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THE ALL-MITEY KRUGER-PARK TRIP REPORT


Here is a trip report with an unusual bent; something a little different. Although several people have posted TRs, there are still many that have not. I wanted to give everybody a chance to share their memorable sightings from Kruger, but also to amalgamate these into one exciting, upbeat, uplifting trip report!

However, what would be most useful to readers of this TR - and most especially those individuals who have not been to Kruger before, or have been very seldom - is to read up on great sightings in particular areas of Kruger. In the second post on this thread, I will keep a "Contents" page, with page numbers attached, so that anyone wishing to read up on a particular area, or road, in Kruger, can see which pages are suitable to what they are looking for.

This journey through Kruger will be an idealised trip: one which every great bush-lover would ecstatically embark on as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Therefore, I will enter the Park through Malelane Gate, traverse every legal tourist-accessible route on a standard Kruger map, and finally (hopefully in a few years' time ) exit from Pafuri Gate, after hundreds of sightings have been recorded!!!



GUIDELINES OF THIS THREAD

1. In order to keep the All-Mitey Kruger-Park Trip Report orderly, I will choose the section of road, which will be changed on a (usually) weekly basis. Each subsequent road section will follow the previous one sequentially, just as one would do while travelling a route in Kruger.

2. I will give a brief description of the selected road each week, so that people who do not know the road can get a picture more-or-less of what it is like. After the description, all mites are then welcome to post their sightings.

3. All memorable sightings that any forumite has ever seen (between 1927 (when the Park opened its gates to vehicle tourism) and the present day ) on the selected section of road may be posted during this time.

4. Please confine your reports to the section of road being discussed at a particular time. All roads will eventually be covered, so you will get your chance to post all your memorable sightings at some stage!

5. You may describe your sighting in any way you feel fit - as long as you feel it does justice to your report: anywhere from a paragraph in length to an extended account; and with photographs, with quotes, or with any other thing that might enhance your impact.

6. Please keep the tone of this thread as exciting and positive as possible! Therefore, please include only your most memorable sightings on that piece of road. Readers should be riveted and enthralled by what you post!

7. The core of this TR is memorable sightings. Please avoid general "negative-impact" descriptions and pics, such as describing, or showing, people breaking park rules; a car-collision; an animal run-over or dead by the side of the road; or tourists swearing at each other; etc. This is about the live animals! However, if you did something really special, or have a particularly fond memory there - such as celebrating a wedding anniversary, getting engaged in the car, or having a hyaena consume your camera, for instance - please include those too if you wish!

8. If possible, please attach suitable pics to your descriptions: the visual impact is that much greater!

9. When the journey reaches a camp or picnic spot, I will have an open period for a week or two, so that mites who have missed posting on any previously-covered roads, can have an opportunity to catch up and make those posts.

10. LET'S HAVE TONS OF FUN!!!

Fantastic!!! Let's begin our journey through the Malelane Gate, in the south-western portion of Kruger.

The first stretch of road we will be driving on is:

THE TAR ROAD FROM MALELANE GATE TO BERG-EN-DAL REST CAMP:
This road has a short stretch of grassland and bushveld - with open areas that overlook shallow valleys and mountains - before it enters the Malelane Mountain Bushveld ecozone. This ecozone (biome) is dominated by rugged granite hills surrounding areas of sweetveld (areas where grasses remain palatable and retain a relatively high nutritional level, and therefore have high concentrations of grazers). The knobthorn and marula trees dominate the area.
There is a high rainfall and rich diversity of species here. Kudu are the dominant browsers, while rhino, lion, leopard, and wild-dog are regularly seen. The rare oribi and grey rhebok are also found around Berg-en-Dal.
This drive has magnificent views that sometimes extend for hundreds of metres, and animals are often seen here. There are lots of bird species and beautiful trees too! Enjoy the change from the hustle and bustle of the N4 as you enter Malelane gate and settle down to absorb the magnificent bush atmosphere! Drive slowly for maximum effect!

What sightings have any of you mites seen on this road?

Please take it away mites ...

Ok, let me kick this great thread off.
Thanks OWN, a great idea.

In Feb last on a night drive with Raymond K we came across this LIT on the S110 not too far from the Malelane turn-off.


and after a wonderful drive the next morning imagine our surprise to find the Leopard had been replaced by this!



so after waiting around for some time in case Spotty came back we decided to go down towards the Malelane Gate when suddenly........
Coming through



crossed the road and disappeared in the direction of the tree with breakfast.



Sadly despite waiting for ages back at the tree it seemed to have lost its appetite.

Fantastic idea OWN This is going to be a marvelous thread! Wonderful sighting Elsa

I don't have any pic's as it was before I got my camera but the best and first sighting I ever had of honey badger was on this road. Just before you turn left at the T-Junction there is an open piece of veld. This particular morning my mom and I were driving, having seen a Leopard stalking a warthog the day before, in the same spot. Suddenly we see this black ball arch and hiss at a close encounter with a warthog. We realised it was a honey badger and waited to see if it would come out on the other side of a line of bushes. Lo and behold it does, saunters over to a tree at a culvert and starts digging for roots. He was so close and we must have watched him for a good half an hour. He would push the loose sand through his back legs with his front paws whilst using his nose to prevent more sand from trickling into the hole he was digging! One of the most memorable sightings I have ever seen!

We also saw our first LIT on this road. About 1km in from the T-Junction on the left hand side just lazying in the tree. Too stunning for words. Plenty Rhino too!

A year ago, I had a memorable sighting, but unfortunately it was still too dark to get acceptable pics. Nevertheless, the story goes like this:

I had been the first one out of the gate, which opened at 6 a.m. Still entirely dark, and with only a sliver of a moon hiding near the horizon, it was too dark to see anything except what appeared in my headlights. I had camped in Berg-en-Dal the previous night and had been awakened around 04h00 by the roar of two lions. I estimated that the sound came from the camp-gate area, but, just as one exits the gate, there is a choice of turning almost immediately right onto the S110 dirt-road, or to continue along the S110 tar-road, which T-junctions with the H3 after 10.5km.

This morning, it was a toss-up as to which fork the lions would be on, but I went with my gut-instinct and continued straight on the tar. Behind me I could see a single-file string of white headlights, all following my lead. I did not rush, keeping it to 30 km/h.

Suddenly, at about 3 km from the gate, I saw a movement off to the left of the road and immediately swung the car in a gentle left arc, stopping it rapidly. There, in the now-dimmed beams, was a lioness, inspecting the verge of the road. I saw her for maybe 15 seconds before she disappeared into a declivity by the road. Two cars immediately pulled up next to me, but they had not seen her at all. We scanned the shallow valley before us with our headlights, but she had disappeared into the relatively thick creamy grass.

Excited at the sighting, my heart rate accelerated and my mouth became dry. I felt like I was experiencing puppy love all over again, but this time it was lioness love. I took up the lead again, heading down the tar road. Five kilometres on, I spied a dark shape 100m down the road. As I drew closer, my heart leapt through my head: it was a large male lion walking on the right-side of the tar. I eased up to within a few metres of him, allowing him to swagger along without being harassed by the presence of twenty cars around him.

Fortunately, the cars behind me were all game-wise, and I noticed that they spread out three-deep behind, but never advancing closer than my car. We all took the lion's pace and followed him steadily. Every 50m or so, he would stop and roar loudly, obviously calling to his mate or pride. We had the pleasure of following him for about two kilometres in this manner, which translated to around 20 minutes!

As it became lighter, I noticed that he had a beautiful, dark mane, and that he was in good condition for an older lion. Just as it became light-enough to take pics, he chose that very moment to step off the road and make his way through thick grass at a 45-degree angle to the road. By now, only his upper half was visible, and he periodically disappeared behind bushes. The roaring never ceased, and I had to speculate that the lioness that I had passed earlier was probably his mate, or part of his pride.

Thrilled at my fortunate sighting, I moved on with a singing heart towards the H3, where I was to come across another superb sighting! However, that being on a different road, I can only relate that at a later stage.

The S110 tar road to Berg en dal is propbably one of our favourite roads in the park. On the 7th of July 2009, at about 6:00am, the Berg en dal lion pride took down a buffalo right next to the S110 road.

This was truely magnificent, as we witnessed the pride feeding on the buffalo during the whole day. There was basically nothing left of this buffalo by the end of the day. The next morning vultures were eating the last pieces of meat off the carcass. We will always remember this day whenever we travel on the S110 to one of our favourite camps, Berg en dal!













Hope you enjoyed these pictures!
Nice idea OWN

Great narration of your wonderful lion sighting OWN you make it come alive in our minds. My contribution to this area will start with the view as you say when entering the park take it in slowly, I love this area for its mountains and biomes. In May 2008 we had an Indaba at Berg n Daal and were fortunate enough to attend a rangers day display thus the following pics alongside the main road to the camp, I am hoping to give mites an idea of the beauty of the area. Quality of pics not too good but am sure you can get the idea.

March 2009 - this sighting was extra special as we had some overseas visitors and this guy was roaring all the way up the BnD road. There were two field rangers on bicycles who disappeared down the embankment double quick when they saw this chappy! He was not a happy camper!





September 2008 - the size of this giraffe was amazing!


Thank OWN for such a good idea!

Nice thread OWN

I've always enjoyed that road and have had some amazing sightings on it. On our last two trips, the first camps we've stayed at has been Berg en Dal. Last year we saw our first Rhino just after the turnoff from the main road heading up towards the camp.



In 2009 we did'nt see a rhino there during the day, but coming back from a sunset drive just past the turn off to the Malelane camp we had a rhino who took off like you would'nt believe when we stopped. We also did a walk from there in 2009 and it was one of the nicest ones we did that year through the koppies with Obie.

In 2008 driving out of the camp we came across this mixed herd of waterbuck and impala just outside the gate.



Last year, heading out for a late afternoon drive we came across these lions (what appeared to be a mating pair). They crossed the road in front of us and lay down about 15m from the road in a burnt section of bush.





The morning after this we were heading out of camp just as the gates opened. It was still dark and we were using a spotlight. As we came over a rise and dropped into a big dip (maybe 2 km's from camp) we saw a magnificent male in the headlights. He strolled across the road and into the bush on the right hand side. When we got to spot he had moved about 40m into the bush and we could see him in the spot. He was doing the "hunhhh hunhhhh" type call and he started walking towards Malelane at about the same distance from the road – we trolled along watching him for about 3 kms – he was motoring!! When he eventually headed away from the road (in about the same area as the photo's) I looked into the rear view mirror and there was a HUGE queue of cars behind me!

The same day we saw the lions we came across a breeding herd of ellies which wondered over the side of a koppie on the left of the road and down to the edge of the road. We got these snaps there – our first ellies for that trip.





On the same sunset drive I mentioned before, just outside camp there is a small dip with a bridge across it. There were 3 bull ellies there. Two of them wondered across in front of us but the third, after giving a couple in a little car a scare and chasing them back, decided to give us a look see. Walked around the truck fairly close with a bit of ear flapping etc. before wondering off into the grass on the left.

Hi everyone. This is my first story on the forum. Hope you all like it! We had driven in through Malelane Gate in April 2009 and the Kruger Park grass was thick, but quite dry. It was still early morning still and we were trying to get our minds around being in Kruger so we weren't taking much notice of things. Then we suddenly got a big wakeup ... there on the right side of the road (about one kilometer from the H3/S110 junction) was a beautiful male leopard! He looked like a peaceful house cat watching the people go by and not worrying about anything. We rushed to get our cameras on the back seat (we still hadn't expected a sighting as good as this) and the car stalled. Sadly this was enough to disturb the wonderful creature and he started to walk across the road in front of our car. It was still not very light and if I had known my camera well enough I would not have got such a blurred pic! Still, I took the pic - which is a memory we will not forget ever! Then he disappeared into the thick grass on the left of the road and was gone. I still haven't got the perfect leopard pic and this was a great opportunity ... but as they say, you mustn't cry over spilt milk. So we go to Kruger everytime expecting that the perfect leopard pic is just a few moments away!

Again, a pictureless story (got a video of the event, but haven't software to download it ), but one I remember lucidly. About a couple of years ago, and midway along the S110 tar road between the H3 and Berg-en-Dal camp, I was driving along near noon in the heat of the day, looking forward to making camp.

The road raises itself slightly above the surrounding landscape in parts and, at this point, it had done that. I rounded a curve and the road was packed like sardines with cars! Could only be lion or leopard, I thought; especially by the manner in which the vehicles sprawled in strange directions, blocking any hope for anyone wishing to pass. I couldn't get close to the sighting, but asked a couple of cars what there was. "Mating lions", came the reply.

Now, I can be both impatient and patient, depending on the circumstances; but, I knew that these lions wouldn't be going anywhere far from the road in a hurry, as they were slaves to their hormonal drive to mate, everything else around them receding into the distant background as far as priority goes! They are so enamoured by their activities that they don't eat for up to three days.

Slowly, a car or two gave way at intervals - probably having being overpowered by the sweltering heat - and I was able to edge ever closer. After about a quarter of an hour, I was able to get a glimpse of the lovers, and they already looked exhausted. What amazed me was that they didn't even seek shade: both were exposed in close-to-forty degree heat! Now, that's true love .. or, in their case, true procreational dedication! Puts humans to shame, I thought - imagine if we could hole ourselves up on honeymoon for three days and get to know each other more intimately every fifteen to thirty minutes!

Then, not a quarter of an hour later, just after I had seen my first mating of this pair, a large 4x4 evacuated its spot and I was able to assume a prime position for viewing. It always makes me wonder at the complexities of human emotions and psyches when I watch people's reactions to animals mating: they seem enthralled by the activities before them - almost as if they are watching something both private and special - but some of them still seem to get embarrassed to know that others are watching them watch the mating! Some people giggle; some turn half away in embarrassment; and still others (mainly pseudo-macho males) guffaw and comment with glee in strident voices, as if to brag that they perhaps could emulate such activities. However, wise individuals often realise that bravado may be associated with general insecurity and enough hot air to raise a large balloon.

Perspiring copiously in the humid heat, I wished I had a rubber dinghy filled with ice water in the rear of the car so that I could have a quick swim. However, that wish was drowned by excited voices all around indicating activity was about to begin again. The female had been lying firstly on her back for a few minutes, and then the rest of the time lay panting under the harsh, cloudless sky. Now she got up and, immediately, the male was galvanised into action: he moved towards her and, like a jigsaw-puzzle piece fitting into a perfectly matching one, the two bodies merged. Then followed a few rapid movements from the male, whereupon, in less than 10 seconds, both were roaring uncontrollably. The female let him know who was boss by snapping at his chops a few times, which caused the unsteady and bemused male to withdraw to a spot near his feline lover. There they lay - again incredibly in the hot sun - to recover for the next bout. I realised that they were probably drawing towards the end of their three-day mating spree (people later said they had seen these lions two days prior in a similar spot) as the interval between successive copulations was now around 35 to 40 minutes - on the first day, it can be anywhere from one to twenty minutes!

After watching the panthera-leo couple for almost two hours, I made my way to Berg-en-Dal with an unforgettable sighting under my belt.

Great ... let's move onto the next roads and areas of Kruger we will be covering on our trip:

We now follow the next route we're going to post memorable sightings from, all of which are within the Berg-en-Dal area:

Firstly, we overnight in Berg-en-Dal camp itself; see some wonderful birds amongst the natural bush which pervades the area; listen to the night sounds; and, both before sunset and again just after sunrise, we stroll along the Braille Trail that meanders past the Matjulu stream, which is dammed in front of the restaurant.

Then we drive out of camp and immediately turn right onto the sinuous sand road, S110, which is an extension of the S110 tar road (as described previously). This winds steeply up and down a twisting route, with hills and mountains all around. Many great sightings are found on this route, and often too at the Matjulu waterhole 4.5km from Berg-en-Dal.

At the fork 9km from camp, we hypothetically split our vehicle in half (like Herbie did in "Herbie Goes Bananas") and simultaneously travel 7.9 km on the S120 down the left fork, and 4.1 km down the S110 extension on the right fork.

The left fork crosses over the H3 tar road and becomes the S121 dirt road. The right fork also crosses the H3 and becomes the start of the S114 (we will only cover the first 5.5 km of this superb road for now). After 6 km of the S121 and 5.5 km of the S114, the two halves of our Krugermobile meet at a junction, where we stop to reminisce on what wonderful sights we just saw!

And those sights, mites, are ... take it away, friends!

To help jog your memories, the roads and areas we are covering for the next week are:
BERG-EN-DAL CAMP ITSELF, S110 DIRT ROAD, MATJULU WATERHOLE, S120, S121, & FIRST 5.5KM OF S114.

Super, let's get posting ... !

Hi OWN!

Like everybody said before me, this is a great idea!

Here's my contribution:

When I stayed in Phalaborwa growing up, we never really could go all the way down to the south in the Kruger without sleeping over.
So I never had great luck in the more northern parts to spot rhino. This specie has always eluded me.

One trip in 2009 we slept over in Lower Sabie and drove towards BnD in the morning. We were on a mission to find my first rhino and by then I had my SO (who was also rhino-less) with me, just as eager to brake the ice.
From BnD we took the H3 then turned right onto the S114, and relatively close to the S25 turn-off my SO was frantically slapping the dashboard out of pure excitement - she couldn't get a word out..... figured the adrenalin took over at that time.

I stopped the car and when I started reversing the car, I saw him walking backwards into the bush.




This isn't the greatest of photos, the rhino kept backing up into the bush and we had very little time to get the before he dissapeared in to bush.

The ice was broken and I shared it with the best person I could wish for!! As brief as the sighting was, we were charged for the rest of the day!

Mission complete on which will now always be a very special road for us!

This thread is a really great idea - and I'm happy to share a few pics of my 2009 trip around the Berg-en-Dal area with you

In September 2009 we did our first trip to SA and had 3 days in the KNP. After seeing a lot of general game the first 1 1/2 days around preotoriuskop we travelled to Berg-en-Dal and did a evening drive with Raymond - this was the best decision in our whole holiday !

We hoped to see our first Lions or Leopard when we left the camp at 17.oo.
Raymond just told us about the 4 nomadic males that invaded the area of Berg-en-Dal when someone of the people behind us, with binoculars screening the area, shouted "Stop":

Raymond slamed on the brakes an the older man pointed to a big tree about 100-150 meters away from the tar road -and there he was - not the best pic but our first LIT:



We were so happy watching this beautiful animal about 15 minutes and everything later on the drive would be a bonus!

The next 15 minutes nothing special happened until we reached the junction of the S110 and the S110 sand road. Raymond just told us the story of the king of the jungle when something appeared in the spotlights - "oh yeah - lions on the streets" Raymond shouted with a big smile on his face - and there they were, sometimes 0,5 meters near us:








The next day was our last in KNP and we decided to drive to Matjulu waterhole - this is a really beautiful place, where you can spend hours watching the animals coming and going. We took our lunch there an watched a big ellie that came to the waterhole and had all time of the world:





We watched him for a while - these are really peaceful moments

The ellie seemed to drink off nearly all the water, seemingly he had a very hard night behind him....


We are very glad that we will be in Berg-en-Dal 2010 too....not more than 200 days to go...

Greetings

Rookie09

I think we made about 250+ pictures of the lions - and at least 220 were for the dustbin. But raymond was kindly to drive the truck exactly in the position to take the best pictures.

I just browsed through my pc and found two more pics for you of this place - the first shows how near the lions were to the open truck , a very special and for some people scary situation. But the lions were very calm and tired, raymond ment that they were fighting against the males of the BergenDal pride these days:



The second one was taken by my girl friend the next day on the junction S110 tar/gravel road - probably my best giraffe pic on the trip:




Hope the mites keep this thread living, I'm so curios when we travel towards the northern region where i never had been!

Greetings

Rookie