African Tour:Kruger National Park part 1

Kruger National Park is enormous. It covers about two million hectares, which is roughly the size of New Jersey or Israel. Though rarely more than 60-80km wide, the park is over 350km long. Driving straight through from end to end without stopping would take all day. Not stopping for any reason would defeat the purpose of going to the park. We knew we were never going to see it all in what little time we had. We decided to get in early every day and concentrate on a different section of the park.

All of the gates opened at 05:30. I would have preferred to get there earlier. The best times to spot most of the animals away from their beds were sunrise and sunset. The more elusive creatures liked to nap in the middle of the day when it was hottest. My roommates were not enthusiastic about waking before dawn, but they knew that our time was limited. Since the gates closed before sunset, our best chances were in the early morning hours.

Phabeni Gate
The only way to get into Kruger, legally, is through one of nine gates spread out around the park. Our hotel was a quick drive to the Phabeni Gate, so it made the most sense to go there first. But if we entered that gate every day, we would always be in that section of the park. To see more of the park, it made sense to enter through different gates each day, which required longer drive times. That meant waking up even earlier to be there by 05:30. I never had a problem with that. My roommates were less enthusiastic.

We entered the Phabeni Gate just after 05:30 on our first day. That meant waking up an hour before the sun. I have always been a morning person. My travel companions were not. Only one of them was capable of waking herself that early. The other two were like teenagers on the day of a big test. Except that they volunteered for this. They wanted to see Kruger and take pictures of animals. They simply wanted it to happen later in the day.

I knew that getting there early was a good idea as soon as we got there. Though it was just after 05:30, there was a line to get in. It moved slowly, and I could imagine how long it might take later in the day when there were ten times as many cars. Fortunately, the park is so large that even if you drive in with a few hundred other people, you can drive around all day and never see them again.

We also discovered pretty early that our 4 wheel drive jeep was completely unnecessary. The main roads in the park were well paved. Even the dirt trails were smooth enough for the average sedan. The most rugged off-road driving was where the general public was not allowed to go anyway. Instead of the Mercedes-Benz W463, we could have rented a brand new E-Class. Not that the jeep was uncomfortable, but I would not mind driving a proper Mercedes across Mpumalanga.

The main reason to drive through Kruger National Park is to look at animals in their natural habitat. The park provides all kinds of maps and apps to find whatever creature you want to see. The problem is that none of the animals know when or where they are scheduled to appear. Some animals are inevitable. We spotted antelopes and zebra near the side of the road before we even entered the park, and saw thousands more inside. They were not as skittish as any of the giraffe we saw, but they never let us get close. Most people want to see the “Big Five”, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, and leopard. They were supposedly the hardest to hunt back when hunting was allowed. Now that they can only be shot with cameras, they are the top attractions, for some reason.

I can see why people actively seek leopards. They are solitary, they know how to hide in trees, they are essentially invisible in the tall grass, and they want nothing to do with humans. There are a thousand leopards living at Kruger. We saw none.

The rhinoceros is much easier to find, but not an animal you want to meet up close. Kruger has both black rhinos and white rhinos, whose numbers are increasing thanks to a greater effort to protect them and more aggressive prosecutions of poachers. The funniest thing about black and white rhinos is that they are neither black nor white. The British called white rhinos white because they misunderstood the Dutch name, similar to how they called Nederlanders Dutch because they confused them with the Deutsche. Black rhinos, like white rhinos, are gray and brown. We saw a few rhinos, but since they were all gray, we have no idea if they were black or white.

There are more buffalo at Kruger than any of the other Big Five. Spotting them is pretty easy since they travel in large herds and are never far from water. Getting close is impossible. African buffalo are nothing like American buffalo/bison. While American bison are pretty easy to slaughter en masse, African buffalo will not hesitate to kill anyone who gets too close. They have strong horns, weigh a ton, and are relentless. While a rhinoceros might run you over and run away, a buffalo will trample you, turn around, and go back for more until the job is done. That was why all the big manly hunter men saw their rotting corpses as prized trophies. None of your buddies back at the bar would be impressed if you killed a turkey, but if you cut the head off an animal that could easily kill you without a second thought, that should help everyone forget about how tiny your penis is.

Lions are the king of the jungle, which is a little ironic since they do not live in the jungle. Their numbers at Kruger are almost as small as leopards, but they are much easier to find since they live in groups and congregate out in the open. With no fear of any other animals, they see no reason to hide, and they are not at all impressed by humans. Everyone at Kruger is told to roll up all windows when driving close to lions. If they feel like it, they will climb onto your car. Our sturdy jeep would have been safe, but if you are in a Toyota Corolla, they are going to cause damage. The problem with lions is that you want to see them catch a zebra in some dramatic fashion, but they mostly just lie around during the daytime. Almost all of their hunting is at night when it is much cooler and the park is closed to visitors. We saw plenty of lions at Kruger. The most they did was stand up to go lie down somewhere else.

Photograph by Pierre-Yves Babelon
Elephants are the easiest of the Big Five. They are huge creatures that are easy to spot at a distance, though not as easy as giraffes, they travel in groups, and they are rarely aggressive. You can get pretty close to a female elephant. It is the males you have to watch out for, and only when they are horny. Conveniently, they let you know when to stay away. If a male is leaking fluid from the side of its head, or any elephant flaps its ears and loudly raises is trunk, it is time to move along. Otherwise, you can drive right up to them, slowly. The only time I did not want to get close was when a few other cars were around our elephant. He was almost surrounded and it was only a matter of time before he felt threatened. Since we were in front of him, I did not want to be there when he started flipping cars.

Kruger is big enough that you can drive around all day and never see another human. But sometimes you run into them. People driving through the park can follow whatever route they want. Some like to follow the guides. They think they are more likely to spot more animals if they stay close to the professionals. They are probably right. Since we were in a jeep, we would get someone following us every once in a while, even though official jeeps were an obviously different style, shape, and color from our car.

We left the park just minutes before they closed the gates. Since we entered through the Phabeni Gate, we decided to exit at the Crocodile Bridge Gate. That gave us the entire foot of Kruger to explore. Since we left just before closing, there was almost as long a line to get out as there had been to get in. While all of the gates are at well paved roads, to get out of the park at the Crocodile Bridge Gate, you have to cross a ramshackle wooden bridge over the Crocodile River. The bridge is barely wide enough for one car at a time, so the line moves slowly.

Outside of the park, it is a quick drive near the Mozambique border to the N4 and about two hours to Hazyview. Since we were in no hurry to leave, we all decided it was better to drive the long way home than to drive farther to get into the park. We also quickly realized that we might want to eat most of our meals inside the park. Hazyview is not a 24 hour town, and while it is surrounded by beautiful scenery, there are not a lot of options if you want to pick up a bite on the way home.