Skukuza - I have just come back from my first camping trip into the Kruger National Park, and boy, was I in for a surprise. We had booked into Satara for the week, and had made the booking early last year as they said they were often booked solid… which was not true, because the site was only about a third full.
For this time of the year, most of those around us were pensioners – who tend to be the best kind of campers to have around you. They retire early shortly after dinner, they are not noisy or play music loudly, they are always courteous and polite and are only too happy to tell you where and when they saw animals and to suggest which route to take the next day for the best viewings.
As for the camp itself, well I couldn’t have been happier: with so few people there, there was no queuing for showers, bathroom or bath (or all of which, I might add, were absolutely sparklingly clean and well maintained, always had soap-hand cleaner, paper towels and the hand dryer was working).
In all the main resorts that we had stopped at during our stay, all of the ablution blocks were wheelchair friendly, and there were ramps into and out of the shopping areas… exceptionally well done SANParks: 10 out of 10 for thinking about the handicapped.
The campsites were quite large, but then again, with it not being so busy, nobody was parking too close to each other.
There were a lot of these mobile homes coming and going, mostly with overseas drivers – but even with that, it still wasn’t crowded. We did have a group of youngsters trying to sleep in the back of their bakkie, but the camp security soon told them they couldn’t do that and that they needed a proper tent to camp.
Most of the main resorts now have Mugg & Bean and Debonairs Pizza available as the preferable restaurant, which adds that little bit of quality to dinner if you want it – otherwise, they have braai facilities which are cleaned out every morning ready for the next time.
Satara has a nice cool shaded area under trees to relax in and read your book or just take in the peace and quiet of the viewing area in front of the restaurant with the birds twittering or an occasional hyena laugh… or that deep-throated rumble of a lion which makes the whole experience a holiday in a million. You can take a dip in the cool blue swimming pool, fill up you car and do shopping both for food and curios, buy some beers or wine and taste their frozen yoghurt (the English toffee became my everyday spoil).
The park is the park – whether for day visitors or whether you’re a stay-over guest like myself in a caravan or in a tent or in one of the many rondawels (but I’m sure you have to book early for all of them). Which means we had good game-viewing experiences.
My favourite saying became, “I love the sight of brake-lights in the morning”, because we saw the best viewing early morning and last thing at night just as people were allrushing back to camp before they shut the gates at 6pm.
Despite the complaints from some visitors, Kruger National Park still speaks in the sightings and experiences one gets on every trip. We had some wonderful sightings – from the Big Five all in one day, to two cheetahs frolicking in the veld at the side of the road, to ever so tiny baby elephants being protected by their herd at the water’s edge.
We were lucky enough to catch a mother hyena carrying part of an impala carcass back to her den to feed the pups and we also were fortunate to follow a pack of seven hyenas for 20 to 30 minutes as they set off down the road on their morning hunt.
Not that I’m a birdwatcher, but with quite a lot of the park having been burned to clear the veld, we saw many a bird sitting on the top of a tree, and yes we did know what they were because we had purchased one of those map books with the routes to take and the different types of fauna, birds, reptiles and of course animals that live in the park… well worth the purchase.
We spent most nights having sundowners by the dam and watching the animals arrive for a drink and we were lucky enough to see a herd of elephants with very young ones arrive and play and roll in the mud.
On one of these nights we heard a mother Egyptian goose calling to her young to swim across and join them on the other bank and were lucky enough to catch the shot – while next to our front wheel two lizards were fighting.
It is all very, very special and we’ve said more than once: why do you need to go anywhere else?
Why do you need to spend a fortune on an air ticket and your depreciated rands travelling overseas, when it’s all in your own backyard?
Will we be back? For sure!
And so will you, because once bitten, you will always want more.
Saturday Star