The drive down to Kruger, from Johannesburg takes around 5 hours and we arrived during midday, not much chance of decent sightings in the middle of the day in the Kruger Park, it is usually too hot and the animals are seeking shelter from the sun and generally remaining inactive.

Once inside, the camera at the ready, we drove on, and it was not twenty minutes later when I saw something on the road ahead of us. I immediately recognised it as a cheetah! Cheetah are a rare sighting in the Kruger so to see on on the first day truly was something special. As we reached the cheetah we noticed her looking back and realised there may be more, sure enough two more came into view, her oldish cubs. All three of them walked across the road in front of us and ambled into the bush, playing as they wandered off. What an amazing start to our holiday!

First sighting just after entering the Kruger Park

For me the Kruger is not so much a time to drive around all day looking for animals, I prefer to take the time to relax, do one drive a day and take some photos. On our first afternoon, whilst in camp, reading at my chalet, which was situated on the perimeter of Satara camp, I had two elephant bulls walk up to the fence that borders the camp for the guests protection. They were eating from a tree about half a metre from the fence, which was really close as I was situated on the fence as well. The Elephants obviously knew I was there, so as long as we all remained calm, they were perfectly happy to entertain us for a few minutes.

What a perfect first day followed by the traditional South African barbecue under the African night sky, hyenas whooping in the distance.

Our second day began with a drive along the Nwanetsi River, in an easterly direction from our camp Satara. We came across giraffe, impala, a couple of zebra and also saw some interesting birds. about 2 hours into our drive, we saw a pride of lions lying next to the road. There were only females in attendance but still a special sighting and always nice to see lions.

Lions, Kruger National Park

After a brief stop at Nwanetsi picnic site for some coffee, we continued in a southerly direction to Tshokwane picnic site. The road south gave us another sighting of lion, this time two big males. We also saw plenty zebra and giraffe and three white rhino.

The afternoon was spent relaxing at Satara, reading a good book, having an ice cold beer, and at the appropriate time, lighting the fire just as the sun was setting over the African bush. Pure bliss.

Day three saw us traveling north to Olifants camp. We arrived at 12h00, checked in and spent the afternoon high above the Olifants river watching elephants and giraffe come to drink.

We left camp early on day 4 as we had a pretty long drive to Shimuwini camp, my favourite cam in the Kruger Park. It is a small bush camp situated on the Letaba River. The perfect place to relax, photograph birds and read a good book! twenty minutes out of Olifants we came across a leopard mother crossing the road with a young cub. This truly was a special sighting as seeing leopard alone in the Kruger is good, but with a young cub is rare and very special. She did not hang around for us and disappeared before I could get a good photo, but you know, sometimes photos are not necessary and the sighting alone was brilliant!! I stopped at a lookout point not far from Olifants camp, for some warm coffee. We had hippo and crocodile in the river. A brief stop at Letaba camp before heading off again, North towards our camp Shimuwini. We arrived at Shimuwini in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Shimuwini has a bird hide on the Letaba River and whilst photographing some birds we were fortunate enough to get a visit by an elephant bull at the hide.

Day 5 and 6 were relatively quiet wildlife days but we did have an amazing sighting of a 3.5m python crossing the road ahead of us.

On day 7 we sadly left the Kruger and headed for Arathusa Safari Lodge situated within the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve. A beautiful lodge situated on a waterhole. It was time to be pampered, enjoy good food and I was looking forward to famous Sabi Sand wildlife.

And as always, it did not disappoint! on the first day we saw wild dogs, one of Africa’s rarest predators. We were fortunate enough to spend at least half an hour with them, moving around the vehicle. A photographers delight.

This night was also very special as I was woken by a leopard calling in the camp and subsequently walking right past our chalet. Africa throws up these surprises every now and then.

Wild dog, Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve

Day 8 started with an early morning drive where we saw the leopard that was in camp. We also saw a herd of buffalo and got a pride of lion.the afternoon drive gave us another sighting of a leopard (the same one from the morning drive).

Our last day in the bush was a little sad, but living in Africa organizing safaris to these amazing places, means it will not be long before we are back. we saw a group of about 5 rhino together on our last drive. After breakfast we packed up and headed off back to Johannesburg, arriving around 17h00.

Very relaxed and very satisfied, what an amazing wildlife experience.

Tags: kruger park, kruger park safari, safari in africa, wildlife safaris

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 8:44 am and is filed under General Kruger Park info. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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