TGCSA ****
Graded Four Star
Guesthouse/B&B
    
 
 
Summer is on it's way
Contact us for all your Accommodation and Tour requirements



Kruger National Park to St.Lucia Tour

 

 

Departure Date: 20th. January 2010

 

DAY 1

We left Johannesburg on time and made our way to the Orpen Gate of Kruger National Park and the Orpen Camp. This camp is a real must, by far one of the smallest with a Water hole which is lit up at night. We arrived to find Elephant and Buffalo already waiting there for us. The drive from O.R.Tambo International Airport is ± 490km via Klaserie. If you have time you can squeeze in a visit to the Moholoholo rehabilitation centre or the Cheetah research centre in Hoedspruit. Our goal though, was to get to camp.

Excellent facilities are available in each unit to prepare your dinner as there is also no restaurant at this camp. A well stocked shop is available to stock up on items you may have left behind.

We had a braai and after a short briefing we prepared ourselves for our 4am wake up.

I did not manage to get straight to sleep as I had forgotten our dustbin outside on the veranda and heard it being tossed around. I checked out the door to find the two largest Honey Badgers I had ever seen, rummaging through the salad and meat throw away.  I managed to get the dustbin back and decided to hide it in one of the empty outside cupboards. No sooner had I gotten back into bed and I heard some new noises coming from my veranda. Again I checked and found both my friends back again. They had managed to open the cupboard doors and one was right in there to fetch the rubbish bag. So again I chased them and this time decided to keep the rubbish bag with me in the room. This proved to be a mistake as my friends new it was there and where trying very hard to get into my room even tearing the Mosquito nets as they tried to climb in through the windows.

So the moral of the story is to throw away all your rubbish in the large bins provided as this finally led to a good nights sleep.

DAY 2

We woke at 4am to find these friends of ours still lingering around the chalets.

We left the Orpen camp at 4:30am and headed along the H7and then joined the S140. Our first sighting was a Spotted Hyena with a full and fresh Impala hindquarter. A young and playful herd of Elephants gave us a real show by letting us get real close whilst they where having a dust bath next to the road.  Shortly before we arrived at the Muzandzeni picnic site we came across two Blackback Jackals and watched as they hunted two Swainson Francolin chicks. We finally made it to Satara and sat down for a full English breakfast. We then made our way to our next camp for the next two nights, Olifants. On the way we came across two Southern Ground Hornbills feeding their chick. The male sat for a long time with his “catch of the day”, a small rock monitor.

 

 


 

 

We are spending the next two nights at Olifants Camp. Tonight we had an awesome buffet dinner in the recently renovated restaurant. The renovations are not quite finished but good enough and the view from the deck whilst drinking an ice cold beer and having dinner is just incredible.

DAY 3

An early morning start again and we set off direction Letaba, first along the Olifants River on the S44 and then the Letaba River on the S93all the way up to Letaba Camp for breakfast.

We had excellent Elephant and Buffalo sightings but a high point was a Black Mamba, almost 2m long next to the road, he lifted his head as we approached and then climbed a tree next to us and was eye level with us, the coffin shaped head unmistakably Black Mamba.

At the Letaba Camp we watched two Red winged Starlings attack a small bat, killed it and proceeded to tear it apart before each flying away with their share. I suppose we can call that seeing our first kill.

We then made our way back towards Olifants Camp on the H1-5 main road and had a stop-off along the river under a large shady Fig tree. Some Whiteback Vultures where perched on the tree too as well as a massive troop of Baboons and alongside us in the river was a Hippo. We watched the baboons for a long time when a youngster started barking and sure as day, there came a lioness with a cub. We watched as she approached the water when suddenly she herself took off in flight in one direction and the cub in a totally other. They had stumbled upon three Buffalo bulls lying in the water which we did not see either as they where behind a small embankment.  The three bulls took off after the lion cub and the little fellow managed to hide himself amongst some thick shrub and old tree stump. The mother just stood and watched and kept calling until the buffalo gave up on the youngster and moved on. The lioness called again and the little guy came from hiding and joined his mom. She continued to call and within a short while we where watching three grown females and seven cubs drinking water and then lying down in the shade, probably to relax due to the excitement and mostly because of the 41ºc.

We headed into the other direction, along the H1-5, for our afternoon drive and straight away came across an Impala hanging in the tree, probably no more than a day old. It was still hot and really sunny for 15h30 so we chose to continue our drive and return to the Impala kill a bit later in the hope that the Leopard would show himself as it cools down. We turned at the S91 and stopped on the low level bridge crossing the Olifants river to watch a herd of Elephant enjoying the abundance of water and reeds.

 


 

We continued along the S92 and found a lioness with three cubs crossing the road on H8. We watched the four disappear in the direction of the river and so decided to try our luck with the Leopard. We where met by our lions from earlier on during the day as we turned back onto the H1-5 but we drove on. Unfortunately the Leopard had not yet returned and we had to head back to camp as it was nearing closing time. Close but no Cigar.

DAY 4

Obviously we where eager to get going this morning and shoot straight back to the Impala kill. You guessed it, our Leopard had been there during the night and had just left the two front legs and some skin hanging in the tree and he was nowhere to be seen. We followed the same route back to camp as we had done the night before and watched a Hippo giving us an open mouth display in the river.

 

 

 

We enjoyed an excellent breakfast on the deck overlooking the river (this is a real must and is exactly what the Olifants Camp is famous for) and then left the Olifants Camp for Satara.

I chose the S39 route to Satara and at the Roodwal water hole we came across two male lions having a drink with a bachelor herd of Impala barking and snorting at them from not even 15m away. But in this heat the two had nothing else on their mind but to drink and find shade.

We arrived at Satara at midday after many more Elephant, Giraffe, and all the other general game sightings.

Our afternoon drive felt really long and it was still a blistering 43ºc. We got no cats but general game sightings and the Elephants did not let us down as usual.

DAY 5

Our usual morning wake up and we made our way to hunt for the ever elusive Leopard and perhaps some Cheetah. We had awesome Hyena, Rhino, Buffalo and Elephant sightings, but no sign of cats. It was great to watch the Ele's swimming in the Nsemani water hole on the H7 main Satara road. Sometimes they where completely submerged with only the tips of their trunks showing above the water for a breath of air. So Satara is not yet living up to its reputation of "THE CAT CAMP" ;-) We are going to relax for the most of the midday and try our luck again this afternoon.

We began our afternoon drive and decided to head along the famous S100 road from Satara. We where not even 30 min. into our drive when we came across a mud hole and a I noticed a very young Buffalo calf stuck in the hardening mud and no sign of any other Buffalo around, let alone the mother.

The poor thing had been stuck since around 10am and it was now 16h00. I could hear Buffalo moving around in the river next to us and we decided to wait and see what happens. I noticed movement about 30 meters away in the bush and soon counted 9 lions lying under a tree. Was this the end for this little guy?

We waited another hour and we noticed 5 large Buffalo bulls coming from the river, they did not take any notice of the stuck youngster but headed directly toward the lions and as soon as they noticed the lions they all charged them together and all 9 lions scattered and fled. As soon as this happened a female buffalo came from the river and seemed very nervous and upset, we took it that she is the mother. She made 3 very lame attemps to call look and call for the little one, perhaps because she new the lions where around and we where there. We lost  view of the lions and we heard from a passing vehicle that they where spotted after the river which was quite a distance from the Buffalo calf. Time was soon against us and we needed to head back to camp for closing time and just made it with seconds to spare. Guess what we'll be doing in the morning.

DAY 6

We where ready to rock and roll early this morning and shot directly to the buffalo calf. Before we got there we had awesome White Rhino sightings, a beautifull Giant Eagle Owl and just before the mud hole three Hyena came walking towards us. This got us worried but they where all spotless and clean, no blood or mud evident. We got to the mud hole and the calf was gone. There was no sign that it had been killed so we are going to asume the best and say mommy came during the night and saved her baby. We continued our drive and made our way to the next camp, Lower Sabie.

On the way we had many more Elephant sightings, White Rhino and came across a Hyena den with two pups lying next to the mother. My hi-light for the morning was seeing two Black Rhino from the view point, something I have not seen often in the Kruger National Park. Before we got to Lower Sabie Camp we still got to see some Hippo and had apparently missed Wild dogs and Cheetah along that route in the morning.

Today was terribly hot again with another scorching 42ºc.

Our aim for the Lower Sabie area was to hunt for Cheetah and the still, ever elusive Leopard. We set off on our afternoon drive and headed for the H10, the apparent Cheetah terrotiry, but it was not to be. we followed the road parallel to the Sabie river and came across lots of Lion spoor from the morning before. We then crossed over the Sabie river and made our way down the main Sabie road direction camp. We watched a large troop of baboons enjoying the afternoon sun and continued on our way, we rounded a corner and there he was, what we hunted for, was suddenly standing infront of us on the road. We finally got our Leopard and we had him all to ourselves, we walked along side the car for about 5min. stopping once to scratch and then dissapeared into the thick bush. We made it to the camp gate 5min. late but the guard was kind enough to let us in without any difficulties. We celebrated our Leopard sighting  at dinner.



DAY 7

We had an unbelievable rain and thunder storm during the night but we where still ready to rock and roll for our morning drive. We again made our way to the H10. We got beautiful Elephant, Rhino and Giraffe sightings and listened as a troop of baboons where shouting and barking at something but we could not find anything. A special bird sighting this morning was a Pearl Spotted Owl. We made our way along the long main road linking Skukuza and Lower Sabie and stopped at Skukuza for lunch. We headed along the S26 direction back to Lower Sabie and got another owl, this time a Barred Owlet and lots of general game including a massive Kudu bull. All in all a rather quiet day but was almost to be expected. Generally the area and the main road are excellent for big 5 game but the Kruger has had exceptional rain fall and the animals no longer need to come to the river to drink as there are water holes everywhere.

DAY 8

We gave it one more attempt this morning with the H10 in search of Cheetah but again did not work. That was ok however as we had a great big white rhino lying next to the road and whilst driving back in the direction of the camp we had an African Civet sighting. He was large and gave us a good show for a couple of minutes, a real hi-lite for me so-far.

We got back to Lower Sabie and packed our bags. We shopped for our meals and then headed out to my favourite camp in the Kruger. The Biyamiti Bush Lodge. The units are exceptionally  well kitted out but the camp has no shop or restaurant. We took the long way around following the S28 and watched an Elephant bull having a nice long scratch after a mud bath at the Duke water hole, and enjoyed the Ntandanyathi water hole where we watched hippos and a Pied Kingfisher hunting and catching a small fish. We arrived at Biyamiti Bush Camp. We left for our afternoon drive at 16h00 and as we crossed a low-level bridge just before the Crocodile river we spotted another Leopard, this time a large female and we watched her for about and hour hoping she would come closer to us when suddenly a tiny little head emerged and she began to play with her little cub. We spent the the whole time there with them until we had to head back to capm before closing time. We came across Buffalo and Elepahnt on our way back. We got back to camp and prepared and Braai for dinner and again toasted our Leopard sighting.

DAY 9

It rained again during the night and we set off direction Crocodile Bridge along the S25 for one last attempt at the Cheetah, generally the S28 up from Croc Bridge is excellent grounds are sightings of the Cheetah and Wild Dogs are common. We made it all the way up to the Nhlanganzwani water hole with only Elephant, Buffalo and General game sightings. As we turned back onto the H4-2 we noticed the Giraffe staring into one direction and following their gaze where some Zebra. We followed them for a short while and there they where, two young Cheetah hunting Impala. What luck and after they dissapeared into the thick bush we made our way to Croc Bridge Camp for a cup of coffee. We had to head back along the S25 and just after the Hippo Pool road we ran into the biggest surprise yet, 19 wild dogs just lying there on the side of the road. "What Luck" INDEED. our last full day in the park and we get the last two predators we have been searching for soo hard and long.



Breakfast only happened for us at 11h30, so in other words we had lunch and chatted about our morning drive with Cheetah, Wild Dogs, Rhino, Elephant and all the other General game.

Our afternoon drive was along the 18km road from Biyamiti and up the S114, where at the Wehr we got to take stunnings pics of a Giant Kinfisher, Water Thick knees, Egyptian Goose and a Greenbacked Heron. An Elephant bull heading down the S114 spurred us into turning around and heading back to camp for our final night in the Kruger. On the way back to the camp we again came across some Sothern ground Hornbills, one of them carriyng something in his bill, he was cracking at it with his beak and chucking it up into the air and we noticed he had cought a baby leopard totoise. He finally managed to crack open the shell and then swallowed it whole after throwing it into the air and down his throat.


DAY 10

We packed our things and where on our way, sadly.....

We again made our way along the 18km road and came across a Giant Eagle Owl sitting on the groung whilst shouting at a Spotted Eagle Owl sitting in the tree above him. Two Hyeana walked us along the remainder of the road ensuring we made it out alright and we turned south along the S114 direction Malelane Gate. Before we could go anywhere we had to negotiate a way through three large white Rhinos that where blocking the road and did not intend on going anywhere in a hurry.

We left the Kruger and made our way to Komatipoort and crossed into Swaziland around 09h00 making it to St.Lucia around 15h00. We had dinner tonight at Alfredo's, which can always be highly recommended when you feel like a home cooked meal, a goos wine and special attention from your Host, Freddie himself. Watch out though when he brings out the Grappa :-)

All in all and once again the Kruger has delivered what it promises. A few tips when visiting, take your time, when people say two days is enough for Kruger then you do not get the opportunity to enjoy all it has to offer, spend at least 5 nights and try and spend more than one night in a camp at a time, this will maximise your chances and you don't have to concentrate on getting to your next camp all the time.

Special bird sightings for us on this trip where, all the different owls, Namaqua Doves, Diederick, Klaas and Jacobin Cuckoo's, Kori Bustard, Knobbilled Ducks, Southern Ground Horbills, all the different eagles, bee-eaters and kingfishers and my first Balck coucal.