Kruger National Park

Our Story…

The Accommodation

Unfortunately (for us) the weekend we visited was awareness weekend and South Africans could enter the park for free – as such there was no availability to sleep within the grounds (all of a sudden ‘everyone’ wants to visit – get your hands in your pockets is what I say – a National Park is for all year, not just Awareness Day – scroungers) so we had to venture out to find a nearby hostel – a bit of a pain in terms of having to enter and exit a specific gate within certain time constraints – advice is – Book Ahead!!

The Animals

We can’t believe how many animals we saw, within the first 30 minutes of arriving at the park a herd of elephants crossed the road right in front of us, we saw some giraffes in the distance and were so intent on trying to get a picture of them that we didn’t realise another giraffe was stood right behind the car!!!! The park gates close at 6pm but in 3.5 hours (and 15 minutes, we were late getting out and the man at the gate tried to get 10 rand out of Dylan for his troubles, Dylan stood his ground and refused) we saw lots of Elephants, Giraffes, Zebra, Vervet Monkeys, Baboons, a herd of Buffalo, Hyenas who were blocking the road (we blame them for being out late), and also hundreds of kinds of Antelope, from the Steenbock (who are no taller than Loopy Lucy), to the Kudu who are bigger than a fully grown lion! I was surprised at the volume of animals in such a short space of time so looked forward to the second day.

The second day was hot, up to 37 degrees at one point, not the most comfortable for the 3 of us in the car! We were at the park for around 6.30am and although it took a while to spot anything we had another good day. our 1st spot was a few Warthogs, Dylan thinks ugly but I loved them, they have really comical faces. We then went on to see Baboons & more Zebras, Wilderbeast, more Elephants and Giraffes, Impala (lion food!) and a load of other Antelope cousins. But the 2 best spots for the day were 3 Rhinos which we spotted in the distance (only had 2 spots the whole 4 days of these), and when we nearly bumped into a lioness, she was only about 6 feet away from the car waiting to catch her lunch, we sat for a while and watched her and then realised another 2 lionesses were preparing an ambush with her too, we waited to see if they were going to pounce on anything but had to get on to see more, Dylan was getting restless and seemed more interested in th goings on of the ranger in a truck near by (Dylan: not that I’m impatient or anything!). However it was amazing to be able to sit and watch a wild lion so close up!

We were there another 2 days and saw loads more wildlife, loads of diffent kinds of birds including the African Fish-Eagle and the Red-Billed Hornbill, a really wierd looking bird with really long eyelashes (see the pics to come). The last couple of days were much cooler so I think we were very lucky, a lot more of the animals were out and about instead of hiding in the shade. As well as seeing all the animals from the 1st couple of days in abundance we had our 1st sighting of Hippos, and after that we probably saw near to 100 at different times throught the days, also saw quite a few crocodiles, saw loads of lions, 9 different sightings in the last 2 days, couldnt believe how many we saw. On the last day we also had a close one with an elephant, he was munching on a tree near the road so we went up to get a closer picture and he decided to charge us, Dylan was quick on the mark though and managed to get the car out of the way, safe to say the 3 of us crapped ourselves but managed to get away unscathed! (Dylan: I’d like to say that my TA training had prepared me for such a surprise as a happily munching elephant deciding, abruptly, to charge and that my driving reflexes where trained; in fact, as Helen indicated, as I crapped myself I instictively lunjed forward, catching reverse whilst at the same time tensed ones buttocks which pushed the right foot automatically onto the accelorator – thank god!!!)

If anyone is going to South Africa we would really recommend Kruger. It doesn’t have to be too expensive either, hire your own car and as long as you don’t mind early mornings and a bit of driving (Dylan drove for hours and hours over a few days) you get to see as much on your own as with a tour and if you can’t get in the lodges in the Park there are some great Backpackers nearby.