SANParks.org Forums

Get into "chill" mode.

Turn off cell.

Absolutely no radio/CD etc.

Car windows down (up when predators about, and now and again for a quick aircon blast when very hot!!)

Drive slowly and stop lots.

Listen carefully and sniff regularly.

Nightly braai.

Check bed for unwelcome occupants!!

Looking at the night skies.

Amarulas before bedtime, watching the embers die away.

Ah.........can't wait!!

Our must do's are:
1) Switch off the cellphones and radios and open all the windows
2) Braai every night
3) Put the kids to bed and stay up late and watch the stars and listen to the night sounds
4) Find the camps regular Hyena and watch him/her with the kids
5) Wake up before the family every morning sit outside with a hot cuppa and tak in the fresh morning air
6) Turn into Japenese tourist mode and take a million pics

Our family must do's are...

open all windows...and relax.
be at the gates for opening every morning...talking to strangers and making friends.
setting our own timetables and staying to look at the little things as well as the big.

Also my personal ones...leave the hairdryer, straighteners, make up and heels at home. Enjoy being scruffy for at least 3 weeks!!! Always astounds me when I see women putting on full makeup at 5am!!!

on entry windows open, all phones, radios ipods, MP3's whatever off!

shoes and socks off (hence the reason we open the windows!!)

skottle breakfasts, coffe and melktart at Tshoswane, one champagne breakfast that includes the works

different roads everytime avoiding tar as much as possible

one afternoon spent at a waterhole, overlooking a dam

Kahlua coffee at night

a night walk around the camp perimeter fence without torches on

a bush walk/sunset/night drive. Draw lots as to which camps these activities take place from

Bush Baptist all of us wish to be in the KTP, not always possible .

Do not littering. Have time for visiting the Animals. Wait long time in a place, and hear it the sound , and showit what the animals doit. Drive slowly. Make Picknick on a Waterhole or other special Place, and you can see , something more . When you stay in Letaba , go to the Museum. Wait long time , when you stop by the Animals. So you can see , special activity from the Animals and somethimes you can see more Animals , als when you stop shortly. Please be quiet , when you been into Park. When you see the Animals , make not to trouble into Car. But the Animals can hearit and seeit long time bevor. And bevor you travelling into the Park, so study the most Animals. And learn what a Animlas doit. So you have more chance for good Pictures. And more chance , that Animals you and the car more accept , and the Animal doit the normal activity .
This is my Tips , for Youre best Safaris hier into Kruger.

mine

have a drive at the last minutes of the gates being open.

have a savanna dry around a braai full of chops and wors.

just breathe in the fresh air

look for the bats at skukuza

buy a deck of cards (personal)

spot a lion. haven't been to kruger once in my life with out seeing a pride of lions

look for the owl sleeping in the rest camp

have fun spotting game

* Tie on that yellow ribbon
*Get out the sunglasses, binocs, camera, bird book, Safari Companion book, maps.
* Stop at the market before entering and buy all sorts of things I can't easily find in California (Savanna Dry, Nougats, Rusks, Amarula, Rooisbos, etc. etc. etc.) Then a BIG bag of oranges and bag of avos from one of the little stands on the road going to the entrance.
*Stop at every hide, picnic spot, dam.
*Full blown skottle breakfast with some fresh squeezed orange juice (from the big bag we got on the road).
*Take a zillion pictures.
*Find the dogs we saw on our last trip.
*Out the gate when it opens, back in 20 seconds before it closes.
*Take a zillion pictures.
*Stop often and just watch.
*Get off the tar.
*Look at the little things.
*Visit the spot where we scattered my brother's ashes and cry just a little thinking about how he never got to go to Kruger and how much he would have loved it...then remember how very very lucky we are to be there again.
*Sit on the porch of the Best River View bungalows at Olifants and be amazed all over again.
*Look for servals and caracals and badgers and a pangolin. If we don't see them all, it is ok cuz it just means we have to come back again to look again.
*Listen
*Smell
*Smile
*Take a zillion pictures.
*Don't hurt anything.
*Be extremely grateful that there are places like this.

Basically its a plough disc shape attached to a rod connected to a gas bottle.
You can hire them from the various picnic sites usually around R17 for half and hour, the attendant will bring it over, set it up for you and even light it if requested, once heated up one can cook your bacon and egg breakfast or boerewors plus a lot of things in between.
Hope this helps, will try and find a pic.

Thank you for the explanation, bambazonke, now I know what all those people were doing at Tschokwane.

I only have two more questions:
What is the significance of the yellow ribbon
and
where is Lake Panic ?

Yellow ribbon is what we tie onto our cars either on the right hand wing mirror or somewhere on the car to make ourselves known to other forum members.
Lovely to meet and put names to faces in one of the parks.
More Here & Here
also members can give the dates of their trips in Here so you know when you might meet up with someone and where.

Lake Panic is a wonderful bird and animal hide found about 5 kms from Skukuza off the H11, Skukuza/Paul Kruger Gate road.
It is the same road that leads to the nursery and Golf Club and well sign boarded.

Some, not many, picnic sites have hot water available but the best thing is to get yourself a Thermos flask and fill it with hot water before leaving camp.

Be there when the gates open.
Bring along plenty of biltong, beats my Texas jerky all over.
Turn off the radio and roll down the windows.
Take the first gravel road and drive real slow.
visit every hide I come across.
Take lots of pictures and post them so my friends will be encouraged to come and visit.
Look for that elusive pangolin, one of only 6 listed mammels I havent seen yet.
Have one of those wonderful meat pies.
brai, brai brai.
take a walk guided walk and a night drive.
visit the northern part of the park, its awsome.
Take your time-A speeding car slowed down as we approached to ask us what we had seen, I told them where there were a couple of male lions and several elephants. Asked what they had seen and they said they had no luck at all and then they sped away to look for the lions. Not 200 meters down the road from where they had just come were two rhinos, a mother and calf not 30 meters from the roadside that they had sped past just before they met us. slow down.
Thank God you are where you are.

Mapangubwe July 15 -17
Kruger July 18 - 27

A must do is waking up at least an hour before sunrise. Making a cup of coffee and eating "Ouma" rusks while sitting outside and listening to the sounds. This is especially nice if you are in one of the Bush Camps (Biyamiti or Sirheni) where there are not a lot of people and noise.

It is nice to hear the change in the type of sounds from when it is still very dark to the start of sunrise. You hear the Scops Owl and later a Woodland Kingfisher start singing his song.

Not so nice is then trying to get the rest of the household up and ready to move once the gate is open ...

A very Kruger thing to do is to have picnic at one of the great rustic Picnic Spots – hot fried bacon and boerewors sausages, fried eggs, toast with low fat margarine and good strong coffee. Enjoy the Lowveld surrounds.

Bacon and boerewors and then low fat margarine???