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We had some welcoming rain when we were staying at Shingwezi beginning of Jan 07.

We went for a drive just after the rain stopped and was wonderfully surprised by all the animal activity in the middle of the roads.

There were tortoises everywhere. Where ever there was a puddle of water – there was a tortoise drinking. They were sooo happy.


We counted 14!



And here is something weve missed…

One of my favourite memories, never repeated, was to have literally hundreds of swallows flying in front of the car, skimming the road surface catching insects. Occurred after rain in April. An amazing sight.

The giant snail is also very impressive and often appears after rain.

Richard

Following a rainstorm in December 1998, very close to the causeway accross the Sabie at Skukuza, a spotted hyena suddenly appeared and attacked a herd of impala right next to our Kombi. A fleeing baby impala slipped on the wet road and was snatched up by the hyena just as it hit the road. It was a sighting we'll never forget and of course everytime we are driving on slippery roads in Kruger since we expect to see the same!

this was taken on the s100 in Jan 2006 after heavy rains. The car in front of me and the car behind me missed this beauty. She was right next to the road.

I'm visiting the park next week and was wondering if anyone has any comments on the quality of their game sighting during AND after the excessive rains.

Hi karie123

We visited Pretoriuskop at the beginning of October and it rained for a whole day. During that time we saw very very little - we did see cheetah so it wasn't that bad. Most animals tend to shelter under trees when it rains and the birds also disappear. But after the rains the veld just comes alive and it is an amazing time to be in the bush. You find that frogs and creepy crawlies appear out of nowhere! So basically, don't let rain put you off, it will not last forever.

Excessive rains ?
Any reports of heavy rain ?

"The park has, in the last two weeks,had an average of about 80mm of rain. The place where the most rain has fallen are Shingwedzi (74 mm), Lower-Sabie (135 mm) Punda Maria (90 mm) en Vlakteplaas (80 mm).

In places like Letaba, Satara, Pafuri and Stolsnek is the amount just over 65mm."

Roughly translated from Die Beeld Dec 4 2007 by me.

great news. all those areas that were burned down must be something to see. Great.

what areas that were burned down?

That is great news! Areas around Mopani and Shingwedzi was still very dry when we were there about two weeks ago. In Shingwedzi camp especially you can see evidence of how dry it must have been - no grass anywhere and all the recently planted shrubs behind the the chalets have disappeared.
I absolutely love to be in Kruger when it rains. I remember last December when camping in Tsendze it was terribly dry and hot the first few days - we measured 47.5% degrees under the caravan awning! And then it started raining - absolute magic. It was as if the veld turned green overnight and to be in the bush after a thunderstorm - something to be experienced!

As in photographicly? Or as in what you'll see?

Photos will be a little hard as you will obviously have bad light. But still you can make great photos. This cheetah (near Orpen) was lying down in the rain, not happy at all, but when it got up...


Of course being in the right place helped...

But with water available everywhere sightings can become thinner at waterholes.

Thanks for info , will buy Beeld . Any more reports from members ?

Can mods split this to "rainfall in kruger" as well ?

I spent much of my trip in October in rain and gloom! Still saw quite a bit. Photography can be a pain but the quality of the light can be good even if you could do with a bit more of it.

Even in the rain you can get good shots.





Just two example - more on the website. Too many actually! A bit more sunshine would have been nice.

Things to look for after rain? Giant snail is my favourite! Many other insects and frogs/toads appear. Then if you are lucky, hundreds of swallows skimming the road in front of you feeding off the insects.

Richard

when we visited in September the area from Tsokwane to Satara was burned on the left and right hand sides driving upwards to Satara and at Pretoiuskop driving on the Pabeni road to skukuza.

It was over the long weekend