Family trip to Kruger – June 2023

After a successful first trip to the Kruger National Park, my family decided to join on their second adventure to the infamous park.

Watching a troop of baboons going about their day will always provide some type of entertainment or comedic relief. We watched as a tall bridge provided the necessary vantage point for these animals to calculate their movements for the day.

No matter where you parked along the lengthy bridge, there were baboons surrounding you. Some were thawing in the morning sun. Some youngsters were up to their usual shenanigans, chasing each other around and biting each others tails. Some babies held on tight to their mothers and watched as the cars passed by.

After almost two days of missing various predator sightings, the urge to see one of the large cats grew tremendously. I received word that there might be a pride of lions close to Nyamundwa dam near Phabeni gate. We were already moving down the S1 road en route to the dam. I chatted to another vehicle passing by and they mentioned that there is a pack of African Wild Dogs on the move between Doispan dam and Nyamundwa dam. Could we hit two birds with one stone this morning? Excitement levels grew. We moved further down the road and ahead of us we saw a few cars clustered together. We scanned the surrounds and turns out that we had just missed the wild dogs by one car in front of us.

Surely our luck would not disappoint us twice in a row. We persisted and moved down to the large waterhole. Then as luck would have it, we spotted a figure on the dam wall. It was indeed a lion. A gorgeous male lion stood up shortly after arrival and walked up and down along the wall.

We cherished the sighting as we could feel the morning heat creeping up on us. We knew that the lion would soon plonk down for a snooze and call it a day. For a moment he crossed over the dam wall. We thought that was the end of the sighting, but then he returned with a lioness. This made missing the wild dogs by seconds all worth it.

With the variety of birds that the Kruger National Park has to offer, there is always something to stop along the road for when sightings may be a little slow. Whether it is their brightly coloured plumage, sheer size or odd body features, something will catch one’s eye.

With Impala being the most abundant species in the Kruger, it can be easy to fall into the trap of taking them for granted and bypassing herd after herd. Challenge yourself and stop at a decent size herd and marvel at their beauty. Remember to capture at least one memorable photo of this species.

This trip also provided many sightings of male kudu’s wandering out in the open spaces. I do not recall seeing this many during previous trips.

The amount crocodiles that we found sunbathing on the banks of the rivers and edges of the waterholes was astounding. We struck it lucky with exceptionally warm and sunny winter days. We spotted this XXL beast while taking a moment at Sunset Dam.

The buffalo herds and lone males also did not disappoint this time around. We had multiple occasions where we witnessed herds crossing the roads, moving along the Sabie River or covering ground in the distance.

There is always something to witness while moving around the various rest camps too. Scan through the trees and be on the look out for various reptiles, birds and insects species hiding in plain sight.

During each season there will be various trees that are blooming or flowers on show. The activity within the rest camps does not stop when the sun sets. We were fortunate to witness a honey badger as well as a genet during one of our evening braai’s.

We had quite a few drives where it seemed as if nothing was moving around for the day. One drive got us moving up a lonely gravel road parallel to the H10. The only highlight was seeing four red billed teals in a shallow pan next to the road. Once we reconnected to the tarred H10 road, a car flagged us down.

The passengers inside lit up with joy and they seemed more excited to tell us about the leopard 2 km behind them than the actual sighting that they just had. This all brought us to tears as we burst out laughing.

We found the leopard that they had told us about. What may have been 2 km felt like 5 km of searching. At first we had to make do with a cat tucked into and passed out in long grass. The heat of the day had already broken and we were nearing sunset. I knew it would not take long for the leopard to wake up.

Sure enough it did wake up after being irritated by flies biting him and buzzing around his face. We were treated to a series of stretches and swatting at the flies and eventually he got up. This is hands down the oldest and largest male leopard that I have witnessed in the Kruger National Park. He moved along the grassy field for a short while and went to lay down in a different patch of long grass. We were satisfied with him gracing us with his presence and we moved on to enjoy the sunset.

Sunrises and Sunsets are always a spectacular show in the bush. Sometimes sunsets from viewpoints can be hard to time in the park as the gates close fairly early and distances back to camp can be deceiving. We managed to make our way up to Mlondozi view point before returning to Lower Sabie rest camp. The bush had already taken on a subtle stillness and prepared itself for sunset.

Of all the memories made with the family on another phenomenal Kruger trip, ending off the experience with a view like this is priceless.