Kruger 2024

So the next morning we headed back to where we saw the dogs last.

Didn’t find them :-/

At Gezantfombi dam close to Crocodile Bridge there were people looking at (presumably) the Maribu Storks in the tree. I spotted some shapes in the river bed, grabbed the binoculars… lions. The other people left, (presumably) tired of looking at the Maribu Storks.

Ah well.

Fancy that.

So after a break at Crocodile Bridge, I took the S25. Terrible road (it’s a dirt road, so I repeat myself. SANParks has to do something).

We found this fellow foraging next to the road (our second ratel for the trip, the first one crossed the road and disappeared before we could get a decent picture. This one stayed mostly parallel to the road).

Eventually we found the “lions with cubs on the S118” which we had been looking for. They were not close.

They were also not doing much.

So we headed down to Malelane gate for a loo break.

… and found a different pack of doggies, sleeping by the side of the road.

Took the loo break, came back, they were waking up.

Puppies!

But they didn’t want to come out of the bushes.

So we went for lunch at the train in Skukuza. Disappointing. Can Not Recommend.

Saw two more lions, kind of far away in the river, on the way back to Lower Sable.

And so ended our 2024 Winter Kruger experience. The next day we hooked the teardrop and headed out of the park. Did get to see a chubby unicorn with a calf, quite close to the car, but in long grass so the pics are for reference only.

Drove up the mountain, many places in second gear, because something is Not Right with the Golf. I suspect I’m losing boost air. It’s better at sea level, but up at 1600 meters it’s no fun. Overnighted in Ficksburgh, saw

If you squint you’ll see it was -6.5C at 05:31 just south of Ficksburg.

And then we were in Addo.

Decided to not mess around. Hooked the teardrop and headed south.

Ngotso North has often been good for us. It’s between the H1-4 and the Ngotso river, and something is always getting itself killed in the river, so we’ve often seen jackal and hyenas here.

The hyenas had a warthog head they were nomming on, the jackal was obviously hoping for a share.

Saw three Kori Bustard a bit further down the road, and then spotted a lion at Ngotso dam (which has also been really good for us in the past).

The cars were all clustered at the other end of the dam, yea, there were at least four more lion there. Couldn’t really jockey for position, towing the teardrop, so we left them there and then found this fellow up a tree not too far from the road.

(most of our photos have branches in the way)

Gone.

Parked the teardrop at Lower Sabie, had a look at the sightings board (for what it’s worth) and took a chance.

And found the doggies, asleep in loose formation.

They sleep, then they wake up, then they are insanely happy to see one another again… and then they go off hunting.

We thought they might end up on the H4-2 and went that way to try to intercept them but that didn’t happen. Also, it was getting too dark.

Big five score for the day: 4/5 (again, no chubby unicorns)

Having been this far north before, we did not have high hopes for spotting much. We did however have shopping to do, and washing, so.

Started the morning with a trip to the Engelhard Dam, but that was not a great choice. The dirt roads are terrible. We decided to stick to tar for the rest of the trip (this decision did not last, and I suspect the S25 is what eventually broke my car, but hey).

The Sable Dam gave us some impala and a relatively nice pic of a Fish Eagle (why are they always facing away?).

Exited the Kruger, went shopping in Phalaborwa.

And then we sat in Letaba, next to the river, and watched the plains game walk by. Very peaceful.

But! Someone spotted an owl right next to the walkway next to the river.

So there was that.

Day 4. At the gate at 05:30, because that’s how we roll. Direction: zebra, of course.

When we got to the “scene of the crime” there were three police two open tour vehicles on the scene already — they must have come in Kruger Gate and floored it down the S65 to get here before us — IMO the main reason why the dirt roads are in such an appalling condition — these guys are on a mission sometimes, and rightly so — but they need to be controlled and they are not.

Also on scene were a lot of hyenas and vultures. See the dirt on the road where I’m guessing a hyena “stole” the guts that was lying next to the road.

Of course the hyenas keep sneaking up and now and then they get chased away again.

But eventually one of them got brave enough to grab most of what was left.

Now it’s the vulture’s turn to try to steal something.

And the hyena’s turn to chase.

By half past seven there was very little left. So we did just that… because we had to go hook the teardrop and haul it up to Letaba.

Pitstop at Satara.

And just north of that, under a tree, a lazy horse.

Now remember, I’m towing the teardrop, jockey-ing is kind of difficult. And there were cars. Plenty cars. Some people made their own road next to the road (illegal, but I won’t report them, they were doing it to get past, not to hog the leopard).

(We took many photos).

We could have stayed all day, but Letaba was still quite a long way off.

So after parking the teardrop of course we went out again, and found this hyena family living in a culvert on the H9.

Tiny babies… yay! Not great photographs… meh.

Big five score for the day: 4/5 (no chubby unicorns)

We’d spotted a hyena den in a culvert under the H1-1, so we figured to go back there, see whether the babies were out, then take the H2-2 to Afsaal for breakfast maybe.

Didn’t make it — there was a demon lion lying in the road (there were two, the female got up before we got to camera distance). I used fill-in flash for what it was worth — this was 06:36 with the official sunrise having been 06:30.

On closer inspection, we found the zebra they’d brought down in the night and hey! We were the first on the scene!

Right. On. The. Road. Just after the S65 junction.

(We took many photos).

The problem with the Golf is that eventually bladder pressure raises a requirement. So we left the scene of the crime, direction Pretoriuskop. The hyena were not out.

Coming back (we’re not going to Afsaal any more! We know where the lions are, damnit!) we took a detour to Transport Dam and a lion crossed right ahead of us. Four lion, in total. A minute earlier or later we would have missed them.

We initially thought these might be the same ones from earlier but no, those were still nomming zebra.

We did find a different culvert with a different family of hyena with bigger cubs. Still cute.

There wasn’t a whole lot happening with the zebra so we took the H3 down to Afsaal. We’d heard that there were female lions with cubs on the S118, so that was the eventual destination.

Somewhere along the way we saw this one (they don’t like us telling you exactly where but lemme tellya, they moved all the chubby unicorns into one area, and if you want to know where that is look for the massive arrays of security cameras. Also, they de-horned them as you can see). Good to know there are some still around.

Anyways, eventually hit the S118, and pretty much at the end of it, two female lions crossed the road. Again, a minute earlier, a minute later… no sign of cubs though.

So we went back looking for more chubby unicorns, no joy.

Did find this boi (and his mate) on the rocks at the H1-1/H3 junction. Technically a unicorn I guess.

Wasn’t much happening a the zebra carcass either, so we went back to Skukuza for an ice cream. Drove around some more, didn’t see anything worth writing dispatches about. Stayed out as late as possible, ran into a major traffic jam at Skukuza main gate — there was an owl in the tree. But it was 17:55 and way too dark for decent photographs.

Big five score for the day: 4/5 (no leopard)

Day two was overcast and kind of dreary.

Here we are having breakfast and watching the lone Crested Barbet between all the opportunistic starlings at Lower Sabie at 10:30. We were out of the Skukuza gate at 0600, of course we were… but sometimes the first bird does not get any worms at all. So breakfast time it was.

After breakfast there was a commotion on the bridge. Hmmm, couple lions on the move.

I went wide, hoping to catch up with them, found some elephant, no lions. So we went back over the bridge, found some more elephant.

Brown-hooded Kingfisher.

So we went back to the bridge where more lions had come out the woodwork.

A female and two not-quite-cubs-anymore. Yea, hard to make them out. I like taking pictures like this one:

Tanya taking the shot above.

Drove around some more, found Kori Bustards and a Burchell’s Coucal.

(Conveniently skipping over the three days it took to get here — by the time you join us it is 0-dark-hundred and we are waiting for the Pretoriuskop gate to open so that we can sally forth and conquer the park).

Because of booking late (well, by summer standards I was fine, but Kruger is booked long in advance in winter, I learned the hard way) we had one night in Pretoriuskop, three nights in Skukuza, two nights in Letaba¹ and two nights in Lower Sabie².

Skukuza can be busy and sometimes it’s hard to get a spot, and we had a nice spot at Pretoriuskop, and Pretoriuskop was one of the few campsites which were not fully booked. Also, we only had to vacate our campsite at 11 or some such, and the gates open at 6. So the plan was, take a drive up to Skukuza, have breakfast, see if there’s a lekker campsite, squat on it with a chair, come back and fetch the teardrop. Alternatively, change our booking to Pretoriuskop for the next three nights.

But we found a nice site, and we squatted a chair on it, and all was good.

Southern Ground Hornbills are listed as endangered but they are quite common in Kruger.

They’re also hella curious.

(Concerning the Big Six, our count for the trip is 5/6. We saw two Eagle Owls this trip, have yet to spot a Pel’s).

While going back to Pretoriuskop to get the teardrop, we spotted (1) a gaggle of cars and (2) a male lion kind of far off, lying in the grass. Then he put his head down, didn’t get a photograph. Then while towing the teardrop back to Skukuza, same thing (different lion). This time we snagged a pic.

This is with a 600mm lens on a 2/3 sensor with about 3x “digital zoom” a.k.a. cropping. Shot handheld out the window because sometimes that’s all the chance you get (jockeying for position while towing is not that simple). Never fear, better pics ahead.

Green-backed Heron from the Skukuza bridge.

And a Giant Kingfisher.

1. Much further north than we like. But all I could get at the time.
2. Our preferred camp.

A.k.a. the 4/5 trip.

Having been to Kruger many times in summer, we figured we should go see what it’s like in winter.

(TL/DR: It’s a bit like the dude looking for his keys under the lamp post — the Kruger weather is excellent, much better than in summer — but the light’s not so good for photography).

I also decided to vary the route a bit. Cape Town – Sutherland¹ – Fraserburg – Loxton – Victoria West – Britstown² – Hopetown – Kimberley – Bloemhof – Ventersdorp – Krugersdorp – Pretoria³ – Witbank⁴ – Middelburg⁵ – Dullstroom – Lydenburg – Sabie – Hazyview – Phabeni Gate. And back, Malelane Gate – Baberton – Badplaas⁶ – Bethal – Nigel⁷ – Warden – Bethlehem – Fouriesburg – Ficksburg⁸ – Ladybrand – Bloemfontein⁹ – Colesberg – Middelburg¹⁰ – Cradock¹¹ – Addo¹² – PE¹³ – Mosselbay¹⁴ – Cape Town.

1. Don’t do this. The road to Sutherland is wind-ey and up-and-down-ey therefore slow, and the R356 is not as good as you might be lead to believe.
2. Overnight at Kambro Accommodation. A good place to stay over. Although next time I’ll stick to the N1 to Three Sisters and sleep in Kimberley.
3. Mainly to drop off a gun but also to catch up with the friends we stayed with.
4. To drop off a bunch of guns at Classic Arms.
5. Where Tanya bought some really crappy steak from the Spar in the Middelburg Mall.
6. Avoid this route. Can’t tell you why I don’t learn. Take either of the passes to Machadodorp (now “eNtokozweni”, but the streets are still Voortrekker, Potgieter and the like) and go from there.
7. Because my GPS is evil. I swear to Finagle, the toll road people must be paying Garmin to route via as many toll roads as possible. The sane route should have been Badplaas – Ermelo – Standerton – Vrede – Bethlehem. The Nigel route added 70km and R175.50 in toll roads.
8. Because I had to pick up a gun. Stayed at the Green Acorn. Eclectic but not terrible.
9. In this case I agreed with the GPS. The R26 from Ladybrand to Wepener should be canonised, and while the N1  outside Bloemfontein is technically a toll road, there’s no toll gate.
10. The other one.
11. Now “Nxuba” with great fanfare and absolutely no increase in quality of anything for anybody.
12. We had not been to Addo before. It’s recommended. More later.
13. Because I had to… pick up a gun. Also, Tanya wanted to visit an old friend.
14. We have friends there, stayed over, drank too much.

Stats: 6414km, 378 litres of diesel costing R8487, 5.9 litres/100km average.

I need air helpers. But they’re expensive. Tiguan springs, maybe? (It’s the fridge and the beer in the back of the Golf, the teardrop’s only about 30 kilos on the hitch, even loaded — I can (and had to) pick it up when the jockey is giving me shit).