The Big 5, Critters & All Things Inbetween

So we came to Kruger, as so many others do, with the intention of seeing the "Big 5".

• Rhino
• Leopard
• Buffalo
• Lion
  
• Elephant

We added to this list Cheetahs and Wild Dogs as our other dream sightings.

The animal sightings continued during our time in Berg-En-Dal camp although this was to be the only Black Rhino sighting we would be lucky enough to find in Kruger.

We then set off to Talamti bush camp which is pretty remote to say the least. It is a place where bugs and critters surround you, and when I say critters I mean giant moths,mosquitoes and cockroaches...basically the things found in people’s mouths on I’m a Celeb. I just need to add here John finally discovered, despite me telling him previously that cockroaches do in fact fly, one day he will believe me when I tell him that I know everything! Basically, if you put a light on you became the the ultimate hang out spot for anything that buzzes, flies or bites. So now, not only am I scared of spiders, I am now scared of putting lights on...

The upside to this camp is that when you find game, (and you do...in abundance) you are generally by yourself; no line of people queued up like you're waiting for a ride at Disney World. We have sat and watched Elephants, Rhinoceros and Giraffe stroll down the road or stand stripping the tree’s roadside without them caring at all that we are sat, window down, mouths open, staring at them. Roman has fallen in love with a little animal called the Impala, more commonly known, or so I have been told as The MacDonald’s burger of Kruger. It is a skittish little thing and when I look at it I think of Bambi. The park has around 130,000 of them and so our son shouts Impala about 300 times a day on average and insists on stopping for another photo of them.

Whilst at Talamati we took our first guided sunset game drive, complete with guide Chester and his rifle! In the park the camps have a cut off point where you have to be inside your camp: in November it is 6.30pm, and after that the gates close to stop the animals coming in. If you want to experience night time outside of the gates it is done at sunset or later at night. The cost per adult is 250 ZAR (£20) and for a child who must be over 6, (Roman was close enough we were advised) was 120 ZAR (£10). This was the best money spent so far in Kruger; Firstly, Chester had eyes like a Hawk and could spot things we would have missed a million times over, and secondly, on our return to camp when it was dark we stumbled across a group of four male Lions walking in front of us down the middle of the road. We followed them for a few minutes and then they posed for filming and photos for about 15 minutes, seriously only a few feet from our open vehicle. Nothing can describe the feeling that all three of us felt - I personally could have cried, as it was such a high point in my life. I hope that the pictures help you understand why we felt so amazing.

We spent three nights at Talamati and saw some amazing things and I will never forget our time here. It was strange to be out of contact with the outside world, but sometimes I think you need to be cut off to realise how much our lives depend upon the things we're plugged in to, and here we really got to enjoy just being a family without the distractions (well apart from the critters). It might surprise some of you to find out that John coped much better without the mobiles and internet than I did...hmm or maybe it won't.

We headed to the more family friendly camp Satara to seek out the elusive Leopard and any other cats. We sure found them! We came across five female Lions lounging under a roadside tree one lunch time and sat with many other vehicles watching them in all of their lazy glory (But hey! At 35 degrees with no air-con who can blame those lovely lions). We did our own day drives both on the main tar roads and the gravel B roads. We saw more on the main roads but shared these viewings with more people so off road ones sometimes felt more special. It was on these drives that we found such animals as the Warthogs, Buffalo, Chacma baboon and most of the Antelope family including Bushbuck, Nyala, Blue wildebeest and Sable.

We hadn't however found the Leopard that we craved for our “Big 5” experience, so we decided to do another Sunset guided tour, as being a nocturnal animal we would have more chance of sighting a Leopard after dark. The sunset tours are 3 hours and start at 5pm, Roman slept for the first hour and a half as only he could, bless him. We found a huge herd of Buffalo numbering 100+, such an awesome sight and also found out that they are one of the most dangerous animals as they will attack you quite happily (not us fortunately!); the biggest killer in Africa though is of course the Mosquito, followed then by the Hippo. We saw birds that are called various names with European at the start as the crazy little things come to us for summer - do they not realise we do not have one?!

We came across large herds of elephants and found out that you tell the age by length of tusk and also that the way to tell if it is left or right footed is by tusk length: the shorter tusk indicates that is the foot and side it predominantly uses...you learn something new every day. We also learnt that the female rules, but females of all species know that already. We then came across a clan (or a cackle) of Spotted hyenas, including cubs aged around 8 months. Now these are ugly when older but I thought the cubs to be quite cute...our guide thought me quite crazy!

It was time to head back to camp and still no Leopard, we were all feeling quite sad but soon cheered up after spotting some Porcupines,and then even more elated to find a Leopard stalking them! We were so excited and happy to see such an amazing, beautiful animal in its natural environment, although we thought it rather crazy to be choosing Porcupines as its choice of dinner as those things have lethal spikes. We again headed back to camp and saw on the way the African Wild Cat, Large-Spotted genet and a rare sighting of a Serval all in all a fantastic night’s game viewing and well worth the money.

Our last day saw us finding more Hippos and crocs but unfortunately not the Wild dog or Cheetah, I guess we will just have to come back for them another time.

I have to put a special mention to some Vervet monkeys that decided to ransack our bungalow outside at Satara, you really do have to lock the fridge or put dry food inside, these guys mean business. Roman lost his Weetabix but I got some great video footage and photos I hope you enjoy, Roman was less impressed about no breakfast.

So that is our time in Kruger, sorry it has been such a long post but we covered a lot of miles...over 700 in total, although thankfully fuel here is less that a pound a litre.

Our footsteps will slow now for a while and I promise the next blog won’t be so long.