The Eastcott Family Blog: Kruger National Park

After spending the evening in Nelspruit we were ready to set off bright and early the next morning so that we could be at the gate by 6am when it opened. About 5:50am we were at the gate and were about 10^th in line. A few minutes later they were opening the first gate and handing out the entry cards that we quickly filled out so we could pay and get into the park. By about 6:20am we were finally on the roads in the park and were on lookout for any animals, specifically rhinos.

By 6:45am (after we passed a bunch of cars crawling along) we had seen the first elephants which were literally on the side of the road (scared the heck out of Dave who was driving). We stopped for a few photos and then were back driving again. Just a few minutes later Lisa spotted something in the bushes which turned out to be a white rhino! After taking a few photos we saw something else move and quickly realized it was a little baby with the mom which was awesome to see as they are endangered. We stayed for a little while longer (no one else came up on us) before moving on to spot some more animals and find a campsite for the night. After a couple of hours we were finally getting to Skukuza camp to see if there were any open spaces. Luckily there was 1 tent spot left in Pretoriaskop so we booked it, bought some snacks and then were back in the car.

The rest of the first day we saw more elephants (one of the young ones had very red eyes, ears and mouth – park ranger said it may have been burned in a wild fire), more rhinos, one lion, buffalo, antelope, baboons, zebras and other small animals but didn’t get to see any leopards. Around 4pm we realized we needed to start heading to camp which was still pretty far (the map made it look much shorter) as the gates closed at 5:30pm. We finally made it to camp just after 5:30, checked ourselves in and went to find ourselves a tent spot. After finding a spot and setting up our tent (which we had just bought from the hostel the day before) we walked over to the park shop to buy some food and cooking utensils (which ended up being a cheap little pot, pasta and sausages). The rest of the night we finished cooking (saving some for lunch the next day) and hit the hay as we were planning on waking up early to be one of the first ones on the road.

Our second day in Kruger we woke up at 5am, cooked some baked beans and toast, packed up our tent and got in line at the gate for opening time. By 6am the gates were opened and we were on the roads. A few minutes later we decided to change roads and go down a different road to get away from the people in front of us. We realized we were the first ones down the new road when about 10 minutes in (after we had seen elephants and buffalo) we saw this big black shadow right in front of us on the road stand up and start to walk away. Turns out it was a rhino that had been sleeping in the road (pretty cool and scary at the same time). Further down the road we saw more typical animals as well as two other rhinos that were grazing just off the road and two hyenas (which were the only ones we ended up seeing the whole time) walking down the road. At one point we stopped to talk to someone coming the opposite way who ended up being an off-duty guide and told us about a spot that they had seen some lions and a leopard at the day before so we decided we would head that way next. An hour or two later we were in that area and were still just seeing antelope, zebras, giraffes, and other typical animals. That is until we crossed a bridge and saw a convoy of cars. It turns out there had been a leopard that had tried to catch an antelope and had not succeeded and then they lost where she went. A little while later most of the cars had gone and we decided to drive slowly up the road to see if we could spot her. Just a few kilometers up the road we saw a few cars pulled to the side of the road and right behind them, about 3 meters back, was a female leopard sitting on a rock in perfect view! We pulled our way into the line so that we could have a better view for some photos; it was amazing how close she was. Since leopards in Kruger are a rarity we decided to stick around for a while and ended up staying about 30 minutes and were able to get even closer to her. We finally decided it was time to go and on the way back saw another convoy of cars where another leopard had been spotted. After getting stuck in the line of cars we turned back around as the leopard was pretty far off the main road and wasn’t very easy to see. As we were driving we decided to stop at all the camps as they have boards where people can mark what they’ve seen (so we would stop to take a look). We saw a few more rhinos along the drive as well as other animals until we decided to take a little loop off the main road. As we were driving along Dave quickly told Lisa to stop and reverse, he had spotted another leopard that was climbing a tree. By the time we reversed she was already up the tree and panting very heavy as thought she had just come from a run (we assumed it was a female because they are smaller than the males). After sitting for a few minutes watching her we saw a few scavenger birds circling the air and assumed something had taken her kill from her so we decided to investigate. We came up empty handed but couldn’t believe we had just seen three leopards in one day. That night we were staying at a different camp (the only available spot again) so about 4pm we headed south to make it there in time. We got in a little early this night so that we could take the rhino trail walk that the camp had. After checking in we started the walk and about an hour later we were looking for a camp site. We found a site, set up our tent, cooked and ate some dinner and then went to sleep.

Our third morning in Kruger we woke up about 5:30am and went straight to the gate to try and be first out and ended up being the only ones in line until 5:55am. After leaving the gate we hit the road to try and find some wildlife. This day we ended up seeing all the same animals (two leopards this day) except for rhinos which was quite a bummer as it was going to be our last day in the park. On our drive out we had to rush once again to make it to the gate on time and still ended up being a few minutes late. Once out we decided to try our luck staying at a 4 star resort that we found a really good rate for (if it didn’t work out we would just go back to the hostel – which was actually the same price as the hotel). We got to the hotel around 6:30pm to find out they did have a room for us and it was even cheaper than we thought, it included free breakfast (which was delicious) and the hotel was awesome. After getting in the room, showering and going for some dinner (which was delicious as well and cheap) we decided we would stay there an extra two nights if we could.

The next morning we found out we could extend our stay so we took the day to go to the Blyde River Canyon (largest green canyon) and the bar in the Baobab tree (a bar carved into a huge tree). Dave wanted to have a beer in the tree but it cost 15 Rand each to enter (no credit cards accepted) and we only had 30 Rand in cash so we just got to go in and look around which was fine. We got back to the hotel around 6:45pm after a long drive (scary as heck at night), had some dinner and decided we would spend our final full day in Kruger. We figured we’d go to bed early and wake up early but found ourselves watching some movie on tv (yes we had a tv in our room – luxury!) called ‘The Losers’ which ended up being pretty good.

Thursday morning (our last full day in Africa) we got up bright and early (well 45 minutes later than we wanted) and headed to one of the park gates for a morning game drive. The coolest thing that morning was first seeing a helicopter (we took a photo to find out it was a park one), then seeing an elephant running (he had a dart in his butt) and then seeing a convoy of vehicles that stopped to tell us they were doing research. Shortly after that we left the park in order to get back to the hotel before breakfast ended (since it was free after all). We got back with plenty of time, ate some breakfast, went to find a bag (so we could bring home our tent and everything else we acquired along the way) and then headed back into the park. This time around we went straight up to central Kruger to see what we could find out that way and ended up finding some rhinos, elephants, buffalo, lions and some other animals but didn’t get to see any leopards this time around. Another cool thing we saw this day was a dead baby zebra on the side of the road and about 2 meters away a sleeping lioness. After stopping to see that and stopping to see another lion and some other animals we were running out of time and had to race to get out of the park. Of course we were late once again, but this time it was because we stopped for a few minutes to watch two elephants playing and rolling around in a watering hole which was pretty amusing. About 5:45pm (15 minutes late) we finally made it to the gate to exit but we still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get back to the hotel since we had to exit out of a gate further north (due to running out of time). We made it back to the hotel around 8pm, packed our bags, had some dinner and hit the hay. We are definitely glad we went back to Kruger for one more day as it turned out to be a day filled with cool things to see.