Wouter's Blog

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).