Mopani, Harrie’s and Nelspruit.

Tonight we are spending the night in Mopani Camp, which is a camp in the Kruger National Park. It’s much further North than you can reach on a normal day trip if you enter through Crocodile Bridge Gate, because it’s basically in the middle of the Park. We started out at about 7, because we figured that after the wait he had at the gate the other morning it wouldn’t help to get there much earlier. The line was still kind of long, but we got to skip it because we had a reservation, so that was cool.

We drove through the Park only on the tar road – another “Douglas Green” type of day. But somehow we still managed to have the best sightings! We saw the Big 5 again. We saw a leopard on a river bank, and then we were fortunate enough to see a lion on the move. It ran parallel to the car for quite a while before crossing the road, running off to scare away a massive group of vultures and then going off in the distance with something in its mouth (we couldn’t see what it was). We were also lucky to see a herd of elephant with some young taking a stroll across an open plain after playing in the water.

Herd of Elephants – the young ones are so small in comparison.

We arrived at Mopani. The camp is nice, with a variety of accommodation types. We were in a chalet on the end. The bedrooms were big, and it had air-conditioning – something we welcomed as it must have been close to 40 degrees outside. The kitchen was outside on the patio which was something new for me. We went and had a drink at the bar and watched the sunset over the dam that it looks over. Later, we went back for dinner – really good standard food for a rest camp!

View from the deck of the bar/restaurant

It’s unfortunate we only had one night there, as it was very rushed. But that was all we had and so we were off early the next morning again.  We stopped to look at the Baobab tree on our way out. I love Baobab trees – I saw them for the first time that I remember on my trip to Zimbabwe last December. They always remind me of the Lion King. It was cool to learn some more about the Baobab from the signs around the tree, and we also had a chance to see where the Barn Owls were making their nests. We would be going out a different gate to normal, because today we’re off to Nelspruit, instead of straight back to Marloth Park.

The Baobab Tree

We saw two Hyenas’s lying in the road as we were driving out. They looked very annoyed that we had come past and woken them up, but we were so excited to see them up close again, and when we were the only car there. That’s one of the advantages of staying in the Park, especially in a camp in the middle – there are long periods of time where you are the only car around.

Hyena in the road.

We drove past some forests, and then got to Harrie’s Pancakes. You can basically get anything you want on a pancake – it’s amazing. I had a strawberry compote pancake. Once we were done, we were off to Nelspruit. We went shopping at the mall there and had lunch at John Dory’s. And then on the way home we sat for hours at the Stop-and-Go’s. It was completely ridiculous.

My yummy pancake.

But eventually we were home, and off to bed we went.

Kruger Park Day Two.

We tried to get into the Park early this morning, but when we got there just before 6am, the queue at the Crocodile Bridge Gate was super long! It ended up taking us about an hour and a half to get in because they only let in a certain number of cars at a time. This system is actually pretty good because its fair – if you are at the front of the queue at the gate, you’re going to be the person at the front actually entering the Park. At least the process once you were across the bridge was quick and easy.

We stopped at the Hippo Pools first. Here you can get out of the car if you wish and walk down to the pools where there is a “guard” to “protect” you. I did not get out. No ways. I have not gotten that comfortable in the bush overnight! My parents got out, and also had the chance to walk up to some old rock paintings nearby. It was here I had the genius idea to try and take photos through the binoculars, and turns out it works, even if it is a bit of a technical challenge.

Photo through the binoculars – Mom & Dad on the koppie

We drove around a bit, and we saw some Zebra, Impala (obviously) and a Rhino. We also saw a Steenbok, which is the cutest little ‘bokkie’ ever! It’s got these tiny little horns as well, and can stand so still. We also saw an Elephant, a lot of Buffalo lying down in the bushes next to the road and some Waterbuck. I love the Waterbuck, they are so fluffy!

Steenbok

We stopped by the Hippo Pools again on the way out, and we saw the most magnificent male Kudu right by where we stopped! He even stopped and posed for us for a bit. There were also some Warthog, and we saw a Kingfisher and a Giraffe.

Photo of the Kudu taken by my mom – thanks mom!

Home time, and finally Braai-time! There’s nothing like a Sunday night braai with the family. We’re off on a sunset game drive tomorrow courtesy of my aunt and uncle and I’m kind of excited because we haven’t been on an official game drive in years, but I’m also really nervous (surprise surprise). I’m sure it’ll all be fine though! We’re not going to go into the Park tomorrow because of the game drive so we’ll just spend the day around Marloth Park.

Kruger Park Day One.

After a very long drive yesterday (what should have taken six hours actually took nine because of roadworks) we arrived at Marloth Park. Marloth Park is just outside the Kruger National Park – it actually borders it along the Crocodile River – and this means that there are no predators found here. We were supposed to have a braai but because we got here so late we  just stopped at the restaurant.

I think this is the appropriate moment to put my feelings about being “in the wild” out there to the world. The wild and many of the animals found here make me very nervous. I’d like to think I’m doing better than years back where a pride of lions or herd of elephants would send me basically hiding under the car seat as my first reaction. I realise my fears (or at least the intensity of some of them) are very out of proportion, but they are real for me nonetheless. This is all relevant because I do not doubt for a second that I will have some interesting (read: embarrassing) stories to tell about my time here. Moving on.

Woke up pretty early this morning to my mom telling me that there was a Kudu outside our kitchen door. They are beautiful animals, very peaceful. Turns out there were plenty females at the house and they came right up to our patio. Some of them were pretty young. It was the funniest thing because the second they heard the packets rustling they all came closer. In Marloth Park you’re allowed to put approved food pellets out for the animals to eat, so obviously they know that the packets rustling equals food. We also had our usual visitors of a pair of Warthog at the house – some of these little Pumbas are as actually rather large!

One of our visitors this morning – a lovely Kudu female

We drove down along the Crocodile River and managed to see some Buffalo there, so tick one for the Big Five Checklist.

We got into the Park late morning, and our very first sighting of the day was a baboon troop and impala at a Marula tree. The baboons were all playing in it and eating the fruits, while the Impala were eating the fruits that had fallen off and were lying at the base of the tree. They were also occasionally getting chased by the baboons. Watching the baboons jumping around the tree was cool – they’re so agile! We also saw two baboons mating, and the male baboons face was so funny – he had what looked like the biggest grin ever. Lots of laughter took place once we saw this.

Throughout the course of the day we saw Giraffe, Elephant (tick number two!), Crocodiles, Hippo, Vultures, some Ground Hornbills, and a Secretary Bird. We were also lucky and saw some Rhino’s (tick number three). Whenever we see rhino’s I cannot believe people want to poach them for their horns. It’s so wrong. We also got to see two young-ish lions on the rocks and a male lion lying sleeping right next to the road (tick number four, times three!). He was so lazy he didn’t even move with all the cars around him, except to briefly lift his head. While watching the lions on the rocks we also saw this strange creature run along the ground and go straight into the water! Turns out it was an otter -something I’ve never seen before. They’re really odd-looking, running on four legs, but with this massive long tail behind them.

Ground Hornbill

Giraffe

Lion

Further down we saw complete chaos in the road again, which only means one thing – there must be a cat. There was a leopard lying on a rock just off the road, but it was very difficult to see it clearly. But still, tick number five! Which means we saw the whole big five! This is very exciting, because we as a family have never seen the big five all together.

We stopped for lunch at one of the rest camps (Lower Sabie). It’s really nice there because they have a massive deck overlooking the river and you can often see a lot of animals there. We saw some bushbuck, and also some more buffalo. Our lunch took FOREVER to arrive, which put a bit of a rush on our exit drive, as you need to be out the park gates by 6pm. We also managed to take a different turn to what we had planned on one of the dirt roads and there was a brief moment where we were definitely worried we would make it on time. But we did – we made it with a full five minutes to spare!

Buffalo at Lower Sabie

We got home much later than we planned and so we went to the restaurant for dinner again, rather than braai-ing so late. I had lasagne, and we had a cheese and garlic roll. Early to bed, which is pretty customary for the bush!