A day-trip to Kruger National Park
- Vera Praet
- 25 okt 2018
- 6 minuten om te lezen
Bijgewerkt op: 26 okt 2018
When people ask me what makes South Africa so special to me, I always mention its biodiversity. Because besides having a beautiful variety of people, the country hosts an immense variety of nature. It is in fact one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. With so many biomes in different climate types, and almost uncountable numbers of plant and wildlife species, I never stop being amazed. Travelling the country in 2014, I got to see many of its different biomes, all with their own characteristic species. At the moment I am not travelling as much as in 2014, but I still experience a great diversity, even at a smaller scale. Speaking of small scale, in the Netherlands, a country only twice the size of Kruger National Park, you are also able to experience great diversity in numerous habitat types, from dunes to forests and everything in between. You might not always consciously experience the variety of nature around you, but it’s totally worth it to stand still, use all of your senses (not only your eyes), and take it all in. Last Sunday we went on a day-trip to the northern region of the Kruger National Park, and I tried to take in as much as I could.
The day started early with the alarm ringing at 4 am. Packed with snacks and our cameras, we left home at 4:30 to be able to enter at the Phalaborwa gate when it opens at 5:30. The drive towards Phalaborwa was beautiful, with the sun rising between the ‘koppies’ (rock structures) on a very chilly morning. As you pass the gate, the Kruger-feeling starts. Even though my field-days are in the associated game reserves that dropped fences with Kruger, and include a great deal of game-viewing, the Kruger-feeling is different. It’s a mix of excitement, holiday-feeling, and strict rules: you look right, I look left, and don’t doze off as you might miss rare animals! We kept the windows open to hear signs of animals nearby, and made a list of all mammals and special birds that we encountered. Robin has been in this region of Kruger quite often, so he knew where to look for certain animals and shared memories on specific places. Not far in the park, we heard an awful high-pitched shrieking sound. Unable to identify this seemingly distressed animal at first, we were surprised to see where it came from: an old windmill in the wind. What a fright that would give you if you walked there during the night.
The route we took was roughly from the Phalaborwa gate eastwards to the Letaba camp, then north all the way to Mopani camp, before heading back south again to Phalaborwa, added with some loops and nice stops. It didn’t take long for the first elephants to show themselves in the mopane-veld that is characteristic for this region. We stopped at a bird hide where a yellow-billed kite at a dam gave us a special raptor-show so close you could almost touch him. Shortly after seeing the first steenbok, we found a large gathering of white-backed vultures, hooded vultures and lappet-faced vultures, joined by some tawny eagles. Not knowing why they gathered because there was no kill to be seen, Robin joked that they must have joined for church on a Sunday morning. Flying off in great numbers, we got our second bird-show of the day. We then went to Letaba camp (which I remembered from 2014), where we enjoyed a very lekker and filling breakfast with a stunning view. The river is currently more sand than river, but still attracted giraffe, impala, waterbuck, baboons and birds. At Letaba we also visited the Letaba Elephant Hall, a small museum where you can see the history of South Africa’s elephants and some real skulls and tusks of great ‘tuskers’ (those elephants with exceptionally long and heavy tusks). It is both impressive and depressing to be there, because we know just how real the threat of ivory poaching is, even in protected areas. This depressing thought is however topic for another blog.
Driving around in Kruger, you notice that the vegetation is completely different along rivers and dams. Although we’ve had some rain the last days, the landscape is still very dry. Only around water can you see a lot of green vegetation, and this of course attracts a lot of animals. Along the Letaba river we saw many big sun-bathing crocs and hippos covered in water-plants, and here again we were surprised with how much more you can see if you just wait a bit longer. Right next to the crocs were some animals with nerves of steel: a waterbuck, an African spoonbill and a grey heron. We were also treated with the sight of a goliath-heron and an African jacana, and later the magnificent fish-eagle. At every river-crossing we took a moment to look around, and often saw a lot more animals than at first glance.
Especially around artificial water sources however, you find that the grazers attracted to the water over-utilize the landscape around it, making it extra barren. Some zebra walking towards such an artificial water source showed us just how barren it can get, as their movement alone caused dust to fly high into the air. Even while driving with a slight breeze, the sun felt burning on my skin there, and there was no real shade around. Driving just a few minutes further however, you can find yourself in a completely different setting again. In just a day-trip, we’ve experienced with high, medium and very low mopane bushveld, riverine vegetation with huge trees, grassland, marshes, savanna, and semi-desert. I was happy to see a very large baobab on a koppie, while Robin was over the moon when smelling a specific type of sedge, which to him is the ultimate Kruger smell.
We were approaching our most northern point now, the land of the rare antelope. We had a very special encounter with a herd of ten tsessebe, a rare antelope, coming out of the marshes and running after each other for about then minutes next to our car. We also saw a number of European bee-eaters. I’ve heard a number of people very excited to see these pretty birds again ‘ They’re back, all the way from Europe!’. Isn’t it funny that many birds migrate between Africa and Europe, and yet some are called European and others African? I wonder who makes these decisions for names. Just before reaching Mopani camp, we saw lilac-breasted rollers mating, next to where a lone buffalo carrying yellow-billed oxpeckers was grazing next to the road. The Mopani camp is the latest of the Kruger main camps, and looks over a pretty large man-made dam. On the other side of this dam a breeding herd of elephants was enjoying the water.
On our way back to the gate we saw some huge male buffalo, a woolly-necked stork, and more elephants. We spent some time watching a small breeding herd that was drinking water from holes that they just had been digging in a dry river-bed to reach water. It’s amazing that their sense of smell is so strong that they can locate the best spots to dig for water. While the sun was downing and we had to keep moving to be out of the gate in time, another group of elephants was moving through a beautiful landscape of trees and massive termite hills. We didn’t see any big tuskers, but were certainly treated with plenty of other elephant sightings in that afternoon. Apparently we just missed a lion sighting near the gate, and jokingly blame each other for missing that sighting ‘because you had to take pictures of this and that’. I wonder if lion are the only big five species I’m not going to see in the wild this year, but I still have some opportunities. (Update: lion seen, more in next blog!) With a beautiful sunset on the horizon, we made it to the gate just in time. Pretty tired but very content with the day, we were happy to arrive home and go to bed. The next day would be an early one again: alarm set for 4 am for fieldwork.
Kruger, thank you, it was a pleasure visiting you again. You opened my eyes, and made me listen, taste, smell, and feel. I’m looking forward to the next time! By the way, I am thinking of developing a Kruger-bingo sheet for the next time, any suggestions are welcome ;)
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