Kruger Weekend

We set off on Saturday morning extremely tired but excited at 5am (very early). We headed to Hazyview to drop off someone from Hands who was also going to Kruger but was meeting others first. This meant we got to Kruger just after the gates had opened at 6:20. Just after we entered the park, the sun rose and what an unbelievable sight it was! 

(Our first sighting in Kruger - spotted by Ben) 

We had a rough start but then animals appeared here and there including elephants, giraffes and wild dog cubs. We headed down to Afsal picnic area where we hired a BBQ for breakfast and had bacon and egg roll cooked by Chris as monkeys swung from tree to tree looking for food. 

Heading across to the east of the park in Crocodile River, this was the place to go. It had animals wherever you looked - land and in water. Some of the animals we saw here are crocodiles, hippopotami and white rhino. Just on from the river was the picnic area called Crocodile Bridge where we ate rolls that we had made the night before. This time monkeys weren’t in the trees swinging but on the grass play fighting. 

We had started making our way back east from Crocodile Bridge to where we were going to sleep before we saw a gathering of cars and safari trucks stopped by the side of the road. We parked up in the middle of all of them to look for what they were looking at. John spotted it, it was one of the 3 big cats they have at Kruger. It was a leopard. We were amazed as it lay so close to us sleeping in a tree. 

We carried on to Berg En Dal where we found our lodge and got our things out the minibus and unpacked it in our rooms for the night. We quickly got changed as we went to the outdoor swimming pool (which was freezing) and saw the sunset while swimming. We had a short time there before going back to the lodge and getting ready to go out for dinner. We went to the restaurant and had a delicious meal. I had steak and Jack had a burger. We finished off and got back into the bus to go home to bed. 

A good night sleep meant we felt fresh in the morning once again after a lovely breakfast cooked by Chris. We quickly packed up our things and set off again Sunday morning at around 9:45. We went back north to Afsal to stop for a drink and visit the shop a little way into the morning. Carrying on upwards to Skukuza we saw many more animals including warthog, eagles and kudu. We had a short service led by Ben and Chris on a mountain which had an amazing view of the park. We went down the mountain to find our second leopard of the trip which had killed and taken an impala up a tree but was laying in the grass at the bottom of the tree.

We tried to have another BBQ at Skukuza but the picnic area wasn’t open so we went to a takeaway near by via the gift shop. It was a lovely lunch just before we headed to the hide. This place was brilliant, you were so close to the river and the bank. We saw over a dozen hippopotami and a large crocodile up close in their natural habitat. 

We made our way out of the gate and had a safe journey back to the Hands hub. We had some burgers for dinner and had a quick debrief with Carolyn Snyman before a good nights rest.

Ben and Jack.