8th June 2012 – Stay at Wild Forest Inn

8th June 2012 – Stay at Wild Forest Inn

I thought it would be hard to get up after a late night but both Wayne and I woke up early in anticipation of what we would see on our last day. We both acknowledged that we had seen so much already and so didn’t think we’d see much in our last few hours before leaving. How wrong were we?! We left camp early at 5.50am as the gates were open, and a couple minutes into driving we saw a hyena by the road.

Further along we suddenly remembered that we hadn’t handed our keys in before leaving camp so we had to turn around and go back. Just before entering camp we saw a bus hit an impala. It was very sad and we were glad this wasn’t the last thing we saw before leaving the park. After dropping our room key off at camp we headed back onto the road. We could not see the bus or the impala; we think they may have taken it with them for supper!

Further along the road there were lots of cars pulled up as there were lions. Wayne saw one of them running away from the road and as we had seen lots of lions and the sighting wasn’t brilliant we moved on. Not long later – about 15 minutes we saw at least 7 lions cross the road in front of us. They didn’t hang around long and were soon in the bushes not visible from the road. We couldn’t believe it – how many lions were there along this road?!

We then saw some more road kill – a dead wild cat. This was very sad and it had obviously only just happened in the last few hours; poor cat.

We continued driving until we reached the dam near Satara where there were a few cars pulled up. We looked at what they were looking at and could not believe our eyes! Here, right next to us was a pride of lions with a kill; this would be our third lion kill sighting in 24 hours! They had caught a wildebeest and the male lion was feeding and refused to let the females have any. We watched them for a couple of hours as he fed, protecting it from the lionesses as well as watch the vultures wait patiently in the surrounding trees and the jackals sniff around waiting for a moment to sneak a bite.

We couldn’t get over how many lion kills we had seen; what a way to end our time in KNP. After a couple of hours we left the Dam and headed back to Orpen and the gate to leave KNP. On the way to Orpen Gate we saw a herd of zebras with an extremely small zebra that looked like it had been born fairly recently which seemed unusual as all the other zebra foals were much larger.

7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

This was our last full day in KNP. At 6am we headed out and towards Timbavati. Along the way we saw some male lions, at least 4 and we think this must be a group of 7 male lions that were reported earlier this week near Timbavati! We took some photos before heading on.

The road was very quiet and we just saw some giraffe, impala, zebra, kudu and one lone vervet monkey. We then drove back down towards Satara. We saw a large herd of zebra and wildebeest as well as around 8 vultures sitting in the tree but we could not see a kill anywhere so we carried on. Further down the road someone stopped as they had spotted a cheetah but we couldn’t see it and they didn’t stay so we assumed it moved away pretty quickly.

We then went to drive down the S100 and about 100m in there was a major traffic jam of 20+ cars. We were told that there was a buffalo kill with 4 lions. We managed to stop and look through another cars window to be able to see it. It was actually pretty funny because one of the cars had a flat battery and so was waiting for the officials to arrive to jump start it as nobody dared to get out of the car with the lions only 15m away. When they arrived the lions ran away immediately, clearly fearing humans whilst they jump started the car.

About 1 hour after this had happened there were still a lot of cars but it was not nearly such mayhem and we managed to get a good spot to sit and watch the carcass. Unfortunately the lions didn’t return immediately, clearly concerned that humans were still nearby. In the meantime, 2 jackals had a great time feasting on the buffalo. They ate very quickly and cautiously as they were clearly aware that the lions were still about. I don’t think that they could believe their luck! After watching the carcass for around 3 hours one juvenile male lion came to the kill. He started eating but was clearly very hot as it was around midday and the kill was not in the shade. He tried to drag it into the shade but it was too heavy for him to do on his own.

He sat and ate for a while getting his entire head inside the buffalo until he was probably too hot to keep feeding and went to sit in the shade. The jackal then returned to eat some more and one of the vultures who had been sitting in a nearby tree took this opportunity to come and feed too. The lion has not happy with this and ran towards the vulture and jackal and chased them off. This was about as exciting as it got until we left at around 3.30pm.

Although we had seen a lion feeding on a kill we felt a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more interaction between the vultures, jackals and lions.

We couldn’t believe what happened next; Wayne said it was a reward for sitting at the buffalo all day with little happening! About 6km from camp we witnessed 4 lions on the kill – a warthog. They had obviously just made the catch seconds before we arrived as they were snarling and growling all trying to get a share of the meat before each ripping off a bit and running off to eat it in peace on their own.

It wasn’t long before the jackals and hyenas arrived on the scene looking to have some too but the lions had devoured it pretty quickly. We had to leave to make sure we got back to camp before the gate closed but we were so pleased to get to see this and the interaction between the lions was just what we had been after all day!

4th June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

4th June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

At 6am we returned to Mooiplaas Waterhole but there was nothing there except a jackal on the road but it was too dark to photograph him. There was no sign of any of the zebras. We also saw a few elephants nearby too. So we decided to head down to Letaba. Along the way we saw some giraffes, zebras, impala, a fish eagle and a mongoose but in general it was quiet. We headed along the H9 and stopped off at the dam.

There were just a couple of hippos and a very large crocodile. Further along the road we got stopped by several cars reversing back; getting excited that they had seen something exciting, we looked to our sides to see what it was. As we then looked back to the road in front of us we saw a large elephant bull walking down the road towards us. We too put our car in reverse and had to reverse for about 10 minutes at he enjoyed ambling along the road towards us. Eventually we came to a junction so we turned off and let the elephant pass before continuing on the road the elephant had been walking along. It had caused quite a lot of traffic to build up but I don’t think that bothered him!


So we continued to drive back to Mopani seeing very little. Wayne and I played a game as to what animal we would see first; Wayne chose impala and I said giraffe. We got all the way back to Mopani without seeing either. However, we did see some kudu, buffalo and then back at Mooiplaas Waterhole there were some zebras, wildebeest and a few warthogs! Again there was no sign of an injured zebra – we will never know if he survived.

We returned to camp to have lunch – whilst we were making it we got surrounded by about 20+ birds which were obviously used to people feeding them. Wayne put our plates on the table and turned his back just for a few seconds but that was all the birds needed to come in and get some – naughty buggers!

After lunch we just chilled out in our room before heading back out for an afternoon game drive. We went to Mooiplaas waterhole but there was nothing there except a few elephants, we drove around the surrounding area but saw nothing so we headed to Pioneer Hide where we sat watching the river. We saw some hippos, a crocodile, 2 bush buck oh and some giraffes! Yay, I won the game; we saw giraffes before impala! Neither of us could believe it but nonetheless it was true!

30th May 2012 – Stay at Satara Camp

30th May 2012 – Stay at Satara Camp

As usual we left camp at 6am to go out for our morning game drive. It was most definitely our quietest morning drive so far. After driving for around 1½ hours we arrived at Leeupan waterhole to see what we would see – not much. There were a few giraffes some impala and some birds but that was it. We did hear what we thought were hyenas chattering but we couldn’t see them.

Leaving Leeupan we saw a rhino with its baby in the road but as soon as they heard us they bolted – they were very nervous which I guess is understandable given all the rhino poaching that is happening in the park at the moment.


Soon after this we saw 3x lionesses in the road but they were on the move and walking from one side of the road to the other. There were some wildebeest on one side and one of the lionesses chased them which was great action to witness. She was in reality too far away to catch one but as she started the run the two wildebeest closest to her were not on the same wave length and ran in opposite directions and collided head-on. They had enough of a head start to still get away but it was nearly a fatal mistake. We didn’t stay with them long as they soon wandered off into the bushes.

Further along, on the riverbed of Siloweni we saw a herd of around 17 elephants including 5 babies. This was great to see as we hadn’t had a good sighting of a herd of elephants on this trip so far. We sat and watched them for a bit wondering if the lionesses would come down to the water as they were not far away and had been walking in this direction, but they didn’t come so we moved on.


We then stopped off at Tshokwane Picnic Spot Wayne witnessed a group of vervet monkeys steel a man’s breakfast that he had left unattended for a minute! As we left the picnic spot we saw around 25 giraffes in the waterbed. We had never seen this many giraffes all congregated in the same area. They we just eating and enjoying the early morning sunshine. It was quite a sight!

Further along, at Mazith Dam we saw 3 elephants, a small herd of zebras and a large herd of waterbuck as well as a couple of hippos and a heron!

By 11am we had arrived at Satara and as we couldn’t check in until 2pm we went out for another drive. After driving for about 5 minutes, we were stopped by a car coming from the opposite direction who told us about a pride of 16 lions that were stationary around 16km ahead. We rushed down the S100 to where they were so we could see if they were still there. They were about 200m from the road so the sighting wasn’t great but we decided to sit and watch them. We were pleased that we did as we witnessed a few good things. The best thing we saw was a herd of zebras walk towards the lions and one of the lionesses hid and stalked them. At this point Wayne turned into David Attenborough, whispering things like “she has got to get to cover, they have not noticed her, she is in behind them, they are walking straight into the trap, this is it”. Unfortunately the zebra spotted the rest of her pride which were lying down in the shade and so they started to run. She chased after them but their head start meant that she wasn’t able to catch one. It was a great thing to see and something we can now cross off our viewing wish list for this trip!

We also watched as one by one the lion cubs walked past a group of vultures and each one chased them away, playing and practising for when they go on a hunt. We sat and watched them for around 2½ hours until they went into the bush and could no longer be seen them. It was a great afternoon but also very tiring.

26th May 2012 – Stay at Crocodile Bridge Camp

26th May 2012 – Stay at Crocodile Bridge Camp

The drive from Pretoria was pretty straightforward and uneventful and we arrived at Crocodile Bridge Gate at around 2.40pm having stopped just once for fuel on the way.

As we drove over the bridge to enter through the gate we saw some elephants in the river and thought this was a great omen for our time in Kruger! After driving over the bridge we parked up and went to reception where we bought our Wild Card and checked into camp for the night. We then went through the park gates and headed into camp (as this was right next to the gate). We unpacked the car and had a quick look around.

The camp was clean and well kept. Our room was too. We had 3x single beds and a bathroom. Outside we had a patio area with the stove, sink, fridge, cooking utensils and a braai. We decided that as we had arrived early we might as well go for an afternoon game drive so we headed back out into the park. On our 2 hour game drive we saw several animals including 3x rhinos crossing the road in front of us.

When we got back to camp we made stew and drunk a few Savannah ciders. We also planned our route for the next day before having an early night ready for an early start the next day.

27th May 2012 – Stay at Lower Sabie Camp

At 6am we packed up our car, checked out (put our keys in the ‘key box’) and left camp.

The early morning drive was quite although it did get better a few hours in and we ended up spending a full 9 hours driving, until arriving at Lower Sabie camp at 3pm. We ended up seeing many animals including lions lying in the road together with a hyena.

We also saw rhino, impala, buffalo, owl, mongoose, giraffe, hippos, elephant, zebras, bushbuck, stalk, ground hornbills and a ground squirrel in a tree! As well as all this we saw an injured lioness on the river bank, a lioness near camp and a male lion lying down in the bushes – lots of lion sighting for day 1!


Most of this was seen in the morning as we didn’t really see much from 10am-2pm. Once we had arrived at camp we were both very tired after a long day in the car. Our room was very basic and a bit tired looking but it was OK. It consisted of 2x single beds, a bathroom, fridge and a patio area with a table and chairs and a braai. We heated up our left over stew from the night before, had a brief wander around camp – we watched the river and saw a bushbaby in the tree directly above where we were standing before going to bed.