A few days in Nelspruit and visit to Kruger National Park

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I Took a bus from Pretoria to Nelspruit. Nelspruit is the city that is the closest to stay and organize tours to Kruger National Park (if you’re not staying in the park itself).

Kruger National Park is one of the biggest game reserves in SA and one of the best in the continent (http://www.sanparks.org.za/parks/kruger/).

As I didn’t get much information on specific companies to do tours with, how difficult it would be to visit the park with a rental car, etc., I decided to just travel to Nelspruit and figure out the rest there. As I usually like to do.



I took the Gautrain from Centurion, Pretoria to Johannesburg Park Station and from there, the bus. In the station itself, I was approached by at least 3 people asking for money (I guess I must’ve looked like a wealthy tourist, LOL).

The bus ride was OK – the buses are comfortable enough, although often filled to the full capacity. I Arrived in Nelspruit not knowing exactly what to expect or where I was going to stay.



I walked for about 5 minutes until I found a place with internet, logged in and found something that seemed promising: Nelspruit Backpackers. I phoned the place and asked the person that answered if they had any rooms available. After he said “yes”, I told him I had no idea where I was or how to get there. He sent a taxi for me and 20 minutes later I was there. Nelspruit Backpackers is a family-run guesthouse and they live in the same house. That week they were out for a short family vacation so I didn’t get to meet them.



In the meantime the place was being run by three backpackers. They did it as a favor and in exchange for accommodation for the week. They were 2 Israelis; Zach and Neta and an American-Israeli, Avi. Also, there were people that work there during certain hours of the day and do cleaning and other jobs.

At the same time, there were also two French guys, Allan and Philippe (both in their 60’s) and an Afrikaner, Abram.



I must say the place was very chilled and I enjoyed my stay there. I shared a room with Abram. He had just gotten a job in Nelspruit in construction (his trade was boiler-making) and needed a place to crash in for a few days.



In the guesthouse they also arranged tours. Avi gave the owner a call to sort out something for me. While that was happening I met the 2 French guys and they offered to take me in the car they had rented to Kruger Park. So far so good.



The next day they didn’t go to the park, but did some touring around the surrounding areas of Nelspruit (to the north) and I went along. It was almost a 12 hour day. Near Nelspruit there’s a lot to see and we covered about 400km that day. Here's an article about the "Panorama Route": http://blog.sa-venues.com/provinces/mpumalanga/panorama-route/.

We drove from Nelspruit to the north, passing White River, then Graskop and on to the "Blyde River Canyon". There are several viewpoints to see the canyon, one of the biggest in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyde_River_Canyon).

We went to a few of these viewpoints, including "The Pinnacle" and "God's Window". In most of them there was a 10 RD entry fee.

The problem was that there was a thick fog for most of the day around the canyon and surrounding areas.

On the way back we came via Lydenburg and Sabie. Apparently the road between those two towns is very spectacular, but we couldn't see much because of the fog.



Next day was Kruger Park. We woke up early and were at one of the gates by 8am (there are several entry points to the park).

The park is open from 6am to 5:30pm. We paid 204 RD each for the day (1 USD = 10 RD). The park is easily done in any type of car. We were in a small Kia and had no problems at all. It's also well signalled inside the park and just safe in general to drive around.



When most people think about Kruger Park or other game viewing areas, they think about “The Big 5”: lion, african elephant, black rhino, cape buffalo and leopard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_five_game).



We spent the whole day driving around the reserve and we saw plenty of animals and 4 out of 5 of “the big 5”. We got to see cape buffalos, bucks, a lot of antelopes, giraffes, a bunch of different birds, a pack of lions, 3 black rhinos, several elephants, etc. It was a great day. In particular, people driving in the park are advised to watch out for elephants, as they can be very dangerous if they get anxious, or feel threatened. Right at the end of the day we saw an elephant crossing the road with a calf. When we stopped to take photos, the elephant started making loud noises and at one point looked like it was going to make a move towards us. So it was time to drive off, slowly.



When we got back to the guesthouse in the evening we had dinner and then I joined the others for a few drinks.





I think it would’ve been great to do some tours like a “night game drive”, morning or afternoon walk, sleep in the park, etc. But it all costs money and frankly I’m not that much of a fan of game viewing.

I really enjoyed the day in Kruger Park and could’ve been there a few more days, but decided I wanted to spend my time and money in other things (like diving). Since I was lucky enough to do Kruger Park virtually for free, I decided to move on to the next part of the trip: road trippin’ the SA coast to coast.



I had been waking up early the previous 3 days, so, since I’m on a “long vacation”, I took the next day off, slept-in late and planned my next moves. It’s a tough life.

That night Zach, Neta and Avi cooked dinner for everyone (for a small price). Salads and plenty of meat. The SA word for barbecue is “Braai”, which just like in Chile, is almost a national sport. After a great dinner we had some drinks and we welcomed two extra guests that arrived that night: 2 French girls that shared some of their cheese and rum. Good stuff.



The following morning I went to the bus station to take a bus (that was coming from Maputo, Mozambique and stopping in Nelspruit on its way to Johannesburg) which was delayed about 1 hour.



I arrived in Pretoria at around 7pm and I was picked up at the Centurion Station by Johan and Erna and driven to their house to spend the night there before starting the road trip.

As they said: “back to the home away from home”. And they weren’t kidding, it certainly felt that way. A big thank you to the Viljoen family once again.

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Photos

Nelspruit Backpackers
Zach, Neta, Avi, Abram, 2 French girls, myself