Day 15 continued:

We left Kings Camp and Timbavati around 11 AM on November 12 for our 90-minute ride to Hazyview. It was a cloudy and somber morning. We had a delicious parting breakfast and a hearty good-bye from our hosts at Kings Camp. The drive was unremarkable. We had hoped to take the Panorama Route through the mountains, but the weather did not cooperate. It was a minor loss considering the lingering joy from Timbavati that I still feel writing this blog on our flight to Bangkok from India.

We stayed at Perry's Bridge Boutique Hotel. The rest of day 15 was mostly unremarkable. Avis delivered our car. THANK THE MAKER it was not a Haval, but a Mazda SUV. I think that Haval scarred us for life. Each time I think about that car, I have an urge to build a scale model Haval just for the joy of crushing it and melting it down for spare parts. We got our lightyears better car, walked around a bit, had dinner and went to bed. 

Day 16: 

Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. As mentioned in our last blog, the park is around 7,500 square miles. It is huge. Wikipedia has details on the history and there is a website for the park and other national parks in South Africa if you are interested in learning more. It would take several days to explore all the different routes. Below are three maps showing the north, the south and our route within the southern part of the reserve. The purple highlight was our route in. The red was our route out. The total route was 263 km (164 miles).

We entered Kruger Park through the Phabeni Gate at 5:40 AM just ten minutes after it opened, traveling along the S1. The outer perimeter of the reserve is fenced with a set of named gates. Phabeni is the closest to Hazyview. The area near the Paul Kruger Gate (another 35 to 40-minute drive) is supposed to be more productive in terms of game siting than Phabeni. We were fortunate to see an ostrich, some guinea fowl, a small herd of blue wildebeast, a spotted hyena, lots of impalas (as previously noted, the walking protein of the reserve) and some giraffes before we reached Skukuza Camp near the Paul Kruger Gate.

We took a short refresher at Skukuza, grabbed some soda and a snack and headed off. Grant, our guide from Kings Camp, had talked us through some suggestions for our route and for the most part, we followed his suggestions with great success.

From Skukuza, we followed the Sabi river along the H4-1. I imagine there is a logic to the names of the roads though I’m not sure what it would be. It was a super productive route. We saw giraffes, warthogs (check out the little ones when we publish the full picture set!), kudu and monkeys. We stopped for another break and some pictures of the river at the Nkuhlu Picnic Site. This is also a tent camp site where brave souls put themselves in plastic wrappers like human candy bars for the lions to snack on. Okay, I don’t think that has happened in the camp. Nevertheless, it seems like tempting fate. Later in our route we saw one of the most venomous snakes in the world slithering along the rode as happy as Mr. Poison could possibly be, I’m sure. Yeah, the tent thing…probably isn’t happening for this fellow.

From Nkuhlu, we continued our way toward the Lower Sabi Rest Camp. We saw more monkeys, giraffes, kudu, and a peek-a-boo of a lion beyond some brush between a set of boulders. The river teamed with life. There were buffalo, various antelope species including kudu and others and hippos every few miles. It was common to see hippos lumbering about near the rivers out in the distance or poking their ears and noses out below pretty much every bridge we crossed.

The highlight of the morning drive came at the Sunset Dam just a few minutes from Lower Sabie. They should rename the lake at the dam the Hippo-Haven, or Don’t-Be-Fool-Enough-To-Fish-Here. There were about a dozen hippos walking around the edge of the small lake. When we watched the lake in any given spot for just a few minutes, more ears and snouts would pop up. If this were a lake back home, it would be too small to waterski in. Maybe a jet ski. I wouldn’t recommend it here. We took a river cruise a few days after this and had one of those monsters chase us in our tiny aluminum skiff. Wow can they move fast in the water. Fishing is not recommended, but a terrific spot to watch these big beasties from the car.

We took another break at Lower Sabie before heading on. Perry’s bridge made us huge sack breakfasts the night before. We snacked on breakfast throughout the day at each of the stops we made. It was definitely the way to go. We spent no time waiting in lines for food. The time we saved was more time spent driving slowly through the park. The speed limit for most of the park’s tar roads (asphalt) is 50 km while it is 30 for the dirt roads. We typically drove around 35 on the tar roads and around 20 to 25 on the dirt roads to ensure we didn’t miss any hidden game.

We crossed the Sabie River just south of Lower Sabie and took to our first dirt road of the day, Old Tshokwane Road. The first thing we saw was one of the world's most venomous snakes, the green boomslang. It was pursuing and caught a big frog in the middle of the road right in front of the car. They are not supposed to spend much time on the ground, or so we heard. Very cool. We saw more guinea fowl. They are the ones with a grouse-looking body with a sharply contrasting red-crested blue head and neck. We also saw an ostrich.

There were two more big highlights for this section. The first came when we came across a group of four bull elephants walking in the road. We stopped and gave them ample room. They, however, had a different idea. The biggest of the bulls passed to the right of the car not 10 feet away. He didn’t seem to be overly happy that we had blocked his roadway. He turned toward us several times flapping his ears atypically hard and then trumpeted just as he passed the side of the car. We moved ahead and gave them some room.

Less than 15 minutes after leaving the elephants behind, we passed by a mud puddle. Laying in the water there just next to the car was an adult spotted hyena. She looked up at us a couple of times and the laid down fully in the muddy water, resting her head on the grass at the edge of the puddle. It was an intense experience with Faith’s window down and the hyena raising its head to take a look straight at her. Hyenas have some of the most powerful jaws of any animal in the world.

We headed further east and took a break at the Mlondozi picnic area, taking in the views of the hills and the surrounding dry, golden-brown, savanna-like terrain interspersed here-and-there with the odd tree or shrub. This area was more sparsely treed than the area over by the Sabie River.

We drove further north on a mix of dirt and tar roads, looping back down to near were we branched off to head over to Mlondozi. Along the way we saw elephants, giraffes and a couple herds of zebras with kudu and steenbok in the mix. Back beside the Sabie late in the afternoon, we were treated to some crocodiles, a family of baboons and a bushbuck.

The most unique animal we saw along our afternoon trek was the southern ground hornbill. I wasn’t sure whether to be revolted or awed by its unique look—an all-black body with a black beak and sharply contrasting red eyelids and neck. They were about the size of turkeys if the turkeys took steroids for their beaks.

We left the park through the Paul Kruger gate just before the park closed at 6:00 PM. While it was not up to the experience that we had at Kings Camp, it was a superb day.