A Tale of Two Chemists: Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park … Friday 7th June - Monday 10th June 2013

Firstly, apologies for the radio silence - we didn't have any internet connection whilst in the park and when we did have access at Blyde Canyon Lodge I messed up the password and in trying to fix this ended up compromising the internet access from my laptop altogether. I won't bore you with the details but happily this is now fixed

We left Cape Town on Friday morning. This was a little more exciting than planned. We were gathered outside our guest house waiting for the taxi to go to the airport when Tash said "Oh Shit … I don't have my passport". To ensure security the program coordinator had kept all the passports of the visiting students locked up in her office at the University and had forgotten to give Tash's back to her the previous evening. A few frantic phone calls and a diversion via University sorted the problem and we were on our way to the airport with plenty of time. The flight to Johannesburg and subsequent drive to Nelspruit, about 350 km to the east, went just fine and we spent Friday evening in a hotel there. The next morning we were up and on our way by 6.30am and reached the southern gate of the Kruger National Park about an hour later.

There is nothing that I could write here that would adequately convey what a great time we had in Kruger National Park - it was fantastic. We saw so many different animals and birds - it really exceeded my expectations. The park is several hundred kilometers long (N-S) and maybe 100 kilometers wide (E-W). Within this area there is a wide variety of habitat including grasslands, wooded areas, plains and mountains. There is one paved road that runs north south through the park and a few that run east west to connect with the entrance gates. There are also quite a number of dirt roads that you can follow but they can be a bit rough. Accommodation in the form of cottages can be found in about a dozen rest camps scattered throughout the park and these are fenced in to protect people from the wildlife. The main gates to the park and the gates to the rest camps are closed between dusk and dawn (5:30 pm to 6am ) and there is no travel permitted on park roads at night. With the exception of the camps, some rest / picnic areas and and one or two other specific spots (like the middle of major bridges) you are not allowed out of your vehicle - so all the viewing is done from the car. The wold life that we saw was mostly quite close to the road and fairly easy to see. In many cases we were able to get in to a position to take reasonable photos, but you are a little constrained by the need to stay in the car. This was particularly true for landscapes. The scenery is wild and beautiful but really it's the wildlife that is so captivating. I have to say that nothing can prepare you for the sight of all of these wonderful animals in the wild.

On Saturday we drove about 100km north through the park and stayed at Skukuza rest camp. We took a guided 3hr sunset tour on a park bus in the evening so we could get out and see some of the night animals. On Sunday we carried on northwards about another 150km to Olifants rest camp. We got up really early and started our wildlife touring at sunrise. We saw a great variety of animals and birds - including 4 of the "big 5" - Elephant, Rhino, Water buffalo and leopard, but we failed to see any lions. We've included our full lists (below photos) mostly for our own records, but you can see how much we saw. The birds were also terrific. We know that our list is incomplete - partly because we weren't able to identify everything, but also because we didn't really try to look at some of the less exotic birds like doves, starling … or LBJs (little brown jobs).

Moistly things went very smoothly in the park - only two incidents caused us some anxiety. In the first of these we came across some elephants, including a youngster, crossing the road. Once they had passed, another much larger specimen came out of the trees and we were now between it and the rest of the family. He/she was clearly not happy and we had to execute some quick reversing to get out of the way. We later saw photos of of an elephant literally rolling a car over. The second worrying moment came at one of only two places where we were allowed to get out of the car. We of course jumped out and started taking photos of the monkeys only to realize a moment later that we had left the windows open and a monkey was half way in the car trying to steal our food. We scared that one away, but a little later I clearly got too close to another monkey whilst trying to get the perfect shot and it ran towards me hissing and bearing it's teeth. Needless to say I made a rapid retreat!

We only travelled about half way up the park. We'd love to come back and visit the more northerly sections where the birding is supposed to be even better. On Monday we took an early morning drive around the Olifants area and then packed up our gear and headed south and west, exiting the park about 3pm. From here it was about an hour's drive to our next destination Blyde River Canyon Lodge. When we arrived we were stunned by the beauty of the area and also by the lodge which is fantastic. We were met with glasses of fruit juice on the veranda and the sight of tame zebra wandering the grounds! More to follow in our next blog.