Kruger: Was I Wrong?

Giving Kruger a fair chance

I've never really been a Kruger person. For me it's always felt too busy, too commercial. And sometimes you get to an incredible wildlife sighting and suddenly there's cars everywhere. Everybody trying to get into the position to get the same photograph. That's never really been the kind of wilderness experience that I'm looking for. But I've also started wondering whether I've judged Kruger unfairly. Maybe I've been judging this enormous park by the busiest parts of it. So I've decided to come back. But this time I'm heading to the north. Punda Maria, Tsendze and Letaba. I'm not here to prove myself right. I'm actually here to find out whether I was wrong.

So I'm camping just outside the Phalaborwa gate and tomorrow morning sparrow's fart I'll be at the gate and enjoy the first thing that I don't like. That's going to be the queue. But I've realised I've got to experience it for what it is and take it as it comes. I'm not here to prove Kruger wrong, me right. I'm actually here to give Kruger a fair chance. So join me in this quest to see what the outcome is. Drop in the comments whether you think my mind will be changed after this.

Good morning. I'm in the queue and it's actually not that bad. I'm third in the queue and excited to go to the Kruger, going with an open mind. The tricky thing about doing a trip like this is that I'm not going into the Kruger with an open sheet of paper. I've already got an opinion and that creates another problem. If I'm expecting Kruger to be crowded and commercial, it would be very easy for me to spend the next week noticing every single thing that proves me right and ignoring everything that doesn't. So, I'm going to have to watch myself as much as I watch Kruger.

And I've been thinking about what would actually change my mind. It's not seeing the big five, it's not getting some unbelievable leopard sighting. For me, it's whether I can still get that feeling of wilderness, space, quiet, time. If I can find that here, then maybe I've got some rethinking to do. So let's wait another 15 minutes for the gates to open and then let the Kruger day begin.

The road north: Letaba, elephants and Punda Maria

The process at the gate wasn't actually too bad. It took us about 20 minutes and from there we started making our way north towards Punda Maria. We had planned to take the shorter route, which, as it turned out, became the longer one. But we had the whole day to get to Punda Maria, so we were not in any rush. We were happy to spend some time on the gravel roads, enjoy the drive and see what the Kruger had to offer along the way. And it wasn't long before we had our first sighting, a small group of zebras. Eventually, that route brought us to Letaba where we stopped for a late brunch before continuing north.

You can probably hear in the background that things are still very much under construction. The camp suffered serious damage during the floods in January and repairs are still underway. We didn't spend too much time here now because we'll be coming back to Letaba later in the trip. For the moment it was just a quick stop for brunch before we carried on north.

Just now I had an amazing elephant cow sighting and she's very close to us. Just going about her day, getting her stomach full. Still working on that 250 kilograms of food that she needs to eat today. And I'm the only car at the sighting. Can you believe it? Oh well, Punda Maria is still about 170km from here. What's the time now? Half past eleven. I've got still plenty of time to get there today. Hope for more exciting sightings like this.

What an awesome sighting that was. Still watching the elephant cow and then all of a sudden the baby came out and I assume it's two daughters. One looks about four years old, the other one about two years old, and baby came right right up to the vehicle and then they decided they ate enough and they're on to the Mopani trees. She was munching here on a thorn tree and they just went off very, very close to the vehicle. So I wasn't worried because she was relaxed. You could see in her nature and her action and her attitude that she was very relaxed. She most probably saw the elephant on Motsumi and thought it was a friend. Let's get to Punda!

Well, I'm finally inside Kruger and this is where I need to be careful. Because first impressions can very quickly become confirmation of what you already believe. But so far, I have to say, this isn't quite what I pictured in my head. It doesn't feel frantic. It doesn't feel particularly busy. And driving up here, there have already been stretches where I was basically alone on the road for long stretches.

Now, it's very early. I've only just arrived, so I'm certainly not going to sit here and tell you the Kruger has changed my mind. But the first question I had was, does this feel like the Kruger I remember? And at the moment, not really. So, that's interesting. Let's give it a couple of days and see whether that holds.

The drive north turned out to be a really good one for game. We saw plenty of plains game along the way with giraffe, wildebeest, impala and zebra and there were elephants everywhere. We also picked up a good number of bird sightings as we worked our way north but the day was starting to get away from us. It's a long drive from Phalaborwa all the way up to Punda Maria, so it was time to keep moving, get to Punda Maria, get the fire going, and after a day like this, I think a well deserved cold one was definitely waiting.

Well, I finally reached Punda Maria camp after leaving Phalaborwa this morning at half past six. Gate checking this morning was chaos again like always, but it's understandable. And an awesome drive, nice sightings. Tomorrow we're going to drive up to Pafuri and just game viewing as the long stretches is done for now. Check you guys tomorrow.

Pafuri: wildlife, forest roads and flood damage

This morning has been pretty slow for wildlife sightings. So we're heading north towards the Pafuri area. It's one of the most beautiful parts of the Kruger, with the fever tree forest, the Limpopo River and Crooks Corner right up far in the north. And this is probably a good time to mention that my wife is with me on this trip. A lot of the footage you'll see was filmed by her. It's her first time helping me properly film one of our journeys, and she's doing a great job. She's also taken some beautiful photos along the way. So for now, we're just going to take it slow and see what turns up. In the Kruger, the slower you drive, the more you tend to see.

In this episode, there will be very little talking over videos. I want you to experience the bush sounds the way that we are doing now. We had this giraffe playing a bit of peekaboo with us through the trees. He stood there for quite a while just watching us from behind the branches and I only just managed to spot him. But eventually, his curiosity got the better of him, and he stepped out into the open to get a better look at us.

This little guy is a Smith Bush Squirrel, better known around here simply as a Tree Squirrel. They are actually quite social and often live together in small family groups, sharing their nests and even grooming one another. They feed on everything from seeds to fruits to flowers and insects. And here in the Kruger, they've even been recorded picking undigested seeds out of elephant dung. And if you ever hear a sharp clicking sound coming from the trees, have a look around. It could be one of these guys sounding the alarm.

The Kruger had massive damage from the floods in January and that was visible all around. We are currently very close to Crooks Corner, but you literally drive in a forest, which makes this place beautiful, beautiful. Kruger National Parks, you need to build us a rustic camp like Tsendze in this area. Here a major giant has fallen. And my auntie on the GPS says we're close. We're nearly there.

Crooks Corner and the Limpopo River

The mighty Limpopo. Just look at that. How awesome is this?

[inaudible] [unclear: Natuurlik] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [unclear: Ek het 32, 34 jaar terug hier gewerk.] [unclear: mooi plek] [unclear: Ja, hier...] Just had a nice chat with a gentleman that used to work in this area about 34 years ago, he said.

But let me get out and show you this awesome, beautiful place called Crooks Corner. I can't just imagine what the river looked like a couple of months ago, right here where we are now. Just have a look at this.

It's actually sad about the tragedy that happened here a couple of months ago. But SANParks now put a soldier at Crooks Corner to keep the people safe. So it's still safe to come to Crooks Corner. But it's just awesome, amazingly beautiful on this river. And to think a couple of months ago this river was in full flood past here, I would have loved to seen that.

Pafuri picnic site and elephant encounters

We stopped at Pafuri picnic site for a lunch. In my opinion of what I have seen in the Kruger, this is the most beautiful picnic site in the Kruger National Park. We are currently watching a big old tusker taking a mud bath and he stood so still in that water he almost looked like a statue. He's got some big, big tusks. It's pretty hot today, it's the 15th of September. And I think the weather was predicted to be about 32 today so it's quite hot. And this is how this elephant bull cools himself off. Just take a look at this.

How amazing was that? Look at him now. If you drive past here and you didn't know of him, you wouldn't have seen him. When we were in Namibia last December, we also watched an elephant there in the [unclear: Purros Canyon], scratching his bum on a rock. This one used the tree.

The sightings was pretty awesome today. We had a lot of sightings with lots of plains game. A lot of them we did not film because they were either just too far or we were just too quick. And traffic, not so much. There was a big tour group at Pafuri but other than that it's been very quiet sitting alone at sightings for quite some times. But it is 20 past 2 at the moment and we're slowly heading back to camp. We've got still a few other roads that we were going to do before we get to camp. Starting to get slowly outside the tree again. But catch you later at camp again.

We actually followed this elephant from the other side of the dam and we saw that he's going to cross the road on the other side so we drove to the other side of the road and we waited for him. So when he came out we were already there switched off. He was very very curious about this vehicle looking at him standing there. But he was also very relaxed and this was an amazing couple of minutes with this young bull elephant.

A morning drive and time in Punda Maria camp

Morning number two inside the park. All packed up, ready to go, quarter to six at the moment, and the gates open at six o'clock, there is Motsumi, yesterday was a pretty good day, just a long hot day, but some pretty good elephant sightings, but I'm excited to what the day holds in, and what we're going to look at. Let the day begin! Our morning sightings was off to a very good start. It took us almost two hours to do this first seven kilometres.

After a very eventful morning, the sightings quietened down as the day went on. So we decided to spend our last afternoon at Punda Maria inside camp and see what it had to offer. We spent some time at the hide taking photographs, wandered up to the shop and the picnic area and then sat for a quiet while just watching the monkeys playing around camp. It was actually a really relaxed way to finish our stay at Punda Maria and after that it was back to the usual routine. Get the fire going, settle in for the evening because tomorrow we pack up and we move on to Tsendze.

Heading south and questioning my view of Kruger

This was our last morning at Punda Maria and it was time to start making our way south towards Tsendze. My wife and I were debating which route to take. There were a couple of options, so in the end I left the decision completely up to her. She chose the Dzundzwini loop which suited me perfectly. We weren't in any rush and taking the longer quieter route gave us another chance to enjoy the northern part of Kruger before moving on. So with camp packed up and the decision made we pointed Motsumi south and set off to see what the road would bring us. And it wasn't long before we had our first sighting. And if you made it this far into the video, I'm sure you gathered by now that this is our favourite animal to film. Mostly also why it is the logo of Tusk and Tyre.

This morning has been really interesting because this is not the Kruger that I've expected. I could stop at sightings, I could enjoy the sightings, I could spend time with sightings without anybody behind me pressuring for my position. And there has been some stages where I've hardly seen any vehicle for long stretches. Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe I just picked the right mornings. I'm definitely not rewriting my opinion after a couple of good game drives after a couple of days. But this is exactly why I came to the north. I wanted to see if there's a quieter Kruger than what I know. And have I given Kruger a really fair chance?

And sitting at this... And sitting at this giraffe sighting where there's zebras and blue wildebeest, I was wondering whether the problem was Kruger or simply me on the way and the way I have experienced Kruger before.

Tilapia breeding in the Shingwedzi River

What you're looking at here are most likely Mozambican Tilapia, and those strange holes in the riverbed aren't shelters or dens, they're actually breeding nests. During the breeding season, the male picks an area of sand or soft mud and excavates this bowl-shaped pit. You'll spend a lot of time circling it, cleaning it out and defending it from other males. Breeding males can also become very dark, almost black, which makes them fairly easy to distinguish from the lighter females.

In some of this footage, it looks like we may actually be watching a male and a female together around the nest, which would fit with their courtship behaviour. Once the female is ready, she lays her eggs in the nest, but this is where it gets really interesting. She then picks the eggs up into her mouth, where fertilisation can take place, and she becomes what is known as a mouth brooder.

The eggs hatch inside her mouth after only a few days, and even after the young are released, they'll stay close to her and can rush back into her mouth if danger appears. So what looked like a fish digging a hole in the Shingwedzi River was actually us watching part of an entire breeding cycle happening right below the bridge.

Lunch at Shingwedzi and the road to Tsendze

Just before 1 o'clock we rolled into Shingwedzi for a lunch stop, but even inside camp the camera didn't stay packed away for long. I found this vervet monkey completely stretched over a branch, looking as relaxed as anything. And nearby, one of the glossy starlings gave me another beautiful photo opportunity. Sometimes in Kruger you don't even have to leave camp to find something worth photographing.

After a Cattle Baron burger and a cold drink it was time to get moving again. We crossed the low water bridge at Shingwedzi where a few crocodiles were lying surprisingly close to the road. We still had some distance to cover before reaching Tsendze so after one last look we pointed Motsumi south and started making our way towards camp. You never know what you see on the road and you maybe need to spend some time.

Arriving at Tsendze

And after a long day on the road, we finally rolled into Tsendze. Looking back over the last few days, Kruger had already surprised me more than I can expect. Punda Maria gave us quiet roads, beautiful sightings, incredible birdlife and a side of the park that felt very different from Kruger that I had built up in my mind.

But I still wasn't ready to answer the question I came here with. Was I wrong about Kruger? Tsendze felt like the perfect place to continue finding out. For now though, it was time to find our campsite, get Motsumi settled in, light the fire and let the bush go quiet around us.

Find out the verdict of my Kruger trip in part 2 of this series as we wake up in Tsendze and continue south as Kruger gets one more chance to change my mind.