Kruger National Park Safari with Van Hettima and Party 21st – 26th March 2010

Nhongo Safaris picked up the van Hettima party at the Emerald Guest House in the suburb of Kempton Park Johannesburg and started our transfer leg to Nelspruit where the guests would change over from one of our air-conditioned microbuses onto one of our open safari vehicles for the last legtotheworld renowned Kruger National Park. The guide conducting the safari was Mark and below is a day to day account of the safari with the visiting guests.

I found myself, entering “Home” away from Home. It was midday as we entered the park through Numbi gate. My idea was to travel down to Pretoriuskop Camp, where we would have a bit of free time, seen my clients had just traveled from JHB. I’m used to the fact that if we enter the park at midday, very little will be seen on our way into camp. This is ok though as it gives me time to introduce the visitors to the Kruger Park and to share interesting facts about the park. Size, regions with in the parks boarders, rain fall and different plant life are topics for discussion. As usual very little was seen due to the heat. At 15h00 we set off for a sunset drive, keeping our route close to camp. On Fayi Loop I showed my clients, the nesting Bateleur Eagle. The young are getting quite big now and I suspect, they will leave the safety of the nest shortly. We proceeded onto Shebeni Koppies to see what was in the area. This also gives our clients an understanding as to the size of the Kruger Park. People are blown away, with the magnitude of the Park. With this done, all my clients understand from there on “THIS IS NOT A ZOO”. As we had six days planned, this was ample time to show my clients the “big 5” and have an extra day to show them some of the landscapes this magnificent place has hidden away.
“Rhino”, someone shouted. We stopped only to see this massive land mammal disappearing into the bush, tail up as though poaches were onto it. This was a wonderful lesson for my guests and immediately they understood what my briefing earlier was all about. “Should you see an animal, PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE LEVELS DOWN, as the animals will be scarred off. Our grass is long and these animals disappear easily”.

First sighting of the big 5 ……….a Rhino Bum….

As we pulled back onto the tar between Numbi gate and the Pretoriuskop Camp, we had a White Rhino in the road just standing there. I noticed my guests understood the previous experience and there was total quietness. The animal was very relaxed, and photos could be taken. While facing the Rhino, a herd of African Elephants walked out just behind it. What a sight, Africa’s Largest mammals both on the road together. The trip was over and we started moving back to camp. As we did this, I found myself thinking “Slowly cowboy, we can’t see everything in one day, that’s two of the Big 5”.

Day 2

05h30 Coffee and tea was enjoyed before leaving camp on the mornings game drive. As we came out of camp and turned left onto the link road to Manungu Koppies. 1.1Kms down the road lay 2 Lions (1 Male and 1 Female). I recognized them as part of the Shebeni pride and obviously on honeymoon. We spent about 20min with them and once the traffic started building up it was time for us to move on. Napi was our route to Skakuza for breakfast. 2 huge Elephants bulls came walking along the tar at 1.7Kms from Numbi junction. What’s was strange is that very little “General game” sightings where on the road. At the entrance to Napi Boulders, we spotted 4 White Rhino walking towards the road. As a guide, we have knowledge of different territories for some of the more elusive “Cats” namely Cheetah and Leopard. Obviously traveling along, I’m on a look out for these small spotted guys but don’t get to see them on every ride we do. During our stay in the park, we where going to move to Skakuza and decided that I would focus on the Southern region, while staying at Pretoriuskop Camp. We drove out of Skakuza and proceeded to the S114 were we would drive south towards Afsaal picnic spot. The S114, gave us good “General Game” sightings and time could be spent enjoying and photographing species such as Giraffe, Impala, Kudu, Zebra and a few other smaller antelope such as Duiker and Steenbok. We stopped off at Afsaal picnic spot, for a midmorning break, (Always good to stretch the legs after a 2-3 hrs drive). Temperatures rising, we drove back towards Pretoriuskop Camp via Voortrekker road. Not much on the road to report on. We planned on tackling the bush again at 15h30. As things starting to cool down, giving us the opportunity to travel down the Albasini road and part of Doispan tar that leads in from the Phabeni Gate close to Hayzeyview. Not much happening on Albasini road this afternoon. Giraffe together with Zebra’s showed my guests the true meaning of “eating out”. The reason for them being together is purely strength in numbers. As Zebra’s are grazers and Giraffe are browsers, they also don’t interfere with each others food source, and for this reason it is a rather common sighting seeing them together.

Day 3

05h30 Again coffee and tea was enjoyed in the camp before leaving on the mornings game drive. The morning air was rather cool and given the cloud base above us, this could be the order of the day. Napi was alive with “General Game” and it took us rather long to get down to Afsaal picnic spot for breakfast. As it was cool the Hyena’s den was busy and this gave my guests the opportunity to observe Mom and Dad with the youngsters doing what they do at home. 2.2Kms down the H3 a large Elephant Bull next to the road, it’s amazing to see what these animals eat and how course the plant matter is that they put into their mouths. No wonder the animal is a bulk feeder. Not quality just quantity. After a wonderful Traders breakfast, we headed up the S114. This proved uneventful and rather disappointing. Cloud base covered the entire African sky and temperatures must have been in the low 20’s. A college of mine reports a leopard on the Napi rd approximately 10Kms from our location. As you all know although it’s my favorite cat, it’s not worth chasing after this cat as the average sighting is approximately 20sec.
We traveled along, spending some time on birds in the area. Fantastic photos were taken of the ground hornbill with approximately 5 frogs in its beak. While on this sighting, my college called us to inform us that sight was lost and the leopard had moved off into the bush. We crossed over Napi road and headed on to River road. This might give us some spectacular sightings of animals coming out of the bush, moving towards the river for a drink. Many Hippos’s where out of the water enjoying the cool day and I could show my clients just how big these creatures really are. Continuing on our trip, there seemed to be traffic jam ahead. I got to understand why, as there was a massive African elephant bull in the road. For those of you that have never traveled this road, it’s a very narrow road and bush thickets have grown either side. I noticed that this bull was in "Must", and we approached him with caution. As we got to within 5m from him I turned off the open safari vehicle and let him continue with his walk. Although in "Must", he seemed rather comfortable with us and gave us some spectacular time alone with him, just to sit and enjoy his presence. My guests were shocked at how close he was to us, and not disturbed by our presence. The rest of the trip back to the camp was rather quite, and I spent time discussing plants and their medicinal uses as well as interesting facts regarding insects etc. Although not a brilliant day with lots of animal sightings, we were satisfied with what our creator gave us and the unusual interesting things the bush has to show.

Day 4

05h30 With tea and coffee enjoyed at the camp, it was time to move out as today we were making our way to the camp of Skukuza were we would overnight for the next two nights.
I had heard the “Shebeni Lion pride” roaring the entire night and was anxious to get out and search for them. Something was happening and we needed to find out what was going on.

On leaving camp, I radioed one of my colleagues Frank as he was also in the area and a specialist in his field. He had also heard the Lions roaring throughout the night and was already on the search. I new we had the mating pair of Lions near our camp so turned off onto the link road once again. There the pair lay in the middle of the road. At that moment Frank called me and said, he had picked up lots of spoor (animal tracks) and was busy tracking them. I replied and gave him our exact location and informed him that both Male and Female where lying in the road. Little to my surprise, Frank called and informed me that on his way to me, he came across another pair of mating Lions. This meant that the “Shebeni Pride” had split and both males had each chosen a female to mate with. Not often has this happened, where the two males from the “Shebeni Pride”, split and mate simultaneously. Good to have such sightings within 20min of leaving camp. We then left the Lions, and moved slowly onto our breakfast destination, Nkuhlu picnic spot. Approximately 2.5Kms before the picnic spot, we came across a herd of buffalo in the Sabie river. My guests enjoyed the sighting as we hadn’t seen any on this trip. No sooner had we finished our breakfast and got back into the open safari vehicle, another college informed me of a leopard that was “Lalapanze in the Shlazla” (lying in the tree). This was in the general direction I planned to travel back to camp, but as you all know, there’s no rush to get there. We had an eventful trip and many different animals and birds where spotted. It took us approximately 01h30hrs to approach the area in which the leopard was sighted. My radio squawked, and another guide informed me that she was still lying in the same Marula tree when first reported. Seen it was our only “Big 5” animal still not seen, we drove to where she was lying. There she lay, gracefully just whiling away the time not bothered by any of us. It was a distant sighting of approximately 300m off the road. We spent some time with her and then moved off. “Big 5” bagged was the statement made. The advantage of being on an overnight safari, is that time can be spent with animals, which the normal International day visitor cannot do. We drove to the Hyena den, and switched the open safari vehicle off and spent time with this family/pack.

Back onto camp as my guests were going on a sunset drive, and I like to give them an hour or so just to relax, prior to the drive.

Day 5

05h30 After a cup of coffee and tea, we headed out of Skukuza Camp to do a rather long trip as it was their last full day on safari. We headed for Tshokwane picnic spot for breakfast. The trip up to Tshokwane proved to be disappointing as very little was seen. Nothing but your “General Game” was spotted all they way up to Tshokwane picnic spot. After a wholesome breakfast, we proceeded along the H10 towards Lower Sabie. Along the route we stopped off at Nkumbe look out point. Spending some time at these look out points just make us realize how small and insignificant we really are.

What a Beautiful office I have got.

Prior to stopping at Lower Sabie for a leg stretch, I decided to travel a couple of Kilometers down the Crocodile bridge road. This road is known to be one of the best in the Kruger Park. I turned onto Mativuhlungu Loop and approximately 1.7Kms down, we came across a dead female White Rhino, and next to her side was her healthy calf. It was unclear how she died. But no predators or scavenges meant it must have happened recently. While at the sighting the “Mapoza’s” (Field Ranges) arrived. They often have the task of removing two horns, in order to prevent these been removed illegally (Huge demand for Rhino horn in Asia). It seemed that the calf was weaned, and would be able to survive on its own in this area. After enough photos were taken, we left the sighting and stopped off at camp for a deserved leg stretch. Much of the afternoon was quite and made one understand that the Kruger Park was not some kind of zoo.
We drove back into camp, where my guests could spend time in the shop (last afternoon and lots of family back home waiting for African presents).

Day 6

Due to the Sun and temperatures – I decided to listen to the bush and change the start times of our daily safaris. I anticipate “A CHANGE IN SEASON”.

06h00 We enjoyed tea and coffee in camp before leaving camp on the guests final drive before breakfast. We decided to do a loop around Skakuza and come back to the Selati restaurant for breakfast. Nothing out of the ordinary was spotted on our early morning drive. But just before coming back into camp we came across a male and female saddle billed stalk in the river bed. Good photos were taken of this scarce bird and I’m sure the clients will have fond memories of all our different animal sightings. After breakfast, we headed down the Napi road to the Numbi gate, where I would bid my clients farewell and pick up the following clients arriving at the same gate. Dean was already on his way with the new guests coming in, so there was no time to waste as the guests on safari were needing to return to the Johannesburg airport for there flight home.
Dean picked up the guests at 12h00 and started the homeward bound journey, while en route gusts feedback was that they had a wonderful time, saw a huge amount of animals and are wanting to return on safari to the Kruger National Park with the rest of there family as well as some younger children in order to show them the wonderful African animals that we have in the park.