Kruger National Park

Our day began bright and early with a 5:00 am pick up time.  Lloyd, our driver/guide, was with us for the next four days.  We stopped to pick up two German friends, a male and female. She lives in Cape Town currently and he is beginning a yearlong travelling journey with South Africa as his first stop for one month before moving on to Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and more.  Our other pick up was Boris, a police officer from Switzerland here on a two week holiday. The five of us set off on the road with Lloyd. 

About 2 hours outside of Johannesburg our front left tire blew.  Lloyd pulled over immediately as we got out to assess the damage.  The vehicle didn’t have a spare because it was loaned to a different van at some point and never returned. That van was going to meet us half way to Kruger to give us the spare back, but our tire blew before we got there. None of us really knew what to do next. Thankfully an empty van pulled over to assist us. A nice black guy was driving and he loaned us his spare, helped us get it on the car, and drove us to the next town, Belfast, to get a new tire.  Without him, I have no idea how long we would have sat on the side of the road.

The drive took us from the Highveld, where the Gauteng province is, and through the Drakensburg mountains into the Lowveld. The Drakensburg are the highest mountain range in South Africa. Kruger National Park is located within the Lowveld.  Kruger is one of the largest game reserves in Africa, and it is the size of the Netherlands. All of the plants and trees are low in height so as not to waste the rain water and keep up their health.

We made it to our activity for the day just in time, the Hoedspreuit Endangered Species Centre. The center focuses on the conservation of rare, vulnerable, or endangered animals. We got to go on a game drive of sorts through their preserved land as well as by their fenced in animals.  They have lots of cheetahs in their care, as well as wild dogs, a variety of birds, wild cats, and hurt animals. They take in animals that have been mistreated or abused in the human world. A few years ago they had old circus lions that were beaten and abandoned in Portugal. They had some turtles they were caring for that had rods forced to their shells to keep them from running away at their past home. The center cares for these animals as well as breeding those that are endangered.

Afterward we made it to our campsite. This facility has permanent tents set up for us to use. They were nice enough and the weather wasn’t hot at night or full of many mosquitoes which made it peaceful. The camp grounds are right near one of the entrances to Kruger National Park. The area is very large and wild animals live in the camp. We saw impala, wildebeest, warthogs, baboons, and bush babies.  A leopard has even been spotted outside the tents at night before. I don’t know what I would do if a leopard happened to be outside my tent in the morning – probably get eaten.

Orpen gate, our entrance to Kruger, opens at 5:30 am and closes at 6:00 pm. For two days in a row we spent the entire time within the park on safari. That is roughly 25 hours on safari over the course of the two days.  Lloyd woke us up at 4:30 so we could get up, have breakfast, and head out to the gates for the opening.  We would make several stops during the day at rest sites where we had lunch or bathroom breaks.  There are a few camps within the park as well. Inside the park we saw many animals and plants. The best news was that since it is spring most of the animals had little babies following them around!  Below is a list of animals in no particular order that I saw on my safari:

• Impala – an African antelope that is everywhere.  Tons of these animals live all over the park. One male lives with as many female as he can. They continually fight off the bachelor males who want to take their females and breed. We saw one male with at least 20 females in his herd. Generally the male gets so tired from mating with all of them that by next season a new male has taken over to spread out the gene pool.  Some of the females we saw were still pregnant and due any day.

• Ostrich – there were some of these just running around.
• Warthog – Pumba! One of the Lion King animals that just so happened to be strolling in the bush as well as in our camp.
• Giraffe – very friendly with the zebras. We saw two giraffes having a fight. To do this they constantly walk into each other and block each other’s path.  Then they swing their necks around to smack their heads into the other one. It was pretty entertaining to watch. They let little birds sit on their heads, and they just walk around with these birds on them. There were some cute baby giraffes that are much shorter (obviously) and are lighter in spot color. The spots darken as they age. The giraffes only sit down for around an hour a day and we came across one down on the ground. It is a very vulnerable position they don’t like to be in; a lion could even take one down if it got a good first bite.
• Zebra – frolicking around the buffalo and other animals. The zebra just roamed around wherever they wanted. They lied down by the giraffes. They played some sort of game of tag chasing each other all over in front of the buffalo. The baby followed its mom around.                                           
• Vultures – the vultures were circling in the sky around kills. Several different times we would come across trees swarming with vultures. If the kill was recent and the predator still there, the vultures wait patiently in the tree so that they can get the remains when done. Unfortunately we saw them off in a distance and couldn’t get any closer to see what had happened. Vultures have a powerful stomach acid that allows them to digest the rotting meat.                                        
• Kudu – a species of antelope. The males have really curly horns that I thought were cool.
• Waterbuck – another antelope, but this one has white marks on its backside.  The waterbucks were just roaming the savannah.
• Wildebeest – or a gnu (but it is just another antelope). They are larger than the others.
• Hippopotamus – they are so lazy. Hippos were just floating around the water areas and rivers.  They are a huge predator and most animals are scared to get anywhere near it.  There was an adorable little baby hippo that a crocodile could take on to eat; it never would though because the adult would kill it so fast. One of the river beds had a giant crocodile just lying beside the hippos and the baby hippo decided to walk over it. The crocodile did not retaliate at all, but continued to lay there. The hippo is one of the most dangerous animals in Africa as it is very aggressive. 
• Crocodile – just lounging about with the hippos.
• Baboons – their babies are so cute. The baboons were all over the place. They just monkey around with their tiny babies; our guide says one of them looked to be only two weeks old. The babies hang on their mothers tummies or jump onto their backs. The female’s butts get bigger and redder when they are fertile and ready to get pregnant.                                      
• Dung beetle – the women do all of the work. We saw a female dung beetle pushing her ball of fresh animal dung up the road. The female compacts as much dung as possible and rolls it, while the male just hangs on, up to where she wants to nest. Then she buries herself with his sperm (he dies) and uses the dung to feed her offspring until they emerge the next spring. All the males do is provide the sperm and ride on the dung ball.  We found a pile of fresh dung teeming with dung beetles trying to get it for their own ball. One kept attempting to steal other beetle’s balls instead of making her own.
• Ground Hornbill – endangered bird with the giant red pouch under their nose. They only lay eggs every three years. If their habitat is destroyed then they wait even longer to start their next cycle of reproduction, which leads to their population being threatened.
• Hyena – so cool. Hyena’s only come out at night. We searched for one and finally saw one on our way out of the park. It was walking off into the distance. It looked so huge, but it didn’t laugh. Hyena’s have very strong jaws that allow them to crunch bones. This is why they scavenge because they are capable of killing things like a normal carnivore and kill most of the food that they do eat.
• Jackal – a wolf species. The Jackals only come out at night as well. This one came out at dusk while we were leaving. It just was roaming around.
• Wild dog – only 300 remain in the entire Kruger Park. We were so lucky to get to see two of them by the road. They travel in packs and circle their prey while hunting. The rest of the pack was probably hiding somewhere. Wild dogs pee on each other to show power so the smelliest one is at the bottom of the totem pull. Fortunately, we could not smell them from our position in the safari vehicle. It was exceptionally cool to watch them lounge about relaxing before their hunt. We had to leave the park since it was closing time; otherwise we would have kept watching them longer.
• There were a bunch of other birds including various eagles and Zazu from the Lion King.  I’m sure there were plenty of animals that I can’t remember anymore.

Big 5:

• Elephant – SO MANY ELEPHANTS, especially on the first day. Elephants are definitely not endangered. Since they have such a long gestation period any time of the year is mating season. The females and children travel together while the males are separate. One of the first males we saw was particularly agitated and was stalking a female herd. One way to tell that the elephant wanted to mate was the constantly dripping semen. His entire back leg was soaking wet while he left puddles behind him as he moved. Also they get very aggressive and literally climb through trees. In every area of the park trees were destroyed. This was the biggest surprise for me in the entire safari – the utter destruction all over the place by crazed elephants.  Many times we saw elephants cross the road in front of us or climb out of the river to continue their march after cooling off.  Several of the herds had babies too, that were so precious.  One was only a couple months old and so tiny.  We also saw more males, particularly lone ones with huge tusks. The amount of wrinkles on the elephant helps depict the age; the more wrinkles, the older the elephant. 
• Rhino – We saw three rhinos milling about in the path, but they took off at the sound of our vehicle. Later on we stumbled on one in the distance resting. It stood up and proceeded to show us a massive penis.  They all had nice horns on them, worth a lot of money to poachers.                              
• Buffalo – they never smile. The first buffalo we saw was in a clearing all alone. The males have a huge headpiece with their horns that looks like one of the wigs our founding father wore. That was the last buffalo in a trail of them that had walked next to the road. We parked and watched at least nine of them cross the road. They just ate grass and stared at us. Later we came upon a huge heard grazing near zebra, a rhino, and impala. They are herbivores and aren’t irritated by other animal presence.    
• Lion – We had several lion sightings on our second day in the park. The first we just missed crossing the road, but saw the back as it sauntered off into the bush. This was a male lion with a huge main. Later on we found the mega-pride of lions. There was one male sitting behind some trees, but we could see his main. Then there were at least six female lions in the tall grass nearby, hiding.  Nothing was bothering them until an impala accidently crossed into their path since he didn’t see the lions. One of the female lions took off and chased down the impala running right in front of our vehicle on the road. The impala wound its way back toward us without the lion in tow – she must have got tired. Women do most of the hunting in prides because they are faster than the males. When the chase happened tons of female lion heads popped out of the grass and the big lion sat up for a bit. Everything died back down afterward with the lions resting again. Over on the hill a little ways away was a big male lion sleeping in the sunshine.                                                        
• Unfortunately we did not see any leopards in the park.  There were sightings in the area, but we never managed to make it in time to catch the leopard. They are more active at night, when we weren’t on safari as the park is closed. Also over 70% of the park does not have roads near it so animals don’t have to come near the vehicles ever in their life time if they so choose. Off-roading is strictly forbidden anywhere in Kruger.                                                                                                                

One of the campsites in the park has the daily spotted board to document where each of the big 5 animals were during the day. It was cool to see how many were sighted throughout the course of the day. Only rhinos are no longer documented for conservation efforts and to protect them from poachers. Poaching continues to grow worse and worse as one rhino horn can earn you one million Rand (which is over $100,000 USD).

At night we ate three course meals at the lodge. It was very good and not crowded. They had an outdoor bar by a pool that we sat at and mingled with each other and the bar tender. Caroline and I tired shots of ‘Strawberry Lips’ which is strawberry tequila and I highly recommend it.

After the two full days in Kruger we headed back to the Gauteng province to spend the night in Hartbeesport. On the drive we stopped to view Blyde River Canyon, the third largest canyon in the world, and the Three Rondavels. Unfortunately, it was so foggy that we couldn’t see any of it, not even ten feet into the canyon. Alas, I was only near these incredible sites. We had no car trouble on the way back, but we did encounter serious traffic in Johannesburg due to the cricket match taking place that evening.

In the morning we departed for Botswana!