We left Friday the 12th of November after work and drove to Malelane, South Africa where we stayed the night at a B&B called, The River Cottage. Stephanie, Michelle and I had actually stayed there before, last April, when we went to Hazyview to do the zip line/canopy tour. Because the park entrances close at about 4:30pm, the only option was to stay outside of the park and to drive-in via Malelane Gate on Saturday morning.
River Cottage
Malelane Gate/Kruger National Park Entrance
As previously mentioned, Kruger National Park is about the size of New Jersey. It’s big; therefore, we spent most of the day on Saturday making our way up to Olifants Rest Camp (~8-9 hours drive) where we stayed for the night; leaving us about a 2 hour drive in the morning to Letaba Rest Camp where we met our walking safari guides. An 8-9 hour drive in Kruger is not your normal ‘ride in the car’ as there are animals, everywhere.
This is what I looked like for 8-9 hours
A few of the highlights...
Elephant scratching her trunk
Same elephant crossing the road and giving her trunk a lift on one of her tusks. A ranger told us that a trunk can weigh up to 90 pounds, so I can imagine it gets heavy!
Leopard snoozing in the tree
Klipspringer
Impala booties
Mr. Zebra
Southernmost baobab tree (Doug's obsession)
Kudu eating
Bush-baby napping
Leopard turtle crossing
Giraffe eating
Unknown animal eaten
Time passed quickly and before we knew it we were rolling into Olifants. We rented two bungalows and took advantage of the communal kitchen to make a very tasty dinner.
View of Olifants River from our Happy Hour spot
Outside of our bungalow
Inside of our bungalow
Communal kitchen
Family dinner
On Sunday morning we drove dirt roads to Letaba and were able to get out at a couple of ‘outlooks’ with views of the Olifants River. Without too many animals to report (other than stubborn baboons on the bridge), we met our walking safari guides and group for a 3:00pm departure.
Sidebar: The ride to the camp was a couple of hours and very cold. So cold that I had to use the baby blanket that I am making for a friend as a real blanket! And, since I had this ridiculous blanket warming me on safari, I decided to pull out my ridiculous sun hat so that I could really look like I was going to Easter mass. Which meant that Michelle decided I should advertise her friend's salve in my get-up as her friend had given her the product to photograph around 'Africa' for marketing materials. Who doesn't want to buy salve (what is it?) from a Kentucky Derby hat wearing, baby blanket stealing wacko?
Back to the story: Our fellow walkers included a German couple on their honeymoon, Phillipe and Charlotte, as well as another German, Klaus. Klaus has been visiting Kruger National Park for the past 28 years and has done every single walking trail available. On this vacation alone, he had booked 3 different trails, back-to-back and was planning to be in the park for nearly 3 weeks. He was a die hard. Our guides were Piet and Samboku – both South African and both very well versed in the ways of the bush.
Piet encouraging a bamboo spider to come out of its home
Samboku loading up for the day
After a couple hours drive into the bush we finally landed at our rest camp just before dinner. The camp was awesome. Each person or couple had their own bungalow and there was even running water. LUXURY. The camp was seriously beautiful as it rested atop a cliff overlooking the Olifants River. The hippos put on quite a symphony with their snorting morning, noon and night. Not to mention the lions growling after dark!
Outside of our bungalow
Inside of our bungalow
Toilet
Campfire and dining room (background)
Our schedule for the walking safari went like this:
4:30am Wake-up
5:15am Depart camp via safari vehicle
6:00am Walk in the bush
10:30am Depart bush via safari vehicle back to camp
11:15am Brunch
3:30pm Depart camp on foot for sunset walk
6:00pm Return to camp
7:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Bed
Sunrise over the Olifants River
Snorting hippos in Olifants River (view from camp)
Another one of the things that I like about walking safaris is that you get to see lots of little things that you’d miss in your car. Also, you can track animals by sound or footprint and when you are by yourself on a game drive, you’re not allowed to get out of your vehicle or to follow animals off of the road. This particular walking safari was special because not only did we get to see the usual little things, we also stumbled across a couple of big things. Like rhino!
Some of the small things...birds
Birds that try to eat your breakfast
Eagle owl
Snakeskin shed in a tree
Remains of a jawbone (Phillipe)
Remains of a buffalo skull (Doug)
Long-haired buzzards (at a convention)
Jackal
Some of the big things...the rhino that we tracked
Turning to check us out
Dry riverbed
Day 1 Happy Hour included gin and tonics
And watching hippos fight
All while a crocodile looked on and warned us about coming too close to his nest
Sunset Day 2
The curious rhino who joined us for Happy Hour just after the above sunset
On Wednesday morning we came out of the bush and were deposited back at Letaba Rest Camp where we picked-up our car and drove all the way through the park and back to Swaziland. While we had already been in the park for 5 days, there’s always room for more safari! The highlight included three lions and a herd of 1000 buffalo.
Buffalo herd (biggest EVER)
These two made me laugh. Look how distinct their horns are...
And last but not least, LIONS! The loving couple
She was totally staring at the buffalo herd
So was he
Then he got up and gave her a little snuggle
And yawned
Which meant nap time for everyone
Sadly, Michelle and Stephanie are both leaving Swaziland for good this December. So, our walking safari adventure was a special way to spend time with them before their departure and as always, a good time was had by all. We <3>
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