Kruger National Park Budget Safari with Leslie, David, Ann, Kristin, Maggie and Lakota from the 2nd - 4th March 2011

Leslie Young, David Bradner, Ann Grover, Kristin Hawk, Maggie West and Lakota Beckhorn were picked up from a guest house in Boksburg. After loading all of the luggage in the trailer, it was off on our way firstly to Nelspruit and then onto the Kruger National Park. After stopping off on route for a toilet stop it was onto Nelspruit were we changed vehicles and hitched the trailer onto the back of the open safari vehicle. We left Nelspruit and made our way to the Numbi Gate of the Kruger National Park. After gate formalities and a briefing from me, we were off to the camp of Pretoriuskop for a lunch break, before moving on to the camp of Skukuza which would be our home for the next two nights.


After lunch it was back on the road and out to find some good animal sightings. The group had named there trip to South Africa the “African Shenanigans” and they have a facebook page that kept everybody at home informed of what they were getting up to while on vocation. On route to our next camp we managed to find some good rhino, elephant, impala and kudu and with a little bit of on and off rain we still had some good sightings. After arriving at the camp of Skukuza, we checked in and made our way to the “Safari Tents”, were we would stay for the next to nights. Guests went and took a walk down to the river that flows past the camp, and I got the dinner on the go as the guests wanted a “Barbeque”, which in South Africa is known as a braai.

After cooking all the meat, everybody enjoyed a traditional South African braai of numerous different meats, Salads, Garlic bread and Wine.

The following morning, it was out early, and after waking the guests at 04h45, we enjoyed tea and coffee and left the camp to find some animals. I decided to take a drive down the “Napi road” and then turn onto the H3 and see what was going on down there. After finding some good elephant, buffalo and rhino, I was keen to try and find some lions as the group were only with us for a very short time. We turned off the H3 and made our way down the 112 finding more elephant on this road. I decided to drive a short distance down the N’watimhiri road to see what was going on. We had only travelled down the road for about 6 Km’s, before we ran into a pride of lions (two Females and seven cubs) lying right in the road. As we were the only vehicle, we pulled to the side and had a wonderful sighting. Guests got to take a number of photos with the cubs playing with one another. We stayed at this sighting for more than an hour, and decided to leave once we heard that the other open safari vehicles were close by and on route to the lion sighting. We slowly made our way to our breakfast stop, after which we would be looking for more animals.

After breakfast we took a drive down to the camp of “Lowe Sabie”, on route getting good sightings of elephant, buffalo, rhino, as well as giraffe, hippo and crocodile.

After a good morning of game viewing, we had a lunch stop and then started making our way back to the camp for a short rest, before the group would depart on there afternoon / evening safari. The group left on there safari conducted with “National Parks Rangers” and had good sightings of rhino, hyena, elephant and buffalo together with lots of owls. While the group was on there safari, I busied myself with getting dinner prepared. Guests got back at 20h15, and went straight into there dinner. There was not a lot of time to sit around the fire, as everybody had to be up early at 04h30 to go out on a bush walk. Guests departed on the bush walk at 05h00 and got to see a leopard lying in the tree, some good spoor of lions and leopard, rhinos as well as a number of spiders, including the golden orb spider. Upon getting back into the vehicle to head for camp, we got to see another leopard close to the vehicle as she crossed the road slowly. A short distance up the road, another leopard crossed the road, this time a lot quicker than before leaving little chance for any photos. Upon returning back to camp, we made our way to breakfast. After breakfast was enjoyed, it was time for our last game drive on route to the “Numbi Gate”. After the last couple of photos and a toilet stop, we were off in the direction of Nelspruit were we changed vehicles back into our minibus, and headed for Johannesburg. The vehicle was very quite on the way back as many of the group was quite tired for there experience and the early mornings that they had to get up.

Feedback from the group, was that they had an awesome time and loved every minute of the safari, and will be returning to us in order to do another safari in the future.

African Shenanigans Facebook Page