6. Blog | Kruger, here we come

The long awaited weekend is finally here! From Friday (November 04) to Monday we went with Andy and Sandra to the Kruger National Park. One of the most famous national parks worldwide. It encloses more than 19’600 square kilometers – with all secondary areas it is even bigger than Switzerland. „Immense numbers and hopefully also immense impressions we will experience here“, we thought to ourselves in the car as we drove off on Friday noon. Because even though the Kruger is one of the few parks where you can marvel at all the Big Five (= elephant, cape buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard), it’s never guaranteed that you’ll actually see them during your stay. „You can go on safari for five days and the only thing you might see is elephants,“ Andy told us on the drive.
After two hours, we took a break at a restaurant and ate something. After that we continued another 2.5 hours on the highway, where it started to rain heavily. „Hopefully this will stop tomorrow, because otherwise it will be three long days,“ we said to each other. Since our camp (Berg-en-Dal) was just inside the park, we already saw the first Cape buffalo grazing peacefully in the middle of the thunderstorm on the way there. We arrived at the camp at about 18:00 and slept in a small chalet (= small house with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom) for the next few nights. When we unloaded everything and finished setting up, we had pasta with tomato sauce. Then we went to bed full of anticipation and hoped for a successful next day.

Day 1

At 04:30 we crawled out of our beds and had breakfast. We wanted to be early because, as explained in previous blogs, the animals are much more active in the morning than in the evening. Especially the predatory cats, which we were particularly targeting. At 05:00 Andy started the engine and we left – only three of us, as Sandra has been on many safaris and she preferred to sleep in. We enjoyed the beautiful sunrise, which looked just breathtaking with the impalas. Of those it has about 130,000 specimens. We drove on and in the course of the drive we saw elephants, giraffes, zebras and lots of birds. We were eagerly waiting to see lions, leopards or even cheetahs, the latter being really hard to find. „On this road I’m sure I saw a leopard on a tree once per stay“ Andy told us and we were extremely excited. But nothing came and we drove on. But then, suddenly: rhinos, right in front of us. They are not leopards or cheetahs, but still you see these animals rather rarely. Especially so close, because in Pilanesberg National Park we saw them only from far away. Immediately we snapped photos and it struck us that the tip of the horn was missing on the rhinos. Andy explained to us that the Kruger staff cut this off on purpose. Because if they don’t, poachers come into the park, kill the rhinos and cut off the horn so they can sell it on the black market. The price per kilo of these horns, which are made exclusively of keratin, is higher than the price per kilo of gold and the rhinos are therefore threatened with extinction. Sad that they have to cut off the horns for this reason… But it is better this way – for the protection of the animal.
After we took the photos, we drove on. We left the side road and turned into another one. Again there was no sign of lions, leopards or cheetahs. Andy stopped briefly to check with Urs on the map where we were. Rouven meanwhile watched what was happening. And sure enough, he saw something. „There, a hyena!“, came like shot out of Rouven’s mouth. It came out from a bush and ran on the road. Immediately we turned on the engine and followed her. While doing so, we noticed that she always jogs and never walks. Andy pointed out the fact that hyenas have very good endurance and they can jog for hours. After about a 5 minute drive, she turned and ran into the bush. We followed the course of the road and a few minutes later we saw something new: three wild dogs lying in the middle of the road. Wild dogs are very rarely seen animals, the greater was of course the enthusiasm with us. After we pulled the trigger a few times with the camera, more were added until finally 7 dogs were seen in one spot. One of them was wearing a collar so that the staff would know where the dogs were in the park. Since they travel in packs, one collar is enough for one wild dog. We saw them playing and fighting over a small meal. It may have been some kind of bird, we couldn’t identify it. Then when the wild dogs also disappeared back into the bush, we continued for another 10 minutes, turned around and headed back. On the way back we could see another group of female waterbuck. Very beautiful animals!
Back home, we filled our stomachs again and had a big break. Around noon we continued our safari, this time with four of us. We drove to the next bigger village, Skukuza to be exact, which was about 2h away from us. On the way there we could not see any animals except elephants, giraffes and birds. Was also understandable, because the sun with about 38 degrees Celsius completely banged on the road. On this day it was the complete opposite of what the weather forecast predicted.
When we arrived in Skukuza, we had a snack, enjoyed the view and after a 1.5 hour stay we started our way back. Also on this way, we could not see anything new or rare. When we arrived home, it was already getting dark and we prepared dinner: Spareribs with salad and bread. It was very tasty and after we have cleared everything, we went exhausted to the comfortable bed.

Day 2

The three of us left again at 05:00. It was already much colder than the previous day and we were all equipped with jackets or sweaters. We drove on the same roads again and also saw about the same animals as yesterday. We decided that we would drive longer in the morning, due to the activity of the animals, so that we would not be home until 11:00. This we did and we drove very far. Then Andy looked at his cell phone because someone from several hundred people in the Kruger group chat had written something: „Group of lions, sighting 5/5, near Malelane.“ Malelane was right by us in Berg-en-Dal and we headed out immediately.
When we arrived, there was nothing of lions to be seen far and wide. There were also not many cars anywhere in one spot – this is typical when there are lions in plain sight. We asked a staff member and he explained that this „close“ at Malelane was not that close by person. It was simply the closest camp compared to the others. Finally and a bit disappointed we drove to the exit, because there was a bridge from where you could enjoy a nice view. There we saw hippos, two crocodiles and birds. Especially the crocodiles pleased us very much, because we had never seen any, except for the zoo. Afterwards we drove back again until we suddenly saw something in front of us: a leopard running directly across the road. We stopped immediately. He disappeared right between two bushes and we could only see him because we knew exactly what to look for. „You get there five minutes later and you have no idea there’s a leopard around. You have to be in the right place at the right time,“ Andy told us. And it was true, because we were the only car stopping, looking into the „void“. Only that there was nothing empty, but a leopard. After we marveled at the leopard, we went back to our chalet. We ate something and then took a three hour nap because we were very tired. After we got back on our feet, we still jassten together with Andy and Sandy. Then we had „Chäs-Fondue“, which we liked very much. We ate earlier that day because we had something planned for the evening… a night drive!

Nightride

In the evening of the second day (06.11.2022), we booked a night ride (from 20:00 – 22:00) on a classic „safari“ car. Since only two others signed up besides us, together with the driver we were a total of 5 people and therefore quite private on the road. We were equipped with lamps so that we could shine into the bush in the evening and hope for animals. And this worked brilliantly: in the first ten minutes we could already see three (elephant, buffalo and rhino) of the Big Five. „Maybe on this trip we can finally survey lions,“ we thought to ourselves. We drove on and, except for a hippo, nothing came for a while. Then, all of a sudden, the driver called out, „Lions, Lions!“ He pressed on the gas a little more so we could see them better. So there they were, right next to us on the road. Five females, one male, and a small baby lion. This was the first time we saw lions. It was extremely impressive and absolutely wonderful. They looked at us quite puzzled and peaceful. Some of you may think why they didn’t attack us since the car was open. This is because they see the car with us humans inside as a whole object and they are also used to cars. We remembered the place and drove back to the camp. Full of joy we told Andy and Sandra what we had seen. Afterwards we went to bed early again so that we would be fit again the next day.

Tag 3

Next day, same time. This was our last day in the Kruger. We have already seen all the Big Five, but that did not mean that this day would be boring. On the contrary, we drove again to the spot where we saw the lions yesterday. But before we even got there, we already saw a group of lions on the other side. We noticed especially the young male and finally realized that this was probably the same group from yesterday. Over the night they surely moved on and settled here. Andy explained to us that they usually move on on the road and not in the bush so they don’t pick up any ticks and the tar ground is nicely warmed up from the previous day. After the lions, we couldn’t see much new – after all, we’ve already seen a lot. When we turned back, we turned into a new side road and what did we see? Right, lions again. A new group, which was also lazing on the side of the road. We were very surprised that we saw two prides on this day but none on the other days (except for the night drive). But we were all the happier that we could finally see them. They are very beautiful, impressive and powerful animals.
When we also photographed this pack, we drove back to the camp. We packed everything and at 11:00 we left „Berg-en-Dal“. But on our way to the exit there was another highlight: We noticed a big traffic jam on the main road and everybody held their camera to the left side. Finally we could see it. A leopard, which sat classically on a tree and looked down. Because of the dots on his fur he looks so mystical and beautiful. We also took out our cameras and took pictures. Suddenly he climbed down and crossed the street – right in front of our car or two meters away from us. How lucky we were! After that we finally left the park and drove home. A huge thanks to Andy and Sandra for this great adventure – it was an incredible experience!

All pictures