Kruger National Park

(Photo credit: SG Davis)

Amidst my eventful days with the baboons, I was able to take a week off with my parents and travel to some of the most spectacular parts of South Africa (see posts of The Garden Route and Addo Elephant Park below). One of the most astounding locations we ventured to is the renowned Kruger National Park, a place I have dreamt about going to for years—especially since Kruger keeps coming up in many of my wildlife classes back at Cal Poly. Kruger lies in the high Northeast of South Africa, on the border of Mozambique and comprises 20,000 square kilometers. It’s a vast landscape complete with dozens of ecozones, thousands of species, and millions of animals. One moment we would be submerged in dense river thickets and the next, montane bushvelds or open savannas would surround us. We spent three magnificent days exploring Kruger, which in reality only gave us enough time to explore the southernmost portion of the enormous park.

Our journey began from Port Elizabeth, where we caught a plane to Johannesburg and rented a car to drive through the reserve. As typical Davis people do, we refused the excessive tourist trips and simply took our own car through the park with merely a couple confusing maps and no guides or tours. Remarkably, we saw it all. Elephants, hippos, buffalo, giraffes, jackals, bush babies, rhinos, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, lions, monkeys, ostriches, ungulates, birds, zebras, mongoose, warthogs… you name it. Our second day there, we saw the big five all in one day (elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard, and lion). At moments we felt like we would never be able to see above the dense acacia thickets, but the wildlife was prolific and the scenery was stunning. Few places on earth can support such densities of wildlife and boast unparalleled panoramas of mountains, hills, valleys, and open plains. 

elephants dusting themselves with red African dirt

We spent two nights within the park’s boundaries, staying in small bungalows within designated camp areas—one of which was positioned above the Sabie river where wildlife like crocodiles, elephants, kudu, and guinea fowl roamed the banks and hippos bellowed throughout the night. We explored in our miniature vehicle almost the entire day from sunrise to sunset, snacking on pepper and salt chips and Endearmints. We visited watering holes where hippos wallowed and herds of rhino feasted on grass. We saw an infant rhino trampling the dry grass beside its mother’s feet. We watched a herd of elephants submerge themselves completely underwater and swim across the river with only their trunks visible. We witnessed a cheetah walk within feet of our car along the road. Welcome to Africa. 

(photo credit: SG Davis)

Kudu! (photo credit: SG Davis)

Try to spot the leopard here