A South African Journey -- Part 1: Kruger

 A South African Journey, Part 1: 

Kruger National Park

Africa was a destination I had dreamed about for a lifetime. We set up an itinerary with Nature Travel Africa and headed to Kruger National Park, in the northwestern part of the South Africa.

Kruger was a seven day dizzying spectacle of wildlife and African scenery. It’s hard to put words on paper without sounding like a dozen films on Nature , Our Planet, and National Geographic. The superlatives have been used up. But that does not detract from the experience. All that was left was to transport myself there and breathe in the landscape.

It began from the first moment. Late in the afternoon, our guide Marc Cronje drove us over the Crocodile Bridge and the birds, elephants, and crocodiles adorned their places in the scene unaware of our trans-global flight and associated jet lag.

With our guide Marc on Crocodile Bridge
at the south end of Kruger National Park

The eponymous herps had staked out positions in the slow current below. Giant Kingfishers zipped underneath us. A Goliath Heron emerged slowly out of reeds. Our first (of many) African Fish-Eagles soared overhead, an immature looking to pirate a meal. The bizarre Water Thick-knees stood on the rocks waiting patiently. 

Water Thick-knee in Kruger National Park

Swifts (Little, White-rumped, African Palm-Swifts) arced overhead in the cool afternoon air. The calls of Hadada Ibis echoed across the braided river channels. The long drive to get here from Johannesburg had rendered our joints sore, and it was difficult to jot down an accurate list of everything we were seeing. We moved from the bridge past the guarded entrance gate and, before dinner time, happily joined a traffic jam on the park road to stop and take in an incredible Leopard, walking slowly about in the tall grasses and casually sniffing the air for a distant Warthog. Hey, I thought it was going to be harder than this!

Leopard near Berg-en-Dal in Kruger

The same leopard, now resting in the grass.
Not hard to understand how that coat pattern might have evolved!

Leopard jam in Kruger

We spent our nights in lodges in three parts of the park: Berg-en-Dal in the south, Skukuza, and Olifants Camps, with an additional night at Lower Sabie. Called “Rest-camps,” they are all comfortable and conveniently outfitted with restaurants, but less expensive than the luxury lodges that are distributed around the region. Mark got us going early each day, so we were able to enjoy the morning “whooo-ooop” calls of Spotted Hyena in the five o’clock darkness.  Something darted between tree branches above us and Marc called "Bush baby!" (The formal name is Southern Lesser Galago.) African Scops-owl called softly while we drank a mug of coffee and a munched breakfast bar, and we were ready for the day’s safari drive on the park roads.

Spotted Hyena

These lodges have perimeter fences to keep juicy human limbs off the menu of the surrounding lions, leopards and hyenas. When you drive back through the lodge gate at the end of each day, it feels like entering some kind of posh version of a concentration camp, with razor wire and electrified fencing reaching five meters up from the ground. But the security does its job very well, preventing the unfortunate ghastly encounters that would shut down the park. On safari drives during the day, the park strictly enforces the rule that nobody is allowed to walk around – we are all confined to vehicles. This makes for long hours in a car seat, with opportunities to stretch your legs only at the restaurant at lunch time. It may seem a bit brutal, but overall, I think the government has done an admirable job with a system of rules that prevents tragedy and leaves it available for visits at all times of year.

Safe inside the imposing game fence at Berg-en-Dal.
We were listening to a Southern Ground-hornbill calling in the distance.

The benefit comes in the form of large animals being close at hand that go about their lives while ignoring the nearby vehicles. African Elephants are easy to encounter, and one can watch the newborns scrambling around underneath mom as she teaches them to excavate edible roots. The grazers and browsers are everywhere, the most common being Impala. But lots of Waterbuck, Steenbok, Common Duiker, Nyala, Bushbuck, and Greater Kudu. Then smaller numbers of Common Warthog, African Buffalo, Common Wildebeest, Klipspringer, Plains Zebra, and Southern Giraffe.

African Elephants in Sabi Sand Reserve. The adult deftly dug out the roots of this plant with her front hoof, while a youngster watched and learned. They quietly munched the roots to take in the fiber.

Southern Giraffes jousting

Common Hippopotamus argument in the Sabie River

We were there in October, spring time in this part of the world, so the sound of birds was nonstop from even before sunrise. Berg-en-dal means “mountain and dale” in Afrikaans, with the “g” pronounced as a throaty sound, impossible for Americans. It is a hilly section of the park, and on the first morning the hillsides were decorated with exotic things like Purple-crested Turaco, Gray Go-away-bird, Klaas’s Cuckoo, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Chinspot Batis, Black-backed Puffback, Four-colored Bushshrike, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Sombre Greenbul, Red-backed Scrub-Robin, White-breasted Sunbird, and Yellow-fronted Canary – all of them singing or vocalizing! 

Black-crowned Tchagra

Brown-hooded Kingfisher. One of the dry country kingfishers, and quite common in Kruger.

Crested Barbet

Eurasian Hoopoe (African subspecies)

Four-colored Bushshrike. Formerly named, more aptly, Gorgeous Bushshrike. It has a great song.

Gray Go-away-birds

Green-winged Pytilia

Retz's Helmetshrike, which travel in groups looking somewhat comical

The stunning Scarlet-chested Sunbird feeding in Cape Honeysuckle

Swainson's Spurfowl.

Tawny-flanked Prinia. Drab, and like many other drab birds,
a loud and insistent singer that one can hear throughout the park.

Trumpeter Hornbill. At 70 cm, one of the bigger hornbill species in the park.
Note the perch on the dead tree: probably killed by elephants scraping off the bark.

Wattled Lapwing. Posed obligingly beside the road in a dry area.

White-browed Robin-chat.

White-fronted Bee-eater. I can watch them fly for hours:
like fighter jets swooping over the target.

White Helmetshrikes

Yellow-breasted Apalis

Creatures with more familiar-sounding names included African Goshawk, Egyptian Goose, Ring-necked Dove, Fiery-necked Nightjar, Blacksmith Lapwing, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, African Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Striped Swallow, Kurrichane Thrush, Southern Black-flycatcher, Southern Gray-headed Sparrow, and starlings. We had the quite beautiful Burchell’s Starling and Cape Starling, both common but not in the hordes of the Eurasian variety, of which South Africa seems to be blessedly free. Eurasian Hoopoe, African Barred Owlet (seen in daylight) and Emerald-spotted Wood-dove kept me busy with a rapidly growing checklist.

Crowned Lapwing

Hamerkops

Kori Bustard. A yard in height!

Lilac-breasted Roller

Natal Spurfowl

Pearl-spotted Owlet, looking here like Crown-of-Thorns Owlet. We saw it in daylight.

Purple-crested Turaco

Red-backed Scrub-robin

Red-billed Buffalo-weaver

Red-billed Oxpeckers, working a Giraffe. Marc told us that in addition to the well-known habit of removing insects, they gather fur from the animals to line the nest.

Red-crested Bustard

Lesser-striped Swallow. More handsome than your average swallow.

Ring-necked Dove. The common one, heard constantly.

Southern Ground-hornbill. A pre-historic looking, massive bird standing about 70 cm high.

Southern Masked Weaver. One of several weaver species in the park

Southern Red-billed Hornbills. Ubiquitous in Kruger.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill at Olifants Camp.
Feeding the mate, shut in at the nest to incubate.

Striated Heron. The same species as in South America.
At least until the geneticists go to work on it.

Wire-tailed Swallow. At this time of year, they lack the named feature.

Crested Francolin. A somewhat tame individual.

African Green-pigeon. A really stunning member of the family.

On one of the park roads, we edged up close to a territorial White-browed Coucal. I like to think of it as the "David Attenborough bird." In nature films in Africa, the call of this bird is very frequently heard in the background, and now I know why.  It's common, although hard to see well, but it indeed is heard reliably just about anywhere in the park. I obtained a short video here.

White-browed Coucal

African Wood-owl. In a residential area with big trees in the park.

African Jacana, at a pond near Tshokwane

I’m not terribly good at describing habitat. The bushveld of Kruger seems to be, in comparison to North America, a mixture of several things. The trees are large only along river edges; in the rest of the park, they are reasonably common, but only a few meters tall. Elephants take pleasure in knocking them down, so trees survive only where the elephants can’t easily trod. Shrub-like plants seem to dominate, and were mostly in the leafless dormant phase, awaiting summer rains. Flowers of many colors were common. Grasses were fairly abundant in bunch-grass form, but were medium in height, not like the great wildebeest habitats farther north. The overall appearance was a bit like western sage scrub with more trees, and with riparian gallery forest. We experienced rain on only one day out of nine. The temperatures were quite pleasant the whole time, 10-25 C (50-75 F).  All of the days were overcast, making photography a challenge.

Hillsides around Berg-en-Dal in Kruger

Early morning in the Olifants River valley

African Baobab tree near Timbavati in the park

The instrument for making those
delicious Jaffles for the mid-morning snack

The South Africans let nothing go to waste

The sparse nature of the forest is the part that makes it good for predators. We found lions in several places, from individual males to large groups. We found leopards in a few places, including one with a prey animal stashed on a tree branch. Spotted Hyenas crossed our path a few times. We found a few African Wild Dogs when they rested in the shade at mid-day. We had a quick view of a South African Large-spotted Genet during a night drive in the park. (The drive was otherwise uneventful and could have been skipped.) I was really hoping for a Cheetah, but we were not able to manage that one. The current trend of the vegetation is increasing density, which is not great for Cheetah.

African Wild Dogs in the Sabi Sand Reserve. The young ones are finishing off a carcass.

An adult keeping watch as the young ones feed

African Wild Dogs at Sabi Sand Reserve As we were watching the herd, the adults caught another prey item, then called the youngsters over to feed. Our vehicle followed and we witnessed the activity.

Lion and cub at Sabi Sand Reserve

Lion in Kruger. A young male away from the herd.

Pride of lions plotting their next move in Kruger.

Young Spotted Hyenas at a den site in Kruger

Olifants Camp is a place of exceptional scenic beauty. The lodge and cabins are on a high perch overlooking the Olifants River. You cannot ask for a better dinner spot. We added a Mocking Cliff-chat and a Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill bringing food to a shut-in female inside the nest cavity.  Not far from the lodge were Namaqua Dove, Sabota Lark, Cape Crombec, Rattling Cisticola (place the accent on the second syllable), Arrow-marked Babbler, and two buntings, Golden-breasted and Cinnamon-breasted. A bit farther down the road was an amazing Kori Bustard, in excess of a meter tall, and a Burnt-necked Eremomela (situated high on the hard-to-pronounce list).

Dinner time at Olifants Camp

We had an expectation of seeing large raptors and vultures, and Kruger did not disappoint. White-backed and Hooded Vultures were there in numbers, and we also managed White-headed Vulture and two Lappet-faced Vultures. The eagles made a strong showing: in addition to Bateleur, we found Brown Snake-eagle, a massive Martial Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, quite a few Wahlberg’s Eagles, Tawny Eagle, and African Hawk-eagle. These were generally perched at the top of the few trees that the elephants have not yet had time to knock over.

Hooded Vulture at Sabi Sand Reserve.
This one was waiting for the Wild Dogs to desert the carcass.

White-backed Vultures at scraps from a carcass. Keeping the Hooded Vulture at bay.

African Fish-eagle. It was nice to see that they are quite common in the park.

African Hawk-eagles

Bateleur. Quite common in the park

Black Kite, yellow-billed subspecies. With a Hadada Ibis on the Sabie River.

Brown Snake-eagle

Lizard Buzzard

Martial Eagle. Not a common raptor! Note the claws.

Tawny Eagle. We saw several of these in the park.

Wahlberg's Eagle. One of the most common raptors in Kruger.

Kruger in October is mostly a dry place, but there are constructed ponds and dams scattered about. The best of the shorebirds was a Curlew Sandpiper that Marc had not seen in the park before. We also got to see Common and Wood Sandpipers, Common Greenshank, the bizarre Collared Pratincole, African Jacana, Three-banded Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, and an array of lapwings: Blacksmith, White-crowned, Crowned, and Wattled. The rivers produced ibis: Glossy, African Sacred, Southern Bald to complement the ever-present Hadada Ibis that is experiencing rapid range expansion. The weavers were also exploiting riverine habitat: Red-billed Buffalo Weavers, Red-headed, Spectacled, Village, Southern Masked, Lesser Masked, and Holub’s Golden-weaver. Oxpeckers (Red-billed and a few Yellow-billed) were staked out on every large grazing animal.  They were among the first noisy birds we heard in the mornings, leaving their night-time roosts in the camps.

Wood Sandpiper. Making use of one of the dammed ponds in the park.

Saddle-billed Stork. On the Olifants River in the park.

Giant Kingfisher

We finished off our Kruger experience with two nights at one of the luxury lodges, Inyati, within the Sabi Sand Reserve that lies on the eastern side of the park. There is no intervening fence (as there once was), so we saw many of the same big animals from the comfort of open-top safari vehicles. The extra added feature was a large group of African Wild Dogs, high on our target list for the trip. We watched them lazily chewing on scraps from an old carcass, and then followed them as they darted off to feed on a fresh kill (Impala, I think). They are energetic and entertaining canids, and it was wonderful to spend time with an animal in such decline in much of Africa. Marc was emphatic about taxonomy of these attractive predators: they are not terribly close to domestic dogs. They branched off the rest of the canids fairly early in evolutionary time, similar to the jackals and the Asian dhole. He tells us that a renaming has been proposed to highlight the differences – Painted Wolf might be the choice.

Inyati Lodge was luxurious to the point of being embarrassing. The food is fabulous and abundant. The rooms are decorated for a king. The setting is better than any Hollywood movie can portray. The staff is constantly available and friendly. The safari vehicles are huge, comfortable, quiet, and impressive machines in the bush. Our guide was George, a legendary figure in South Africa lodge history. The only complaint was the lack of things to complain about. Oh well, it was a proper place to spend our wedding anniversary. 

Roughing it on the deck at Inyati Lodge.

One thing to prepare for, should you go, is that the safari vehicles approach the animals at such close proximity that I felt uncomfortable. Elephants were almost close enough to touch. It took me a few moments to realize that these animals, even the predators, have grown up with vehicles and their occupants, accepting them as a minor annoyance. It might help if the lodges encouraged their clients to bring binoculars and lenses with more reach than a smart phone, so they could park appropriately. I had trouble getting some shots with my 100 mm micro-four-thirds lens.

On the vehicle at Sabi Sand Reserve. Taken with a cell-phone camera.
Anyone still need to see an elephant?

I cannot object, however, to our experience with a Leopard.  The guides had been keeping an eye on an adult female for a few weeks. The day that we visited, we parked at the base of an 8 meter tree. The female had stashed a carcass on a branch near the top, and her youngster, a few months old, was stationed on a nearby branch. It was difficult to comprehend that were sitting quietly below a healthy, powerful, gorgeous predator while her youngster playfully batted her tail in the air. We took it in for about 20 minutes before departing. A magical experience.

Leopard, right beside the vehicle at Sabi Sand Reserve.

Leopards, mom and cub resting after a meal.

Common Dwarf Mongoose

About our guide in Kruger National Park: we were fortunate to get the services of Marc Cronje, of Nature Travel Birding. He has a passion for Kruger and an infectious enthusiasm for Africa’s wildlife. Marc is knowledgeable on everything from mammals to reptiles to trees to birds to South African culture. It helps that he is tri-lingual, too (English, Afrikaans, and an African language whose spelling escaped me). He prepared two of our dinners from delicious steak and chicken via “braai” (the Afrikaans equivalent of “barbecue”). He was a pleasure to be with for our week in this phenomenal place.

Dawn was thrilled to add to her skottle collection. Tshokwane

The next part of our trip was the Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Peninsula.