When people think of safari, often, images of Kruger National Park come to mind. Kruger National Park is the most iconic of all of South Africa’s national parks. Spanning 2 million hectares, it is one of Africa’s largest wildlife reserves and hosts not only the Big 5 but a huge diversity of wildlife, birds and vegetation.
Many years ago, Leo and I were invited to South Africa to celebrate the wedding of a close friend. We all stayed at a luxury safari camp in Sabi Sands, a private reserve that borders Kruger. There was a particularly memorable game drive where we got very close to a pride of lions walking through a dry riverbed. All of it was an amazing experience that we will never forget.
This time around, we wanted to have a different kind of safari trip, more similar to what a South African family might experience, while being both family friendly and cost effective. A South African friend suggested we book accommodations directly inside Kruger. She said that her family had stayed in the cottages and camp sites in Kruger throughout her childhood and highly recommended it.
In total, we booked 4 nights in Kruger – 2 nights in Skukuza Rest Camp and 2 nights in Satara Rest Camp. In addition to the accommodations, I pre-booked a number of game drives and bush walks. My friend had told me that the accommodations and activities get booked up to 6 months in advance, so I did not hesitate to book early.
Skukuza is the main rest camp in Kruger and is fully equipped with more facilities and amenities than we could have imagined. The day that we arrived, it was extremely hot and we braved the heat to browse through the shops and restaurants. The only way we could find to combat the heat was with some ice cream.
In the butcher shop, we immediately noticed that they sold game meat. We saw crocodile, impala, springbok, kudu, warthog and ostrich. This was a curiosity to us because we had not seen so much game meat sold anywhere else in South Africa. In Kenya, any kind of game meat is illegal, as it would be considered bush meat. We asked the counter person at the butcher shop about the game meat and he told us that the meat was all commercially farmed, more similar to beef or chicken, than to bush meat. In South Africa, there is a clear distinction between game meat and bush meat, the latter being illegal.
We checked into our bungalow and found it to be simple, clean and satisfactory. It contained two bedrooms with three single beds in each bedroom and en suite bathrooms. Then there was a kitchen and living area. Our favorite area, and where we spent most of our time, was the veranda at the front of the cottage. This was where we ate several meals and where the children did their learning and playing. I saw several other families enjoying meals on the veranda and some even brought their own table cloths and candles.
Our bungalow was in a fantastic location, just behind the swimming pool, which was a welcome respite from the heat. Very close by was also a restaurant called the Kruger Station. The food and service were far beyond what we expected from a national park and we found out why. This particular restaurant is not managed by the park service. It is privately managed by the operators of the Kruger Shalati – The Train on the Bridge, a luxury hotel set in an old train situated above the Sabi River. We went twice for dinner on two consecutive nights. We enjoyed the food and appreciated not having to cook while the children enjoyed the playground. We befriended the restaurant manager on the first night and on the second night, he invited us for a private screening of short films in the 360 degree cinema.
In Skukuza, I had booked three organized game drives and an early-morning bush walk. There are only three organized drives per day, sunrise, sunset and night drive and over the course of three days, I booked them all. An important benefit of joining the organized drives is being able to go into the park before sunrise and after sunset, outside of the hours permitted for self-drive safaris. That also means very early start times (4 am) and late end times (10 pm). The game drive experience was very different than the private drives we had experienced in Kenya. The safari vehicles seat a maximum of 23 passengers and there is a guide/driver who leads the trip. Passengers are encouraged to help spot animals, using strong flash-lights at night to shine at them, and inform the guide to stop when they spot anything.
Highlights of the game drives included seeing a male lion during a sunset drive, laying down in the middle of the road. At first, he seemed sick or injured as he was not moving and did not seem responsive. We drove very close to the animal and he didn’t seem bothered. Many passengers expressed concern about the lion. It is a natural human instinct to want to help a wounded creature, even though we know we shouldn’t and can’t. At Kruger, the laws of nature prevail and we just drove away. On the way back to the camp, the lion was still laying in the same spot but had lifted his head up and was looking more alert. Everybody felt lighter with relief.
During a night drive, the guide spotted a large pack of wild dogs. There were several females and a lot of pups. At first, it seemed the pups were trying to drag a wounded or dead pup up a small ravine. Suddenly the pup sprang to life and we realized they were just playing.
During a sunrise drive, the guide spotted a leopard from a far distance, must have been 100 meters away, walking on a river bank. It would have been impossible for us to see it without the guide. The leopard finally completed our sightings of the Big 5 in its entirety.
Other than the game drives, RY and I took an early morning bush walk that required us to wake up at 3:30 am for a 4:00 am start time. The bush walk was about 4 hours in total and covered about 5 km. We were escorted by two guards armed with rifles, which they were prepared to use if necessary. We drove about 30 minutes in a safari vehicle to the starting point in an open field. We were asked to walk silently in a single file line for safety. During the walk, the guides pointed out prints, bones and poo, most of which we had already learned about in Kenya. The one poo that we had never seen was that of the civet cat. It is easy to identify because they are the only animals that can eat millipedes without being affected by their poisonous secretions, so their poo is full of the exoskeleton of millipedes. During the bush walk, we spotted a hyena returning back to its den after its nightly hunt. Interacting with the land from the ground felt different than seeing it from the safety of a vehicle. It made me feel both closer and more vulnerable to the wilderness.
After our two-night stay at Skukuza, we drove north for about 2 hours to the Satara Rest Camp. It is easy to spot larger game on the self-drives. We could easily spot giraffe, zebra, warthog and elephants. Spotting the smaller and more elusive game requires more skill. On our way, we saw a bunch of cars crowding on a bridge overlooking a riverbank. From the looks of the crowd, we figured it had to be a big cat or maybe even a hunt in progress. We stopped the car and inquired what everybody was looking at. There were two leopards lying down in the grass beneath a tree about 60-70 meters away. We could see the leopards through our binoculars and spent some time watching them, hoping they would stand up and give us a better view of him. After not caching sight of a leopard for our entire month in Kenya, here in Kruger, it seemed that leopards were popping up everywhere.
Along the way, we also spotted a huge herd of elephants, probably 50 or more in all, drinking and playing in the river. We later found out from a ranger that the park is facing an overpopulation of elephants. They have been evaluating the best way to reduce the current population of 30,000 elephants and so far, are considering sterilization as a possible solution.
The Satara Rest Camp is smaller than Skukuza and has only one restaurant and a supply shop. The restaurant was nothing special, though for convenience, we ate there a few times. This time, we booked two separate bungalows, each with 3 single beds and a bathroom. The kitchen and dining area was ingeniously designed outside with a curved wall to provide privacy from neighboring bungalows. There was a basic braai that RY couldn’t resist trying out. One afternoon, after swimming, Leo and RY grilled some ribeye and a spatchcock chicken for lunch. We were joined by a new friend that AY and EY made, a little girl named Amelia and her mom, for roasting marshmallows.
Admittedly, I overbooked the game drives and by this time, we were all getting worn out form the long drives that lasted about 3 hours each. Unfortunately, the park doesn’t allow for cancellations, so we soldiered on. In Satara, I once again booked sunset and night drives and an early morning bush walk for Leo. If I could do it again, I would book a maximum of one activity each day and leave plenty of down time in between.
The wildlife sightings in Satara were not as plentiful as in Skukuza. Highlights of the drive include seeing the nocturnal African wild cat on a night drive. It looked exactly like a domesticated cat. It looked vulnerable and out of place in the bush.
On the sunset drive, our guide spotted an African wild dog feeding frenzy. We were lucky to encounter the dogs for the second time because sightings of wild dogs in Kruger are rare due to their endangered status. There are only about 6000 wild dogs remaining in the wild, and only a few hundred in Kruger. Wild dogs are vicious hunters and because they don’t have the size or the strength to make fatal bites, they start feeding before their prey is dead. It is said to be the most gruesome of kills. Our view of the feeding was blocked by the bushes so we could only hear the dogs gnarling and whining as they teared at their prey. After a few minutes, the hyenas started to arrive. The hyenas can smell the blood from miles away and they began arriving from different directions to get their share of the kill. There were some scuffles between the hyenas who were trying to steal the prey and the dogs who weren’t ready to give it up. Suddenly, a hyena came running out of the bushes with the hind leg of an impala dangling from its jaws. It all happened so quickly that I did not capture a photo.
The guides in Kruger have very sharp eyes and intentionally sought out smaller animals that visitors might not spot without them. During an evening drive, we were lucky to see the flap-necked chameleon dangling from a twig and the boomslang entwined on a branch.
My favorite times of the day at Kruger are sunrise and sunset. It is grueling to wake up before sunrise and I often forego the chance because I convince myself that it won’t be worth it. But experience has proven me wrong every time. There is a certain intimacy in seeing the day before it begins. The chill of the night is still palpable and even when others are around, there is a permeating sense of solitude and peace. The sun rising is like opening the zipper to a pouch full of confetti. Once the zipper is open, the chaos and colors of the day burst through and there is no hope of getting all that confetti back into the pouch. The day has begun and as I saw a guide once blithely say to a warthog, “Congratulations, my friend, you made it another day.”
At the end of the day when the sun descends toward the horizon, the dazzling colors are a celebration of the struggles and the successes of the day that has just passed. The sun sinks lower and lower until the colors in the sky blend together. For us, we return to the safety of our homes and retreat to our bedrooms to enjoy a peaceful slumber. For the animals in the bush, the nighttime is the most dangerous time, when predators emerge for their nightly rituals of the hunt. Those who are lucky enough to make it through the night and live to see another day.
As our days in Kruger came to an end, we could see the evolution of our African safari education. When we embarked on our first game drive in Kenya, we were awestruck at the sight of any living creature on the African plains. Now, with no less than 50 hours of game drives under our belts and countless sightings of elephants, giraffes, zebras, impala, wildebeest, buffalo, hyena, warthogs, etc., we have become interested in more than just spotting any animal. Although I would say it is always thrilling to see a big cat. We are more selective about when to stop and watch, and our curiosity is piqued by the smaller and less recognizable animals like African wild dogs, African wild cats, jackals and the reptiles which are also a vital part of the ecosystem. Once we got over the excitement of simply seeing the magnificent wildlife in Africa, we have also become aware of listening to their sounds and observing their interactions.
It is only with the luxury of time that we are able to go deeper below the surface. Beyond just seeing the animals, we are thinking about how all the pieces interact with and affect each other – animals within their herds (or other collective noun), one species with other species, each species within the Kruger ecosystem, animals and humans, and everything within the infinite framework of time. One question of particular importance is – how do we as individuals and as a species fit into this gigantic puzzle? There is no better classroom in the world to ponder these questions than places like Kruger National Park.
