overwhelming and unreal. Our cameras clicked away and feeling rather satisfied, we drove down to the Transport Dam. Once again we were in luck! A pride of 11 lions and their cubs lay along the dam wall. The word spread that they had an aborted hunt just moments before we arrived. We waited anxiously until we saw another attempt at a hunt. A waterbuck calf came down to drink, but unfortunately the hungry pride remained unsuccessful. Later, our luck returned. A female waterbuck was on the menu, but once the again, luck was not on the pride’s side! Eventually we moved on and once again we were not happy with my dads decision!

A mere fifty metres down the road we were struck by luck, yet again. This time it was not just luck, but SUPER LUCK!!! Another leopard – HUNTING!!!! How much luckier could one family get? The predator was stalking a few impala nearby. This creature has such great camouflage that we could only spot it when its tail moved. Unfortunately, it moved on deeper into the bushes before we could witness the hunt.

After a successful trip to Lower Sabie, we once again saw Hyena, buffalo, lion, elephant. Waterbuck, giraffe and impala – or course!

Approximately five kilometres from the camp, our dream continued! We saw another pride of lions. We waited for them to move on and then we left. I had to slap myself to make sure what we were seeing was reality – another leopard walking along the road, marking its territory along its path. This magnificent animal was a mere few metres from our vehicle and we realised that our day could not get any better. Once again, it did!
A rhino bull and a buffalo were right outside the Pretoriuskop Rest Camp.

Within five kilometres, we had seen four of the “Big Five”! Three prides of lions, three leopards, hundreds of elephants, a few buffalo and a rhino. What a day! What an amazing way to end our fantastic, never to be forgotten, trip to the Kruger National Park.

I love this place and hope we can plan another trip in the not too distant future.