Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers
an area of 19,633 square kilometers. This makes it 5 times the area of Goa or
half of Kerala. It’s really huge. On 26 March, 1898 ‘Paul
Kruger’President of the Transvaal Republic, now known as South Africa,
proclaimed the establishment of a "Government Wildlife Park." This
park would later be known as the Sabi Game Reserve and was expanded into the
Kruger National Park in 1926.
Kruger is managed by
South African National Parks (SANParks) http://www.sanparks.org (extremely
informative) which is the leading conservation authority of all national parks
in the country, responsible for 3,75,1113 hectares of protected land in 20
national parks. Truly the flagship of the South African National Parks, Kruger
is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians,
114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals.
The whole area is serviced
by 31 different camps providing accommodation, restaurants, safaris and other
facilities for game viewing. An advisory recommends what game each camp offers
for viewing. Our requirement was to see the ‘Big 5’ (Lion, Leopard, Elephant,
Rhino and Buffalo) and we chose ‘Satara’ – which is also the biggest camp. It
is situated in an excellent game viewing area, with the bush relatively open
and the animals plentiful and diverse. The camp itself has a rustic charm, with
the bulk of the accommodation set out in a series of circles. Different types
of accommodation are available to choose from – Campsites, Bungalows, cottages,
houses etc. We booked 2 bungalows. The rooms are comfortable, clean and basic.
The rooms come with an AC, fridge etc. The entire camp is protected by an
electrified fence. Once we were woken up in the middle of the night, thrilled
to hear the repeated roaring of a lion, very close to our room – only to find
out the next morning that they had been on the prowl just outside the fence.
Tid Bit: As the story goes, Satara Restcamp owes its name to an anonymous
Indian surveyor who was sent by the citizens of the newly proclaimed Transvaal
Republic, who split up the region for settlement. On his map, the surveyor
marked the area that is present-day Satara with the Hindi word 'satra', which
means 17.
We hired a Toyota Corolla
in Johannesburg and drove to Kruger via Nelspruit. The driver is easy and
really picturesque. There are a number of gates through which one can enter
Kruger. We took the Orpen Gate and departed by the Malelene Gate. We left early
and reached the gate by 3pm. All gates to Kruger close by 4.30pm.
There are a number of
safaris. One can choose from the early morning, sunset, or night safari – one
can go on a night walk with the warden into the forest. Private cars are
allowed in designated areas at specific times. There are a number of rules, dos
and don’ts which everyone needs to observe during the entire stay. This is
where a self-driven car comes extremely handy. On all the three days, before or
after the safari we would travel in our car chasing the game based on the
warden’s advice and public report of any sighting of the elusive Big 5. The
overall excitement and the anticipation of sighting game make these outings
really remarkable. In spite of driving endlessly for over three to four hours
at a stretch, one does not get bored on account of the sheer anticipation of a
sighting. You find yourself alert, and keep scanning the landscape, much like a
personal bodyguard who scans the crowd for a potential threat.
Two restaurants including
'Mugg and Bean' dish out excellent food and in addition one can hire all the
things required for a barbecue pit located outside the bungalow. In some
places, kitchen facilities are also provided. The camp works overtime to
provide excellent facilities to the entire tourist population. Overall it is an
experience to be relished.
In all, we spotted hordes
of zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, elephants and buffaloes. On one of our self
drives, we encountered a herd of elephants and one of them pinned us with his
gaze for quite a while, standing as close as 20ft away from our vehicle. (My
biggest worry was the damage to the Hertz rental car and the cost of repair :/)
We saw hyenas, wolves, jackals, ostriches, porcupines, hippos, rhinos, owls,
eagles, buck deer, vultures, impalas, steinboks, kudus, Mongoose and a single
leopard sighting.
Tid Bit:Our Safari warden told us that giraffe has great height and
expansive vision, but it cannot obtain sensory input from the ground. The zebra
on the other hand can smell advancing predators at the ground level and see
them under trees, but cannot see danger from afar.Zebras often graze in mixed
herds with Giraffe which gives heightened awareness of potential predators.It
is not uncommon to find few Wildebeest mingling in their company.
We finally left the camp early morning on 17th May
towards Malelane Gate. Our spirits were really low as we were departing Kruger
without sighting any lions. In spite of our best efforts, the King remained
elusive. As our guide had told us, “the animals are always on the move –
covering huge tracts of land every day – sighting is a matter of being in the
right place at the right time – nothing is certain”.
All of a sudden a car
from the opposite direction stated flashing his headlights and asked me to
stop. He told us in broken English that we should take the 2nd crossing
to the right and proceed a little ahead to see the lions. We were left
speechless at the turn of events – the Gods had certainly answered our prayers.
With muted excitement and bated breath, hardly daring to believe that we had a
chance of seeing a lion, we took the turning only to be confronted by a fork.
We took the right fork and went ahead for almost fifteen minutes without any
sighting. We then retraced our path and took the left fork – lo and behold, I
screamed and the magical words came out – ‘There it is!.’ We stopped
breathlessly.
There, in all his
majesty, was a lion coming towards us, with a lioness in tow. The lioness
walked past the car and lay down behind our car. The lion stopped next to our
car window and just stood there looking into the distance. What a magical,
overpowering moment! He posed there for five minutes, peaceful and without any
sign of aggression. He invoked no fear whatsoever – only wonder and awe.
Clearly it was the defining moment of our entire SA trip; a once in a life time
event. After standing for a while, the lion sat down beside the car – as if to
say ‘see me to your heart’s content’. We had spent 17-18 hours in the
past two and a half days looking for him and there he was! As if he had come
just to meet us. Tawny eyed and glorious, with signs of old fighting scars on
his face, we could not get enough of him.
A little later, almost an
eon to us, the lioness got up and casually walked towards the thick growth. The
lion rose and followed her obediently but leisurely into the undergrowth. (As
we men generally do). In seconds, the clearing was quiet again.
As we left the clearing,
we could not take the grin off our faces if we tried. Our hearts were full of
happiness. We had been fortunate, thank the Lord! Contented, we left to go onward to the Malemane Gate
Finally we said Salani
kahle, Totsiens, goodbye to South Africa and its natural beauty, people,
forests and animals.
Now for a few interesting
game photographs
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