Blogs from Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 9

Geo: -23.9561, 31.4416When we were planning this trip, we were going to splurge and spend two nights at Olifants for Robert's birthday. Robert was doing research and found that the restaurant at Olifants was going to be closed for renovations and so we changed it to one night at Olifants and then to Lower Sabie to have the real celebration out on the deck and have some more Mugg and Bean dinner!Got packed up from Letaba and headed to Olifants. Stopped on the bridge and had some wonderful bird sightings. We also enjoyed the antics of the baboons on the bridge as they raced past us or some would be brave and stop and take a look at us. We saw some great saddlebill storks and african spoonbill. Somewhere along the drive we also saw the ... read more

After a long day of travel from Cape Town, we arrived in Nelspruit around 9 oclock at night, all of us completely drained from the busy week that preceded and not fully recovered from the mix of beer and colored rice powders ingested at the HoliOne Festival the night before our departure. I’m convinced this rice powder (though advertised as completely organic and harmless) gave us all colds as we spent the next several days sneezing and coughing as a quartet. Despite this, we were all excited to be back in the bush and to spend some more time observing the African wildlife. Though the safaris in the Okavango and the Chobe were incredible, there’s still more to see… a lot more to see. The owner of the homely hostel we stayed at in Nelspruit would ... read more

Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park. Friday, March 21st. Started out this morning with big plans to drive a big loop staying mostly, we thought, on the H1-2, which is the paved road. As it went along the river, we stopped at each pull-off spot to look down at the sides of the river banks. At the first one, I spotted the Goliath Heron in the reeds. We then looked at a funny looking tree with small green/grey fruit hanging off the limbs and trunk. We continued up the road, and then turned off on an open dirt road to look at some water holes noted on the park map. We kept going and spotted many animals and birds ON OUR OWN along this route. We began to get a bit uneasy at the fact we ... read more

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kingdom of Swaziland to Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp, Kruger National Park. 185 km (115 miles) Wednesday, March 19th. We left camp fairly early, as it will be a hard drive today. Headed out of camp on a different road to the front gate. This road was in slightly better condition. At the highway, we turned left, and continued toward Mbabane towards the MR-3. Soon we were on a newish highway with overhead crossing walkways. Wonder if they can show the cows and goats how to use them?? Crossed through the outskirts of the City of Mbabane, which is the Capitol of the country. Started our climb up into the mountains and although directional signs pointed off to the Royal Residence, we never saw anything from the road that looked like a Royal ... read more

Next stop was Tsendze bush camp. This was about as different as it was possible to get from Crocodile Bridge. The camp is away from the main Mopani Camp and is only for campers. There is no electricity, shop, pool or restaurant but there is lovely individual sites hidden in the bush, peace and quiet, lovely ablutions complete with an outdoor shower which was much nicer than trying to shower in the dark with all the spiders and mozzies as we normally do. There was a decent kitchen with hot water and solar lighting. And to top it all the game ranger in charge came round to chat to us, show us where the paradise flycatcher has her nest and to show us his photos of a nightjar he had just taken and chat in general ... read more