I have been feeling quite lost lately without our TT so I thought it would be cool to share our TT of our best trip to Kruger, EVER!
Here goes!
For this trip, as usual, my mom and I would be accompanied by Mommo (designated Kruger driver ), but this time we had some other family joining us. Mommo’s younger brother and his Irish SO had come out from the UK for a month long holiday in SA. We visited them in the UK the previous April and it was when they saw our Kruger pics that the idea of them coming out took root. Mommo booked as soon as the booking for September opened, still not sure if they were coming or not, and after many emails back and forth that idea had finally become reality!
Rex (Mommo's brother) grew up in KZN and then left SA in the ‘80s with only two quick trips back since, and his SO (Johanna) had never visited our rainbow shores, so they were both Kruger newbies. We couldn't wait to show off our beautiful Kruger to them.
Our first two nights were at Orpen and the second two at Lower Sabie. At both camps we were staying in the family cottages, which we have not been to before. We had also never stayed at Orpen and would have preferred Satara, as that is our favourite area in the park, but it was close enough, and Orpen did look like a lovely camp. We were hiring a Kombi so we should have had plenty of room to move around, plus plenty seats to hide behind when an ellie comes!
29 Sept. 2010 – Johannesburg to Orpen - Part One
We were up at 2.30am to pack the cooler box and make all the padkos, and the rest of the crew arrived at 3.20 in the hired Quantum. In terms of space the Quantum was perfect, but for game viewing and photography it is not the ideal vehicle. It has only 3 opening windows for the back seats and they are tiny, making it very difficult to move a camera around easily. These tiny windows also meant not much air flow in the back, and it was HOT!! Anyway, we solved that by playing musical chairs – taking a different seat on each drive. At last everything was packed and we were on the road at 3.40 – at last!! .
We had still not decided on our route, and as we approached Belfast it was quite misty. Rex, however, decided he wanted to do Long Tom, and then promptly missed the turn off!! At the next crossroads he did a U-turn and we were on our way again. We made a quick stop in Dullstroom for toilets and some food and coffee. The sun was trying to burn its way through the mist and by the time we reached Lydenburg it was clear – Rex had made the right choice. Near the top of Long Tom we were above the clouds and the views were stunning.
There was a bit of mist at the canon but as we descended we were soon clear of the clouds.
We arrived at Phabeni just after 9am, and it was a bit overcast and cool. We sorted ourselves out, ribbon on, cameras and binocucules (as Mommo calls them) ready. My dad took over the driving and we were off on the S1 to Skukuza. We had all said what we thought we would see first, and we were all wrong – it was a family of dwarf mongooses scurrying across the road. Soon we came across our first zebra and impala, and then I took my first photo – a Dark Chanting Goshawk.
The sun finally broke through the clouds and it was warming up quickly. When we crossed the Mitswau River we saw our first of the Big 5 – buffalo.
At Nyamundwa Dam we found hippo out of the water, Woollynecked Storks and wildebeest. We carried on towards Skukuza, seeing more impala, giraffe, and at last I managed to get a decent pic of a Southern Black Flycatcher.
We finally found our first ellie who seemed determined to hide from us, eventually getting himself wedged between two small trees and then standing dead still. I could imagine him thinking “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me”! -O
Johanna was so excited by this close encounter with her first ellie and I was behind a seat somewhere – but I realized that it would take some time for this ellie to disentangle himself I finally peered out the window and took some pics. Then we found a kudu also trying to hide behind some twigs.
After watching some more ellies crossing the road we got to Skukuza for a quick stop. Johanna thought we had arrived at our camp, and was quite shocked to hear that we still had at least 6 more hours of driving before reaching Orpen. But she took it in good spirits and once back on our way again. We got onto the H1-4 and saw our first bush buck and lots more ellies and buffalo in the river.
We crossed the high level bridge, seeing monkeys, a terrapin and a pied kingfisher, which Johanna had been wanting to see.
Soon after the bridge we found our first traffic jam – a single lioness under a tree. Three of the big 5 already!! Rex and Johanna were so excited, as were we, but now Mommo was under fire as we all told him where to go – “forward a bit” (Mom), “no back a bit” (Rex), “right here, perfect” (Johanna), “all I can see is a bush!” (Me)!!
Eventually we had all seen her and taken our pics, and as there was a lot of traffic, we moved on, finding this little one peering at us just a little further on.
We were all feeling very upbeat with the morning so far. What lay in store for the rest of the day…..
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Really enjoying it and am happy that you felt lost