Kruger

10Sep12

After understanding some of the social and cultural context of South Africa through my stay in Soweto, I wanted to experience South Africa’s natural heritage, the primary attraction for many visitors. My plan was to spend a few days visiting Kruger National Park, easily reached from the city of Nelspruit, about 350 km east of Johannesburg. Upon alighting the Greyhound Bus in Nelspruit, I noticed another backpacker fumbling with his Lonely Planet. I walked over his way and asked where he was going? “Funky Monkey,” he said. I had the same hostel in mind, so we decided to walk together. Thomas, from Paris, had just arrived in South Africa from Indonesia, connecting straight from his plane to the Greyhound. After more than 30 hours of travel-time, he was exhausted. Funky Monkey was actually a few km from the bus stop, but we both wanted to go there because we had read about the budget safaris offered through the hostel. After walking for almost an hour, climbing out of the city and into the foothills, we arrived at Funky Monkey.

Like Lebo’s Backpacker Hostel in Soweto, Funky Monkey is organized around its outdoor spaces. Walking into the bar beneath the covered patio, that also serves as the reception, it was pretty clear that things weren’t too busy. We unloaded our backpacks and sat down with the owner, Lorna, to discuss options for a safari.

I had done a little bit of research on safari tours. What I found were expensive, including many in the $500 per day range. Not wanting to rent a car and try a self-guided tour, Funky Monkey’s, “Funky Safaris,” was the most reasonably priced option I had seen. Lorna suggested starting with the 2 day / 2 night option. We could always add on more days if we wanted. We could leave the next afternoon, which was perfect for both Thomas and me.

Kruger National Park is one of the preeminent wildlife parks in the world. Measuring nearly 400 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west, KNP, is the size of Belgium or Israel. A million visitors a year arrive at its gates hoping to see the “Big Five”: elephant, lion, African buffalo, leopard and white rhino. Additionally, a number of smaller, private reserves border KNP. These private reserves have many of the less dangerous animals, but also include a large number of private residences.

For the Funky Safari, we would stay at Lorna’s tent-based accommodations within Marloth Private Game Reserve. From here, we would venture into KNP for two days of wildlife viewing.

Marloth is about 90 minutes from Nelspruit. We arrived late Monday afternoon, in time to take a quick drive through the Reserve and catch the sunset. The tent accommodations are immediately adjacent to the Crocodile River that forms the southern boundary of KNP. Across the fenced barricade, we could see a large herd of African buffalo, along with elephants and hippopotamus. Although all the animals were some distance away, it was exciting to see them in their natural habitat.

Adriaan was our guide for the safari. As a certified guide, Adriaan has to know about everything from wildlife to astronomy. He also knows a thing or two about a braai, Afrikaans for barbecue. After a delicious dinner, we went to bed early as wake-up was at 5:00 am.

We headed to Kruger at 5:30 am. A few minutes after the gates opened at 6:00 am, we began our search for the wildlife. We were quite fortunate to spot all of the “Big 5” during our first day in the Park. The leopard was the most fascinating sighting: Adriaan recognized a distress call from a group of impala, signaling a possible predator in the area. Stopping the vehicle, we waited a few seconds before a leopard walked directly behind the jeep. It was an amazing site and made me realize how having a good guide greatly added to our experience. It would have been very easy to miss the cry of the impala and thereby miss the leopard. On day 1, I counted about 17-18 different species of animals, along with dozens of different bird species. All in all, a great first day.

After another nice evening at camp, we headed into the park early, at 5:30 am. Clouds, that had been gathering over the past 24 hours, were accompanied by some light drizzle. It was chilly in the jeep. Starting off on a different road, we encountered a large herd of African buffalo and several black rhino. We were fortunate to see the black rhino as they are quite mobile and tend to move rather quickly. Incidentally, there is a serious rhino poaching crisis in South Africa, including in Kruger National Park. There is concern that if the crisis continues, the rhino could become extinct. Here is more info; it’s very sad to see these magnificent creatures destroyed because of misinformation.

While we caught a glimpse of two male lions on day one, we still wanted another opportunity to see lions. Fortunately, we were alerted to a location where lionesses had killed a zebra. Adriaan took us to the location and we were captivated by the lionesses as they played with each other and the dead zebra. Once again, the power of watching natural selection before our very eyes! As the weather continued to deteriorate, we ended our safari shortly after watching the lionesses. Riding back to the hostel in Nelspruit, I was really pleased with my first safari experience!

Cafe at Lower Sabie Visitor Center

Small herds at Kruger. Much larger herds in other parts of Africa

Zebra herd in the bushveld

Over the next few weeks, the winter landscape of barren branches will begin to blossom as the Park welcomes Spring

Elephant near the road

This is possibly the same leopard that crossed behind the jeep. We saw the leopard in a tree about 90 minutes prior to seeing it cross the road

Loved seeing adenium in its native landscape. Brings back fond memories of a potted adenium I had in Tucson ten years ago

Female elephant

Saw several herds of elephants, including a group of about a dozen cross the road in front of the jeep

Look and act like desert javelina

Zebra are common throughout Kruger

Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa. Nocturnal grazers

The nice leopard stalking a group of impala

Leopard, in pursuit of impala, after crossing directly behind our jeep

Dead antelope in a tree, placed by a leopard for eating at a point later in the day

We saw two hyenas, including this one that may be pregnant

More playfulness near the zebra

Lucky shot of the lionesses playing near the dead zebra

We got report of a group of lionesses taking down a zebra. Once we arrived, the 5 lionesses were playing and taking turns picking at the zebra

To give a sense of scale, here is a view from the jeep to the lionesses and the zebra. We were about 100 yards away. You can’t leave your vehicle at Kruger – but why would you want to??!!

Second tallest antelope in Africa

The spiraling horns of the Greater Kudu

Distinctive curved horns

Hippos have no sweat glands, so they spend most of their days in the water

Plenty of giraffe around the Park, too

The wildlife exploration crew!

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