Kruger National Park
June 2001

Once again, we were off to one of our favourite places in South Africa, the world famous Kruger National Park. This time we planned to sleep over in three different restcamps, starting at the southern end of the Park and working our way northwards. We entered at Crocodile Bridge gate and stayed at the Lower Sabie camp the first night. Because of our late reservations the only accommodation was in the guesthouse in the camp, much more luxurious that the single room bungalows were were to stay in the other two nights.
Nothing beats lying awake at night, listening to the roar of a lion, the grunt of a hippo in the river closeby or the eerie giggle of a hyena on the prowl. Thank goodness for the secure fencing!
The next morning we were up early and waiting at the gates that opened at 6 am. The reason for getting up this early while on holiday was to hopefully catch a glimpse of the last of the nocturnal predators such as lion or leopard. No such luck though and we steadily made our way up north towards the next restcamp, Satara, where we were to stay that night. Satara is where one of the Africam webcams is situated. If you would like to do some game viewing from your puter, go visit Africam, you will enjoy the experience!
Along the way we saw the usual selection of wildlife, including elephant, a lone lion, lots of different kinds of antelope, a herd of buffalo, monkeys, baboons and a whole variety of birdlife. We arrived at Satara round mid afternoon and immediately reserved place on the evening game drive arranged by the Park. This is an experience not to be missed when visiting the Park. Most restcamps have daily drives, some in the evenings and some early mornings, some of the drives even include a bush bbq or breakfast. If you are really energetic you can also go on a bush walk accompanied by an armed game ranger. We went on the late afternoon/early evening drive lasting three hours. It was dark soon and we tried to spot wildlife with the help of three spotlights mounted on our game viewing truck. You would first look for a pair of eyes glinting in the dark and then try to make out what kind of animal the eyes belonged to. The guide was a mine of information with a wide knowledge of all aspects of life in the bush. We unfortunately didn't spot any lion or leopard but managed to identify some genets and wildcats, owls, a herd of elephant taking a bath in the river, two hyena, impala, jackal, porcupine and a white tailed mongoose that ran ahead of us in the road for at least a mile!
The next morning early we headed towards Olifants Camp. This camp is situated on a hill and has the most fantastic view of the Olifants River flowing by in the valley below. You can sit at a viewpoint in the camp and with binoculars try and spot as many animals as you can drinking down by the riverside, one of the most beautiful viewsites I have ever seen.
The camp has a herd of bushbuck that are quite tame and were quite popular with the tourists as they wandered between the bungalows.
After a delicious dinner in the camp restaurant we hit the hay as we were due to leave for home early the next morning..
I hope you enjoy the pics I took and that if you haven't visited the Park yet, you get the chance to visit someday!.