Day Safari at Kruger National Park

Two weeks ago I was in South Africa for 8 days, my friend and I visited another friend in Nelspruit, a 3 hour drive north of Pretoria and she took us into Kruger for a day drive about another hour from where she lived.

It's worth noting that with the school holidays, you should book in advance as they limit the number of visitors to the park.

We entered at Malelane Gate, the nearest entrance, drove up the H3 to Skukuza rest stop near the Paul Kruger Gate, where we had lunch and visited the souvenir shop, then exited the park on the H4 at Crocodile Bridge, approximately 150kms.

The gate closes at 6pm and the time differs throughout the year, you are fined if you are late back to the gate. The speed limit also varies and is monitored by radar.

We saw 4 of the Big 5, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion but sadly no Leopard, as well as many other animals and birds and quite a few stupid drivers, blocking the road to follow the Lion, leaning out of an open window to take a photo of the Lion and 2 large 4x4's that blocked the road between a Mother and a baby elephant, as they filmed the elephant in distress, we got out of there as quick as we could, rather than wait for Daddy elephant to come.

The birds of Rietvlei with Animal Tales in South Africa

Last week for Animal Tales I visited Rietvlei Nature Reserve, I returned again yesterday. At only R48, around £2 it is definitely somewhere I will be visiting as many times as possible during my trip.

There's a gorgeous tea room at Rietvlei and I need no excuse to stop and enjoy a cup or two.

I still haven't located a free bird, animal, plant app, but I found some boards in the hide with bird identification and I met a woman who helped me out naming a few.

It's spring in South Africa so there is lots of new growth and of course lots of off spring and I enjoyed watching these young birds playing in the water and cooling off.

Red Bishops and a Golden Bishop

There are several bird hides around the reserve but this one is the best as it offers the best views

White throated swallow

Goliath Heron

Egret's in flight

These two seems to be firm friends, more about the rhino's next week

Can you see the Big 5 at Kruger in a small car?

The answer is YES.

This was my 4th visit to Kruger National Park and I was hesitant as to how much we would see in a small rental car on the tarred roads. We visited Kruger in September 2014 after our trip to Richard's Bay to go Whale watching.

My son and his girlfriend had already requested to go on sun rise and sun set organised drives as they were here on a holiday of a life time and didn't want to miss a thing.

The morning we entered the park, we took nearly half an hour leaving Marloth Park where we were staying due to giraffe on the road, zebra and various antelopes.

It took a further half hour to get over Crocodile River before we entered the park as we saw elephants, cape buffalo, a crocodile with it's kill, various birds and hippos.

We stuck to the tar roads and drove up to Lower Sabie, we only left the tar roads for the short drive to a hide and by the end of day 2 we had seen Lions, Black Rhinos, White Rhinos, Elephants, Hippos, Cape Buffalo, giraffes drinking, a rock monitor lizard, monkeys and baboons and we were now ignoring the antelopes.

Suffering with animal fatigue and lack of new sightings on Day 3 we decided to identify birds and I saw more on this trip than I've ever done before.

So for those of you still reading, it appears we've only seen 4 of the Big 5, but wait....our last night as the sun was setting, I decided to go for a walk, my son and his girlfriend were in the pool. A guide called me over and on the opposite side of the river was a Leopard, stalking several Impala. Taking a quick photo, I ran back through the woods to the lodge, passing a woman with young children and I gasped 'Leopard....river.....quick' and she ran off from where I'd just come. Son and his girlfriend, grabbed flip flops and we ran back to the river, in time to see the Leopard striking for the Impala, it missed and wandered down to the river for a drink.

It was only at this point that the woman realised that she'd run in the direction of the where the Leopard was, not checking that it hadn't been chasing me and judging by the state of the fence, there wasn't a lot separating me from the wildlife in Kruger.

We finished the holiday by watching an African sunset

Needless to say my son and his girlfriend didn't book the sunrise or sunset tours as we saw The Big 5 in 3 days by sticking to the tar roads.