Kruger National Park Safari with Rolf Everhardus 18th - 21nd January 2010

After an early morning pickup from Emerald Guesthouse in Kempton park, we made our way in the direction of Nelspruit and the Kruger National Park. Upon arrival in Nelspruit, we changed our vehicle from the nice air-conditioned microbus and into one of our open safari vehicles for our short journey to the the Kruger National Park. After arriving at the Numbi gate, we checked in and made our way to the camp of Pretoriuskop were we checked into the accommodation and gave the guess time to enjoy some lunch, prior to them leaving on their first game drive. We took a drive down the Napi road, getting good sightings of Rhino, Elephant and the general plains Game.


After some good tea and Coffee, it was off and out of camp to see what we could find. We took a drive down the Napi road on route to Skukuza and then on to Tshokwane for breakfast. While on route we had good sightings of rhino, buffalo, elephant Zebra, Kudu and impala. After breakfast we decided to take the H10 down to Lower Sabie, a road that had proved to be very good on the last safari. As we turned right onto the H10, we were met by a lioness leading her three small cubs over the road. While standing there, one of the cubs became tired, and the female then proceeded to pick it up in her mouth and carry it over the road. This was really good to see. We carried on with the H10 picking up some really large Elephant bulls and some good Rhino and Buffalo. We stopped at lower Sabie for a well deserved break,l before making our way up Eloff Street running parallel with the Sabie River back to the camp of Skukuza. On route back, we stopped of at Sunset Dam, having a chance to see the Hippos, and Crocodiles together with the prolific bird life found around this dam. After arriving back at Skukuza, it was time to have a lunch break, after which it was time to start making our way back to camp. After a good day of game viewing and some good dinner, it was off to bed for a good rest before we started again the next day.

I woke up the clients at 04h30, had tea and coffee at 05h00 and then we were out on our merry way. Something said to me to take the same road as the day before and then take a different route late closer to the camp of Skukuza. The morning started off slowly, until at about 7,1 Km's from the Napi Boulders exit on the Napi road it's self, we came upon quite a nice sighting of Wldebeest with there calves, Zebra, Impala and Giraffe. While watching these guys to our left hand side, my head turned to the right from something moving in my field of vision, and to our surprise it was a cheetah standing right next to my vehicle using it as cover from the potential prey. We watched this for around5 -10 minutes, we also called it in over the radio, and heard that there were other vehicles on the way to us. After a while the cheetah moved passed the front pf the vehicle keeping very low and went to lie down on the ground 6 to 7 meters from the vehicle right behind a termite mound. By this time other vehicles had arrived and many of the Wildebeest, Zebra, Impala and Giraffe knew that something was up. it was at this time sensing that time was not on it's side, the cheetah broke cover and started it's charge bringing down a wildebeest calf around 80 - 100 meters in front of us. Visuals were lost at this point due to the long grass being encountered at this time of year due to the large amount of rain that has been experienced over the last 2 - 3 months.
After this wonderful sighting and with the guests on a high, we made our way down to the Nkulu picnic spot for breakfast. After a well deserved breakfast, we found out that there were some lions lying on the road that we had taken the previous day to breakfast, so we decided to take a drive in this direction and we could maybe get lucky in seeing them. We made our way to the N'walindlopfu River bridge, where we found the two large male lions lying out to the right hand side right in the middle of the dry river bed. As if the lions were waiting for us, one of them got up and started coming closer to the bridge in order for us to get some better photos of him. He was making his way closer to the water in order to take a drink. This proved to be a wonderful sighting and as we took our leave, it was good to finally see some of the larder males in the lion species doing so well.
The day seemed to speed past with many other sightings, and soon it was time to make our way back to the Pretoriuskop camp, as the clients were going out on there night drive.
The clients left at 17h00 on their night drive and returned at around 20h30, having seen some good animals and also seeing more lion walking on the road.

on the morning of the 21st January, we left camp early again for our final game drive before coming back to the camp for breakfast and time to packup, before climbing back onto the road in the direction of Nelspruit were we changed our vehicles and then took to the road in the direction of Johannesburg.
Guests feedback was that they had the time of their life, and certainly want to come back and enjoy another safari to the Kruger National Park. The highlight of the trip was seeing the cheetah hunting and using our vehicle as cover to stick away from the plains game it was trying to hunt.