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Published: September 29th 2018
South Africa wasn't even on my radar as a destination I wanted to go until very recently.
Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go, I want to go everywhere, but I didn't think it would happen soon. Flights always seemed so expensive and I also want to experience safari with the kids when they would be old enough to remember and appreciate it.
After reading an article on the Shosholoza Meyl tourist train though, I thought it sounded fun. The kids are nearly 10, so would probably enjoy a safari, so I added Jo'burg and Cape Town to my list of flight alerts for the summer not really expecting much.
Two weeks later my phone buzzed in my pocket, the days flight prices had been emailed. Right there at a bargain price for the exact dates we wanted were flights to Johannesburg with Qatar airways due to a 48 hour flash sale. The connection in Doha there was short, at less than an hour but the connection on the way home was 8 hours so would probably require a hotel stay, nonetheless I booked them that day.
Fast forward 7-8 months and we were on our
way. We arrived in Johannesburg late afternoon and after picking up our car headed straight to a hotel to catch up on some sleep. The time difference between S. Africa and the UK is only 1 hour so we didn’t have to deal with jet lag but we didn’t really want to be driving after 16 hours of air travel. The following day, refreshed, we set off towards the fabled Kruger National Park, stopping overnight in Graskop for a break in the journey and also so we could explore the Panorama Route before entering the park.
The sun was shining but it was a little hazy when we were there, nevertheless, we were met with incredible views over Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest canyons on earth. We stopped at various viewpoints along the route and also explored Bourke's Luck Potholes which were very interesting. I would definitely recommend stopping here to break up the long drive from Jo'burg if there's time.
From the panorama route we entered Kruger National park via Orpen Gate, giving ourselves four hours to make it to Letaba Rest camp as that's where we were staying. The gates to the rest camp
close at 6pm so you need to be there by then. It was only about 160km so we thought we'd have loads of time.
When booking accommodation in Kruger, even booking as far in advance as we did, we were left with little choice of what was available in the different rest camps. After some research we settled on Letaba Rest Camp, which is pretty much in the center. Now we've been, we can say we failed to appreciate just how big the park was and how long it would take to get around it, this meant that we were actually quite limited in the days we had as to how far we could get away from the rest camp, giving us the time required to get back.
So that 160km was actually difficult in the 4 hours we had. The speed limit in the park is 50km/h on sealed roads, which would be fine if you just drove from one place to the next. The problem with Kruger is that there is something to stop and see, pretty much every km or so. Almost as soon as we'd registered and entered the gate we spotted a couple
of giraffes by the side of the road, and from there we were stopping constantly for something great to see until we reached a critical point that we couldn't stop anymore and had to just head to the camp. Although to be honest if we spotted something particularly worthwhile or new we still stopped.
From Orpen gate to Satara, then onwards to Olifants and then Letaba, the landscape changes quite significantly, there are open plains moving up to thick vegetation with a lot Mopane trees which are a favoured food for elephants surrounding Letaba.
Just in these few hours of driving we spotted 3 of the big 5. We were lucky to see some rhinoceros sleeping not far from the road, a lone buffalo and elephants. In fact elephants were everywhere. The further north we went the more elephants we saw.
We also saw loads more giraffes, as well as various antelope species, zebra, wilderbeast, baboons and a crocodile swimming around in one of the watering holes...
Once at Letaba we checked in to our rondavel, ate dinner at the rest stop restaurant, which was actually very reasonably priced and prepared for our first night safari
game drive organised by the S. African National Parks service.
The night safari started at 8pm and involved sitting in a large open topped truck while we cruised around the local area looking for wildlife. While on the night safari we managed to spot some small critters, spring hares and scrub hares but also a civet and a genet (only Gabe saw this from the family). We also saw numerous elephants and giraffes. The best wildlife spot was a hyena den. The mother had left for the evening to go hunting leaving the cubs alone. The den was in one of the pipes under the road so they were happy to play around by the truck giving us a great view of them.
The following morning we also went for a sunrise drive which involved the same truck doing a similar route to the night before. On this drive we saw the usual elephants, giraffes, various antelopes, warthogs and a hyena but when we were on our way back we also managed to spot a small pride of lions by the river bank who then walked alongside the road crossing right in front of the truck. One of
the lionesses was clearly pregnant and another had a couple of very cute cubs following her.
After the organised game drives we spent the day driving around ourselves, making the most of the ability to self drive around the park. These drives made us realise just how many elephants there are in this area of the park, we couldn’t drive for more than five minutes without coming across various breeding herds or bachelor herds. One experience will always stick in our memory though.
We were driving down an unsealed road, well off the main roads when we saw a large lone bull elephant (with a broken tusk) walking down the road towards us. We stopped on the other side of the road giving plenty of room for him to pass but he wasn’t content with that and clearly wanted to show us who’s boss so he crossed over to our side and stopped barely a meter in front of the car, refusing to move. The only way I can describe it is like that scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex stops by the car and peers in showing only its eye. Needless to say, we were all
a little panicked as it would take no effort on his part to just flip the car or crush us.
Finally after what felt like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, he finally got bored, shook his head and walked past... there was a big sigh of relief, and we continued our drive. We were all jacked up on adrenaline but WHAT an experience. 😊
We also went for a sunset drive organised by the park, which again involved driving around on the big truck seeing the same animals as previously. We were actually getting a bit bored with these drives as they seemed to involve the same route with very little guidance. This time though we were in for a real treat.
While driving along we stopped to look at some helmeted guinea fowl by the river bank. Now we’d seen hundreds of these birds already on our various journeys, they weren’t that exciting for us at all, but while looking at them a leopard sauntered past the truck. It disappeared down the bank then returned, crossing the road before relaxing a few meters away enjoying the fading light from the sun on its
face. An absolutely beautiful sight! If we hadn't stopped for the guinea fowl we almost certainly would have driven straight past missing the leopard.
On our final day in the park we actually had another sunrise drive booked (and paid for) with the national parks service but we decided to skip it, get up an hour later and drive ourselves around. The sunrise drive leaves at 5am, but you're not allowed to leave the rest camp on your own until 6 am so we'd only miss that hour and could do a different route early in the morning. We only planned to be out a couple of hours but of course that ended up being four, it's just such a joy to be out in the park. This meant we had to rush back, checking out late as that was supposed to at 10. After packing up we filled up at the camp store ready for the two hour journey to the park gate then onward to Johannesburg.
Four hours later we got to the park gate and although we didn't see anything new on that drive we did see several huge herds of elephants, one group walking
past us to get to a large watering hole we were stopped at. It was a really beautiful sight seeing all the baby and young elephants rushing down to the water hollering and trumpeting, filled with excitement, almost exactly like the boys when they see a swimming pool. This experience was a really nice end to a fantastic Kruger experience but it left me aching for more. Next time we visit South Africa, we're almost certainly going to spend the entire time in Kruger, it's really that special.
From the gate we had a four hour drive to our hotel just outside Jo'burg, ready to get the train the following morning south to the Cape.
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Yvonne Watts
non-member comment
You have done it again Michael
Yet again a brilliant blog and photos Michael. Another great experience for the boys well for all of you.