Lions On The Loose

[PJL]

Hey everyone

It's time for a bit of a write-up about our latest visit to Kruger. This was our third visit and we were joined by Granny & Grandpa who flew in from the UK for their second visit to the park. We were a bit slow in organising everything, so by the time we were ready to book, availability at the various restcamps inside the park had all gone for the June/July holiday. Friends of ours had previously stayed at Marloth Park and on their recommendation we decided to base ourselves there for all 12 nights of our stay. We split the stay between two places in Marloth which worked out well.

Overall we had a really good trip. There were some ups and downs when it came to sightings. Some days exceeded expectations and others were extremely quiet on the animal front. Being school holidays meant certain roads were ridiculously busy at times, and we missed out on a few really great sightings by a matter of minutes due to insane traffic jams, but that can't be helped I suppose. We did tend to head more for the dirt roads as a way of escaping the crowds

The first part of our journey was from Port Elizabeth up to Joburg where we would meet up with Granny & Grandpa. We left nice and early in the morning to get a head start on traffic, so we were nearly out the Eastern Cape by the time the sun came up



Some Northern Cape / Freestate scenery along the way



After meeting up with Granny & Grandpa and a stop-over in Joburg, we continued on towards our destination with an obligatory stop at Alzu



We pushed through to Malelane for lunch and to stock up on supplies. The Deck restaurant lived up to its name and had the kids searching out their first animals of the trip along the crocodile river



It was then a short drive on to Marloth Park where we were excited to get to our accommodation for the first 5 nights....

[Lisbeth]

Marloth is a bit far away from Kruger, but as it has wildlife of its own and is also a nice place ...........

WOW, how the kids have grown

[Richprins]

All looks in order and organised as always, Peej!

[harrys]

[Bushcraft]

Sjoe PJL, kids grow up fast

I'm interested to see what you think of Marloth as I'm also plotting it in the future because the accommodation in certain KNP camps is rather tired, lacks maintenance and in my opinion isn't value for money anymore

[PJL]

Marloth is a bit far away from Kruger, but as it has wildlife of its own and is also a nice place ...........

WOW, how the kids have grown

Depending where you stay in Marloth, you can get to Kruger gates fairly quickly, but it was certainly nice having some local wildlife to keep us entertained
The kids are shooting up... I need a new fridge just to cope with how much they're eating now

All looks in order and organised as always, Peej!

Thanks RP. Was a fairly uneventful journey up which is the best kind really

Nice to have you on board Harry

Sjoe PJL, kids grow up fast

I'm interested to see what you think of Marloth as I'm also plotting it in the future because the accommodation in certain KNP camps is rather tired, lacks maintenance and in my opinion isn't value for money anymore

BC
You'll see some accommodation pics coming up in the next episode. Both the places we stayed at felt expensive to me, but that's because we would normally camp if it was just us. With the grandparents in tow we needed decent sized places for the 6 of us. The two places we stayed at looked rather larney but were cheaper than any 6 sleeper units you can book inside the park
The only downside as you'll see is that every day you want to head into the park you need to get through the gate check-in process, unlike people staying inside who can just head out on a drive at 6am

[Alf]

That’s a very long trip to Kruger

[PJL]

That’s a very long trip to Kruger

Worth making the most of the time there after such a big journey

[PJL]

We arrived at Marloth Park mid-afternoon and found the first house we were staying at without issue... it might have been a bit of a different story at night time as it is quite a maze.

Marloth Park is a conservancy in its own right and borders the southern boundary of Kruger along the Crocodile River. There's plenty of game around and we had visits from a number of species during our stay. The nice thing is that many of the animals aren't too afraid of humans so you can get quite close to them. However we always ensured it was them coming to us and not the other way round... there were a couple of incidents whilst we were there of kids getting hurt

Our first place was called Noro Wa Hina and was situated on the north-west side of Marloth Park, about 5 minutes walk to the fence line where you can look into Kruger. It was a really spacious and well-equipped house! The only downside was being a bit further away from Crocodile Bridge gate.




The deck upstairs was fantastic - you could even see part of Kruger in the distance







Amazingly we all managed to brave the water temperature and have a swim during our stay



The braai area was well utilised




Apparently 2 lion that had escaped from Kruger had been captured the day before somewhere right by the house
Knowing they had been captured put everyone at ease... until the next day when we found out that there were at least 4 other lions that had evaded capture and were still on the loose somewhere in the area. I was secretly hoping we'd get some nocturnal feline visitors, but they never showed up... instead our first (and quite regular visitors) were warthog




After all the travelling and unpacking there was just time to take a wander down to the river to enjoy a sunset over Kruger

[Lisbeth]

Looks like a nice house

Did you have many birds around?