World Cup - Kruger National Park

Springbok for dinner

Our lodge at Hippo Hollow

18th of June was a good day as I was finally going to leave Jo’burg which was my base for the past 7 days and head north-east towards the Mpumalanga province. It was about a 5 hour drive through the farmlands and then over the mountains and as we descended we were in the Big 5 country (Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo & Leopard). The gold standard for National Parks in Africa is their capacity to have all the Big 5 animals which does not mean that they can’t have say Cheetahs or Giraffes, etc; it just means that they have the Big 5 in addition to the other savannah animals.

At the Kruger gate

Our first sighting was this giraffe in the cool of the morning

My plan when I left for South Africa was simple Exit Jo’burg on 18th – go to Kruger National Park (KNP) – go to the Blythe River Canon – End at Polokwane to see the Argentina Greece game on 22nd. I had no travel arrangements and no hotel accommodations just this base plan.

My first time seeing an African Elephant

Baboon

Joaquin has a rental car reserved for a few days and was also interested in going to KNP but Geraldo was more inclined to go to Sun City (comparable on a lesser scale to say Las Vegas because it has Casino’s and amusement park and fine hotels and restaurants, etc).

Greater Kudu

Some species of hornbill I think

I was totally not interested in going to Sun City so that morning was spent determining where to go. Fortunately, Geraldo finally agreed on going to KNP so we packed our bags and left for the airport to pick up the rental car.


Impala leap



A herd of Impalas


A quick fact about the Kruger National Park (KNP) is that it’s actually a part of the much larger Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which was created in 2002. The latter joins together Mozambique’s Coutada 16 Park, Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou Park and South Africa’s Kruger National Park and the combined area of 38 600 km2 is actually greater in size than Switzerland, Belgium or Taiwan. The problem with this is that it’s not as simple as showing at one gate and then driving through it. There were multiple entry points to the park all which were hundreds of kilometers apart. On top of that we had to make sure that we got some accommodation the night before on the outskirts of the entry point to the park and then head into the park early next morning.

Giraffe crossing

Couldn't resist stepping out of
the car even though its prohibited



Some one else sticking their
neck out

On our way to Kruger, at a restaurant where we stopped for lunch we met a few Israelis who were returning back from Kruger and suggested we go to a town called as Hazyview and then enter the park from the west. He suggested the place where they stayed as well as the guide that they used to get around inside the park.

Armed with this info, we got into Hazyview later in the evening and by 8pm we had the plan for entry into the park as well as a place to sleep that night. With the plan for tomorrow set, we went out for dinner and I ordered a Springbok dish (Springbok is a type of antelope and I made sure to check that it was not wild but instead a semi-wild antelope reared by private game owners on private land around the Kruger National Park). The meat taste was interesting. I think it was somewhat similar to beef in taste but more lean and firm muscle than the soft meat of beef. We retired early that night knowing that we had to wave up at dawn to begin our safari at 5:00am.

Impala crossing

Baby White Rhino

I got up the next morning as planned and it was still dark outside and as I was getting ready I saw Joaquin jumping into the cabin from the back porch door hurriedly seeking his camera. The night before the guide had told us that the place we stayed (Hippo Hollow) was called what it was called because Hippos came there at night to graze. I had at that time shrugged of his comment as nothing but old stories but Joaquin believed him and had been outside that morning to check it. As I followed him we were amazed to see a mother and baby hippo just 50 yards from our cabin.

Male Kudu

Female Kudu

My first though was wait…these should be tame hippos that the cabin management company kept there to attract guest but I was wrong as I later found out that afternoon in broad daylight that where out cabin area ended, it was all bush from there onwards with no development until the park boundary.

A herd of Cape Buffalos

As we got near to the Park gate, the sun was just breaking so it was perfect time for us to see some wildlife and we were not disappointed as just a few kilometers into the park we saw a Giraffe. That was only a precursor to what we would encounter because for the next 8 hours we saw Elephants, Warthogs, Chacma Baboon, huge numbers of Impalas, Kudu’s, White Rhino’s, a huge herd of African Buffalos numbering around 40-50, Monkeys, Hippos, Turtles, Puff Adder, Steenbok, Blue Wildebeest, and Zebras and lots of birds.

We did not see any of the 3 big cats (Lions, Leopards or Cheetahs) but for me just being there and driving through this awesome savanna land was a thrilling experience. The key to sighting wildlife was to drive as slow as possible and since we were not dependent on a guide or constrained by a tour group we took our own time in the park for the whole 8 hours.

Keeping an eye on us

Puff Adder

There were stretches of 20-30 minutes when we did not see any animals then suddenly out of the bush an elephant or rhino would show up; an impala would skip across the tract; see a huge heard of Buffalos lazing around; a group of 4 giraffes crossing the road. One of the most serene scenes I encountered was seeing a huge tree with monkeys on it and under the shade there were Impalas and warthogs all coexisting together. Since we were driving slowly we were able to see a lot more than the average person case in point the puff adder which would seem like a small branch lying on the road until we inspect it closely and find this extremely venomous snake subtly trying to cross the path as if trying to avoid attention.

Mom & baby White Rhino

A few years back I had hiked through Ranthambore National Park in Western India hoping to catch a glimpse of Tigers. On that occasion I did not see any of the big cats but just hiking through the jungle was a wonderful experience and that was one of my travel highlights till date. This experience was pretty similar in a lot of ways. The one huge difference compared to the jungles of India is that in Africa the frequency of wild animal sighting is extremely high. I think it’s due to the fact that Africa has savannahs which are grasslands that support large quantities of prey species and conversely a lot of carnivores too. It’s also far easier to spot animals in grasslands than in India’s jungles.

Impalas...the only animals of note that we
saw during the night safari

I don’t think I can write in words or share in photos the true experience of a place like Kruger National Park. One has to do it himself to really appreciate the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of seeing the wild animals in their natural habitat against the beautiful backdrop of slightly dusty and arid grasslands that stretch for miles and miles.

We got back to the hotel around 3:30pm and rested for about an hour before heading back to the park to take a night safari but this time we could not take our own car into the park. We had to take the park owned vehicle and I was sitting at the back with a flashlight in my hand trying to spot the animals in the dark. The only things we saw were a few distant giraffes, impalas and a cat like creature (but not a cat) which I think was either a Civet or a Genet.

Compared to the morning safari the night was very low key. Probably the only reason we did the night safari was hoping to see active lions or leopards. So, although we were a little disappointed overall it was a wonderful day in the Kruger National Park and we maximized out time of being out there in the wild.