Kruger National Park

Sitting peacefully under a marula tree, sipping my morning coffee which, by the way, elephants go mad about (marula not coffee), an elderly white South African woman hobbled by and said “it’s a great life, as long as you don’t weaken’.

                Trying to figure out what this elderly woman meant by her saying

I let her walk by without hardly a response but letting my precious coffee get cold I mused on that comment until she hobbled by in the opposite direction and I asked her ‘what do you mean by the expression you used?” Her only reply was “it’s an old South African expression”. Well that left me very bewildered and I went off in the other direction to talk to someone with a great looking South African camping trailer.

So, that’s sums up our visit to Kruger. Actually, no that’s not true.

We made a mad dash up to Kruger taking the train from Cape Town to Johannesburg ($65pp- including a private sleeper for 2 people and a 26 hour train ride).

Connie, never a happy train traveller, gazing out the window at the start of the train from Cape Town to Johannesburg

At least Connie has decided to relax when we see we have the whole cabin to ourselves. But then we got move to a 4 person cabin but luckily has that to ourselves

We packed our cooler with food but did have dinner in the dining car while the train rattled, rocked and rolled across the Karoo and up to the Johannesburg plateau – 1753 metres above sea level. Connie is not the most gracious train traveller so I had only booked a one way ticket without thinking how we were going to return!

Disembarking 4 hours late left us little time to get out-of-town in our dinky-toy of a car, a Chev Spark. Great on gas mileage but I suspect that’s because you have to get out on the hills and push it up. Thank god Kruger is at almost the same elevation above sea level as Johannesburg. Even I can’t complain though of a car that uses 4.5lites/100km.

Does this all sound like I am trying to do this trip on the cheap?

We managed to get out-of-town far enough to find very reasonable accommodation (cheap?) in Middleburg. Before we arrived though the skies darkened, the rain pelted down and we put the duck boards into the car and floated to a hotel found on the internet 10km before arrival. It was dark. We couldn’t see anything. Our trustworthy google maps app guided us into a docking space and yes, there was room for the night.

Little did we realise until the following morning that Middleburg, which, in daylight we were saying was a lovely looking quiet town, was embroiled on the national news with a very strange story. Contrast the previous link’s to this one and you get an idea of South Africa’s dilemma.

Such is South Africa for which I could go on ad nauseam about but love.

We treated ourselves to a self contained rondaval in Skukuza which is one of about four base camps set inside the park and very well run by the South African National Parks.

Nowhere are visitors gouged at the till for supplies. Each of the base camps has a store for more than basic supplies. Each base camp has a restaurant of more than average quality and a wine selection that makes me dr00l.

A gruelling schedule was de riguer. Up at 0500hrs, make tea, jump in the car and spend the next 3 hours looking for animals and then a stop at a rest camp for coffee and a small breakfast of yoghurt and fruit.

Always need a translator in South Africa as the only people who speak the Queen’s                                              English are the transient Zimbabwe workers!

Then back into the car for another 4 hours of animal hunting then a packed lunch. Then back home to a bottle of wine. All in all we probably only drove less than 100km/day. Drive slow and see more animals. Be patient – aaaargh!

Here are a few of the animals and birds we saw (click on any photo to enlarge):