Our guides’ exceptional luck (or is is skill & knowledge?) seems to be continuing! Hielke is in the Kruger Park at the moment & here is what he has to say:

Monday morning was cool when we went for morning drive. With guests wrapped up in blankets and very excited! It did not take long till we saw two hyenas crossing the road. We carried on driving along the river and finally found a beautiful male lion. He walked next to the car for a while and the disappeared. Into the bush.

Big 5 or not?

The issue of finding the Big 5 (Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Buffalo & Elephant) is always a big one for guests, which of course puts pressure on all guides to “produce”. It has become a big selling point for any agent, tour operator and of course, South African Tourism. In a park such as the Kruger National Park, it can be tricky to find them all, especially when you have limited time. Luckily our guides have intimate knowledge of the park, animal behavior and where they are most likely to find these animals.

Hielke says:

“We arrived in the park on Tuesday with loads of excitement for the safari that lay ahead. We left for afternoon drive and immediately found a big herd of elephants right next to the road. We moved along slowly and watched a big troop of baboons moving along the road and to see the babies carried by their moms is always an entertaining sight!

We were also spoiled with 3 ground hornbill walking along the road. Right before we headed back we saw 2 hyenas and a white rhino which was trotting nervously with our presence and showing us just how fast a 2.5ton animal can be. It was a great start to our safari!

Our rather big group of Australian clients had a brilliant time in the Kruger Park. They were in Letaba for 2 nights followed by Olifants for another 2 nights.

With the first real rains yet to fall in the park, the landscape offers great views with stark landscape broken by these incredibly startling green strips of vegetation along the rivers. with the veld being quite dry still, the animals tend to congregate around the waterholes and rivers.

Our Skukuza guests under guidance of Kylie were very lucky with some incredible sightings. Kylie says:

“We have had an awesome tour so far, and we still have 3 days to go! We started Tuesday with a black rhino about 500m into the park, it was amazing he just stood staring at us for about 15 minutes. We then saw a lot of impala, giraffe, kudu, and a lilac breasted roller the rest of the way in. The afternoon produced some hippo, lots of elephants, 4 troops of very naughty baboons, more giraffe, impala and kudu, and also some bushbuck, nyala and buffalo right at the end!