Kruger Newbies *

[PJL]

Finally we’ve managed to get ourselves off on our first trip to Kruger… and we’ll be back again soon I’m sure! My parents met up with us on arrival in the park, having travelled in from the UK. They had sneaked in a few extra days prior to meeting us - staying at Nottens in the Sabi Sands area which sounded amazing.

Day 1: PE to Kroonstad

The run up to our trip had been crazily busy with moving house, so it was a relief to finally pack up and set off on our big adventure. My wife (S) and kids (H & D) were super excited despite the long journey ahead of us. It was an overcast start in Port Elizabeth, and before long we were passing the southern entrance to Addo.



Over Olifantskop Pass the skies started to clear, giving us nice views.





As we trundled along towards Cradock, we were held up by roadworks, but the delay was made somewhat better by some views of Cape Vultures circling around. We also passed a rock monitor lizard on the road, as well as ostrich, tortoise, springbok, vervets and baboons! I decided to take the route past Gariep Dam to the N1, which perhaps wasn't the fastest but the view was impressive.



Our stop-over was a farm just south of Kroonstad... nothing fancy, but we simply needed beds to rest ready for the next leg of the journey. As we pulled in, we were treated to a spectacular sunset.





Once it had gone dark, we caught the edge of a storm and the winds howled around the place so hard that the power was knocked out prompting an early night! Sleep was a bit hard to find with all the excitement of what we might see the next day

TBC

[PJL]

Thanks Flutts Seen a lot, but my camera wasn't accessible for pics


Day 2: Kroonstad to Berg en Dal

Everyone was awake early so we hit the road and made good progress despite some fires along the way



The stop/go on the N4 only held us up about 10 minutes, after which we stocked up at Malelane and arrived at the park gate



At Berg en Dal, we met up with Granny & Grandpa, sorted out the chalets and went for an afternoon drive in the mid 30s heat to check out the loop round the S110.
We came across our first ellie



As well as some sleepy rhinos





Along the way to Matjulu this hornbill posed nicely for us



At Matjulu Waterhole there was plenty of activity including a large herd of buffalo:







Something tasty up there


Ellies had been drinking out the water tank, and as they crossed the road we saw there was a little one in the herd:





Some mud-bathing rhinos then took a stroll past, one with quite an impressive horn





TBC

[Mel]

Like the intro so far! But also, please, tell me more about Nottens. That's the only private game reserve experience we got and I would love to hear what your parents exactly thought about that stay.

BTW, I take it you were not the driver - or at least you took turns with your wife. Or did you allow her to use your camera? I got a good reason for asking - Spots is not allowed to touch the main camera.

[PJL]

Hey Mel, the photos en-route were using the kids compact cameras. Most of the 'people' photos were using those compact ones as I didn't really want to keep changing lenses all the time
Nottens was rated very highly by my parents. They liked the fact that it was family run, appeared to keep their staff for a long time and had access to the same areas as some much more expensive lodges. They were fortunate in getting a couple of leopard sightings, as well as cheetah which was total luck - they hadn't seen cheetah there for about 4 months prior. The only downside seemed to be that they didn't have access to any river frontage, and unfortunately the lion pride in the area had recently had cubs with the mom preferring a section of the park which they didn't have access to, so they didn't get any lion sightings there... but overall it was a brilliant place according to them

[PJL]

Day 2 Continued: Berg en Dal

Just to round off the afternoon drive, we caught some impala in nice light



And then had another lovely sighting of a rhino family milling around in the dusk












Back at the camp we pulled in to the restaurant for supper, having heard some decent reports on the food there. However the service was slow and we were desperate to get the kids to bed as early as possible after all the travelling so decided it would be better to braai/cook at that camp from then on

TBC

[PJL]

Day 3: Berg en Dal

After all the activity of the evening before, we planned a morning route back past Matjulu waterhole, then down to the H3 for a trip along to Afsaal picnic spot. However the weather had turned overcast and Matjulu was deserted. The S110 was also very quiet with just a few regulars and as we drove up the H3 it felt like all the game had migrated somewhere else in the park

On the H3 we noticed a couple of cars stopped on the road ahead of us and pulled up to see some zebra browsing. One of the cars moved off, and we were about to do the same when S saw hyena moving in the background.



As pure luck would have it, we had parked on top of their den site and most of the family were now returning after their night out. The zebra didn't seem too bothered by their presence, and we enjoyed watching the hyena pups interacting with the older ones. I was stoked as this was one of the animals D was wanting to see the most





The little ones seemed to be welcomed by the older hyena with a solid bite







This was the smallest pup we saw, but already its coat was changing from black to spotted





Judging by the size of this one, the family can expect a few more additions soon!




As we continued north towards Afsaal we came across a herd of elephant browsing fairly close to the road, so we turned the engine off and quietly watched them move over the road with little ones in tow







Having heard about incidents with elephant in Kruger I was very wary to begin with (after all, I'm used to being able to drive up to them pretty much in Addo). But I was pleasantly surprised by their good behaviour in all our encounters with them... so long as they were treated with respect we had no issues and were able to get much closer than I had expected.

Afsaal was a convenient breakfast stop, and we hired a skottel to cook up some bacon rolls while being eyed out by lots of hornbills

TBC

[PRWIN]

Great shot ,I'm getting quite impressed with the lens, if I may ask what was the F -stop for this shot and at what distance. Trying to get a idea of the focus range of the lens as some are sharp in a certain range

[PJL]

Thanks PRWIN... I'm enjoying the lens, but I do wonder whether I would get better results from Canon L glass. It will be interesting to see when a new 100-400 comes out what price it is set at, as I could be swayed in that direction, but as I wasn't sure when that might be available this is certainly a decent stop-gap! The photo was taken at about 30 metres away; F8.0, 1/200 sec, ISO800 (it was a very dull day) and focal length of 329mm (which I guess on a full frame would be equivalent to about 520mm)

[PJL]

Day 3 Continued: Berg en Dal

From Afsaal, we decided to try out a route along the S13, S23 and S114 back towards camp. We had heard that wild dogs had been seen in the area near the S23, but there was no sign of them. We found this african hawk eagle while cruising the S23, and shortly after joining the S114 got our first close up view of a klipspringer. While the kids were snapping away, a brown-hooded kingfisher sat close by







Driving south, we came across a fish eagle who was watching a load of vultures flying past, and then saw a giraffe very close to the road busy taking some bites out the bushes.





The rest of the drive back to camp was really quiet, but we did get some nice views of some steenbok at a couple of places. Despite being quite common at times, I really enjoy seeing these cute little bambies








Back at Berg en Dal, we sat eating lunch overlooking the dam and the nice peaceful scene included some grazing buffalo and a juvenile fish eagle. We also saw a dark capped bulbul and purple crested turaco in the bushes nearby.









We took a stroll along the rhino trail which follows the fence line around the camp, which gave the kids (and me ) a nice chance to see some bushbuck up close







After nearly 24 hours in the park, we had seen a lot of things despite it feeling a bit quiet at times... but I was dying to see some cats as I had heard that the area was good for leopard . My parents had also not seen any lion during their stay at Nottens, so our eyes were going to be concentrating hard on the afternoon drive!

TBC

[PRWIN]

Not sure of the crop factor of your camera but I took it 1.7 so it works out at 550 which very good and sharp, what I have noticed as long as the subject is in the focal length of the lens the shot is sharp. To be honest I,m not seeing a difference between canon glass and Sigma on my lens, Have tried both, What I do miss is the shallow Depth of Field on the prime lenses ( Fixed Focal)

Great shots again

Ps did you run a blur in the back ground as I see the depth of field is quite shallow for the F-stop, That is just the way I like it, having a shallow depth of field and is going to push me towards the prime lenses