Another rather excruciating day of African bus massage broken up by a twilight zone drop off for lunch in a shopping center.. This might have been the most odd thing on the trip. The guide seemed a bit angry in general for some reason but off the bus you go and you have an hour to eat. There were plenty of other stores, but pretty much no actual places to eat. I should have just gotten a salad at the SPAR market and avoided the disapproving cashier at the sole chicken joint that was angry that the kids are such boring eaters and didn't want sauce on anything. I managed the remainder of the ride by listening to a riveting book on forensic anthropology…including the proper way to dismember humans with a kitchen knife and horror stories of Kosovo response. Cheery, eh? Once a nerd, ALWAYS a nerd.
On arrival to Kruger, we were given an option to upgrade to a rondaval hut with AC and your own shower. Stupidly, we declined the first night but after a sleepless night of tent rumbling snoring and traffic being directly off a main road, I took the bait. If you go to Skukuza campground, my biggest piece of advice is to spend the $50 and get the hut. Camping is fend for yourself with tent placement and the majority of the park is rondevals…so you may get placed precariously near a busy road or near the shitter, which reveals itself by nose prior to actually seeing it. Alas, things learned...camping is great in some places and allows for a great organic experience, and in others, it seems a bit tossed into a hodge-podge that does not give any additional benefit for the natural surroundings.
Something that you want to keep in mind, especially if traveling with younger kids is that there are wildlife on the grounds. The usual gazelle population is not of concern as they don't want to see you and will scatter, but the warthogs can be alarming. I was walking alone to the camp and encountered a very large male wart hog just a few feet away. They can be unpredictable and can impale things with one swift movement, so clearly I was alarmed and froze in my tracks. Fortunately, he decided I wasn't worth any further exploration and eventually sauntered off into the woods, but I wasn't expecting such a close encounter.
Somkhele made a great bush lasagna in a cast iron pot for the evening, and the kids enjoyed some respite in a surprisingly fancy pool near the site. There is a kids nature learning center near the ground as well which we didn't get to experience, but good to know it is there. Laundry is available here, although we didn’t do any at this location. Other areas of interest is a store, a restaurant with cushy accommodations, and a more basic cafe with WiFi. On the eastern border of the fence there is a tram that will take you to another hotel and allow game drives from different starting points.
We had a full day game drive scheduled with the temp forecasted for near 100 degrees, so a full day game drive was sure to be toasty. Many leopards were viewed in the southern area of the park the day before, so we headed that way first. While the leopards decided that weren’t camera ready that morning, we did see a few things we hadn’t prior including hyena, ostrich, some really great bird watching, and new gazelle species which was missing one antler so was truly a unicorn in the wild.
Kruger, however, is massive. Due to time constraints, our full day and a night drive was all we could manage, but if we were to go again, we would spend a week, explore each area separately, and visit some of the other towns in the park. By 1pm, it was 98 degrees on my watch. In an
exposed safari vehicle this is hot, really hot, white people melting onto nearby pavement hot. Drives are best done in the early morning and sunset, thereby avoid melting. There are several places around the drive to stop for snacks, lunch, souvenirs, so breaking up the crispy weather was helpful.
Bonuses of the day were merrily bathing hippos, which made my day. The pod floating near the crocs, snorting at each other, babies playing…I could have watched that all day. The starlings dive bombing diners at lunch was also quite amusing in a different way.
The night drive was really interesting. Driving about with spotlights to find hyenas ripping up a carcass, elephants drinking, baboons on the move, is totally worth a little extra cash. I had rented the indoor accommodation that evening and have to say that the drone of AC and a bed that isn’t on the ground was much needed at this point. It is very hard to be alert and interested when you haven’t slept in days, so this was the best decision I could have made.
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