BUSH BREAK - PART TWO
Let me start with a fun fact…
Let me start with a fun fact…
The Kruger National Park is about 360km long.
We only drove through a portion at the south as indicated on the map below.
Although it’s only a small part of the park we were lucky enough to have seen the Big Five in one day. Although not all of them were eager to pose and in the best location, I did manage to snap all of them just as proof and as a memory for us of the day.
Everybody always wants to see the BIG FIVE, and they are amazing to look at and for sure impressive to see. But, if I have to be honest, the times we saw them they were a bit boring… During day time the cats are lazy and sleepy after a possible busy previous night, the buffalo don’t show any emotion, the Elephants we saw loads of, and the Rhino ran away. I did not mind the Rhino being a bit on edge, as I do hope that will help him in the case of poachers, which I will get back to a bit later.
The point that I am trying to make is, that I enjoyed all the other “regular” animals just as much if not a little bit more. The monkeys playing in the tree, the baboon grooming and feeding her little one, the giraffes pulling the best of funny faces, and the impala making friends with so many other animals and birds.
As mentioned in our previous post, Mark made an excellent recommendation to us, which was the “Bush Braai”. What this entailed was that a company called Royal Safaris comes to your chalet and picks you up around 3 in the afternoon with an open game-viewing vehicle. You then go on a sunset game drive and end up in the middle of Kruger Park somewhere. Once you get there, a camp has been set up with soft light provided by lanterns and a bonfire. A feast of some of South Africa’s best cuisine has been prepared for us. The atmosphere of being in the middle of the wild with only an electric fence between you and the nightlife is dreamlike. The only downside to this so far was the fact that it was a cloudy evening, and thus all the stars were in hiding.
Royal Safaris is the only company with the privilege to be in the park after dark besides the park’s own night game-drive vehicles. They also like to keep it small and intimate, as at that stage it was only us and one other couple from Portugal. I really do want to compliment the team, as they really do their absolute best to make it an unforgettable evening.
After dinner, you go on a night game drive, and then back to your chalet. Our guide was very knowledgable, with facts like “a giraffe’s horns are not only for the use fighting amongst males but, mainly for the purpose of protecting their head when falling quite far to the ground during birth.”
Earlier that day on our own game drive, we saw a hyena guarding a tree with an impala carcass and some vultures in. The sad part though was the fact that he had a snare around his neck. On our game drive back that evening we saw either the same or another hyena with a snare around his neck at a watering hole. At that stage, the snare had cut into the animal’s neck, and it was unable to drink water. While our guide was busy calling it into the rangers, we chatted with the couple from Portugal and realized how uninformed other nationalities can be about pouching.
The last day or two, we just relaxed a bit around the chalet as the park became quite busy. We visited the countryside farmstall (more commonly known as “Padstal” in Afrikaans) and feasted on a lot of our traditional yummies.
At one of the little shops, we found an awesome magazine, Kruger Magazine (also available on Zinio)with lots of well-written articles and amazing photos about the Kruger National Park and its surroundings, with bits of history and so much more. One of the features they have is called “Campfire Stories”, where I read a fun story about the hippo. We left the magazines behind but I did manage to find the story online.
The Bush once again did not disappoint us, and we can’t wait to go back for a bit more. Our next trip planned is through a part of Europe but, who knows, maybe we will be wandering somewhere else first.
I’m gonna leave you with a recording we took the last evening with the frogs going absolutely ballistic.
Wandering off now…
T & Me.
