Sightings of game can be tricky during midday heat as animals rest in long grass
or the shade of scrubby trees. Good binoculars are essential to identify distant
game and distinguish leopards from the trees they rest in. Most predators are adept
at ducking out of sight and many only hunt at dawn or after the camp gates are closed
for the night. This results in a mass exodus from camps as the gates open in the
early morning and motorists rush out to areas where predators have been spotted.
Spring is the lambing or calving season. It is also when there isn’t much water lying
on the veld and predators are likely to hunt when other animals go to waterholes
to drink. Actually seeing a kill is a rare experience that seldom happens next to
the main roads, but on one occasion we passed a pride of lion still gorging on a
baby giraffe carcass killed two days previously. It was right next to the main road
out of Satara camp. The road was virtually impassable. Motorists were driving right
up to the kill site with passengers hanging out of car windows to photograph the
cubs feeding on the carcass. Some ignored unwritten etiquette and just parked and
watched for ages. In the process they blocked the view of the kill instead of giving
others a turn to have a look. Some of them were so reckless while adult lions lurked
nearby that they were lucky not to be the stars of home-videos of their own demise.
The Kruger is not only famed for its lions. We have also had close encounters with
breeding herds of elephant that literally surround vehicles on the roads as scores
of elephant move inexorably across country. The threat of many long tusks and huge
bodies welling around a small car should be enough to make travellers obey the instructions
handed out at the entrance gates. This is true living on the edge!
Perhaps the essence of the local approach to a visit to the Kruger Park is that Africa
really has seeped into our bones and blood and we make the time to sit, stare and
appreciate nature in the bush. I suggest you do as we do and savour every visit to
the full – it’s worth it!
Part 1, 2, 3
