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Published: August 24th 2021
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Kruger National Park
A wonderful leopard sighting! “Away, away, from man and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, - To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress its music.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley Day 6 of this upside-down journey though Kruger puts the trip at roughly the half way mark, and instinctively, thoughts gravitate to wondering just how many days are left before this fascinating adventure ends. The primary purpose of visiting Kruger is to experience, first-hand, the unparalleled bushveld scenery, the large species and numbers of animals in their wild habitat and, if birds fluff your tail feathers, there are splendid varieties of birds to be seen. Sue has diligently kept a record of all our sightings and at this point on the trip we have seen 30 of the mammal species and about 83 different birds. There are some very descriptive collective nouns for many of the wild animals we have seen; a flange of baboons, a coalition of cheetah, a memory of elephants, an obstinacy of buffalo, a bloat of hippopotamus, a leap of leopards, a scurry of squirrels, a dazzle of zebra.
Next stop was
Shingwedzi Camp (meaning; the sound made by two metal objects rubbed against one
Kruger National Park
Another superb buffalo duo. We cannot believe how many large breeding herds of buffalo we have seen. another) and once again, the distance rule was compromised owing to the fact that we had previously stayed at Letaba and Mopani camps. Very easy to settle back with no time pressure and trundle north for 145kms to Shingwedzi. An interesting observation is the way in which the vegetation changes quite dramatically when crossing the Oilfants River. South, the landscape is mostly open grassland, thorny scrub and larger trees lining river beds. The Olifants River is akin to a line in the sand; from the northern banks as one travels away from the river, the landscape is dominated by
mopane trees. Where conditions aren’t ideal for their growth, they are stunted into scrubby-looking shrubland. It is a natural encroacher species with shallow root systems and they easily outcompete undergrowth for moisture which explains why so little growth is seen around these trees. An integral part of the ecosystem but these trees do prevent good game viewing due to their denser growth pattern. An interesting creature which makes use of the mopane’s cavities is the mopane bee, a tiny 4mm bee sometimes called a “mopane fly” as it has an irritating habit of buzzing close to people’s eyes and nose in pursuit of moisture. They are stingless but do make honey which is reportedly very good.
A fair distance from Shingwedzi, the river of the same name comes into view alongside the HI-6. This provided the sighting of a very old “dagga” buffalo bull. Clearly, it’s age and perhaps grumpy behaviour, had led the herd council to “skop” him out and it was obvious that its eyesight was poor and movement was slow and laboured. A good moment for a coffee break, watching this old codger, and the remote possibility that we would witness a pride of lion finding it and executing a spectacular attack. Not to be! One sensed that this old buffalo’s days were numbered.
The prevalence of mopane trees never let up but there were intermittent grassy, open plains populated mainly by impala and zebra. Mid-morning and right on schedule, the
Mooiplaas picnic site appeared and within twenty minutes, a scrumptious breakfast was on offer. Fascinating to “people gaze” at these picnic sites. Some folk obviously do the breakfast thing as a daily ritual when in the park. They arrive with all manner of cooking devices which deliver huge piles of grub onto plates. Planning a day’s travel simply has to include finding and stopping at picnic sites.
Shigwedzi was almost washed away and destroyed by huge floods in February 2013. When checking in at Reception, the flood water mark is shown on the entrance wall, and it is difficult to imagine that volume of water cascading down what is now a dry river bed. Staff and guests had to be evacuated by helicopter.
This camp is an interesting one with a large central park-like area surrounded by cottages and chalets. Taller mopane trees provided an effective screen and a tranquil atmosphere. A late afternoon drive along the Shingwedzi river, which is lined with beautiful sycamore trees and riverine bush, provided another one of those magical bush moments. A minor vehicle scrummage formation hinted that there was something up ahead. We had difficulty seeing whatever it was and continued along the road for a few kilometres before turning around and there it was, walking along the side of the road towards us. A superb, young leopard no further than 5 meters from the side of our vehicle and undoubtedly, we had scooped the best view before it moved off into the bush. It really isn’t about ticking the boxes but this sighting meant we had seen the “Big Five.” There are a number of excellent roads traversing in the region of the camp and we were fortunate to see two black backed jackal which had not been seen to that point. A bit odd as one would normally expect to see more of them.
A fire at night is a wonderful setting to reflect on each day’s activities and sightings including the inevitable braai and glass of fine South African red wine which, on the first night, enabled raising a toast to another “lifer”; this time a
purple roller, spotted and identified, by ever vigilant Sue. In the stillness of the night two unmistakable creature sounds confirmed that this was indeed Africa at its very best; a lion, close by, with a thunderous, guttural roar and a fiery necked nightjar with its gentle, melodious call.
We rated Shingwedzi a 17/20. Beautifully laid out camp, excellent accommodation, privacy a bit compromised by closeness of the next chalet. There are some great drives flanking the river.
Kruger Park fact file: there are lots of animals in Kruger, so, a good question would be; how many are there of each main species? Estimated numbers are as follows; lion (1,500), elephant (12,000), buffalo (2,500), leopards (1,000) and rhino (5,000). Not sure about the rhino number as we have, to date, only seen two white rhino and I just wonder if Kruger Park conservationists haven’t been quietly relocating their rhino population. After all, the poachers are right next door in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, apart from our own rotten humans doing the same (some employed by Kruger).
“The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives. Because there’s a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species.” – Sir David Attenborough. Apologies. Poor internet in Kruger has limited the number of photos in the blog.
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