Near Crocodile Bridge camp is an area called the Hippo Pools, where a friendly armed ranger (who rides his bike from camp) stands all day guiding tourists up onto the rocks to spot wildlife. We stopped by to check out the hippos and were quite surprised to find the ranger diligently watching the far shore of the hippo pools. "There are lions," he says quietly as he peers through his massive binoculars. "I must keep an eye on them to make sure they don't surprise us." After he said that we inched closer to him in hopes that we wouldn't be their choice meal should they approach! We were able to catch some really good glimpses of several lionesses and their cubs playing in and out of the overgrown shoreline. It was awesome. We also watched waterbuck, impala, and kudu drinking from the same area, knowing that they would soon be hunted by the lion family. While in Kruger as a tourist viewing wildlife you forget that there are other focuses of the park, which you do not see. Conservation is a massive behind the scenes effort and one of the key features of Kruger is its focus on protecting the biodiversity of plants and animals by monitoring their populations. We were very fortunate enough to see one of the conservation efforts in the making from a distance. We could see a helicopter flying around so we stopped and were able to see, with the binoculars, that the helicopter was herding in giraffe into an area. All of a sudden we saw people running and then one huge giraffe fall over. Within minutes the giraffe was moved onto a truck and driven away. We don’t know the reason but could speculate that the animal was either a problem animal, injured and needed care, or they were relocating him to expand the genetic pool in another area. It was so interesting watching the whole thing take place! We were surprised to hear that poaching is still a huge problem for many of the animals, especially rhino, throughout the parks. At every camp there are signs that say fight the war against poaching; we even saw one sign on the highway that read, “Poachers will be Poached”. It is terrible but Rhino horn is worth more than gold and therefore poachers will literally do anything to get them, including kill the people that stand in their way. At every camp there are wildlife tracking boards where you can place coloured coordinated magnetic dots indicating where and what animals were spotted that day; however, next to the Rhino it reads, "Due to conservation efforts Rhinos will not be tracked using these boards." Kruger actually has it’s own small army to combat the poachers. We also met a Dutch guy whose family time-shares a private game reserve. He told us that it was too dangerous (for the animals and the people) to keep Rhinos on the property because of the poachers, so they had to relocate them to larger parks that have the resources to protect them. They had several poached within a few short months of populating the reserve with Rhinos. We learned that modern poaching is organized crime at its best with hands from all over the world dipping in on the wealth. The people that do the actual poaching - often poor locals - can earn enough money to sustain them for a year by poaching a mere three rhino horns. The money that the poachers see at the bottom of the chain is something like less than 10 percent of what the horn is worth, so the organized crime syndicates that arrange for transport and selling of the horns earn 90 percent of its value. Closer to Olifants River was considered elephant country. We saw tons in huge herds! We watched an elephant twirl food then whip it into his mouth. He had a collar on which means he would have been being tracked by researchers. The elephants were always very entertaining. Some would come very close to the car while others would guide their family away and into the bush. Skukuza, the largest Kruger camp, is the main commercial hub containing a post office, bank, car rental, airport, shopping center, restaurant, internet café, lodge and campsite. We stayed there for three nights and really enjoyed it. One night we went to watch a free film in their outdoor theatre. We also went on a night drive and saw a hippo right near the road. When we shined the light he darted into the bush. We also saw other little night critters! Further North we stayed at a rustic campground named Balule right on the Olifants river. From there we participated in a morning walk. We met our group of 6 tourists and 2 armed guards at 5:30am as the sun was rising and birds were chirping. The walk began with the guides (Main guide Travis and guard/guide Eric) explaining the rules. We were to walk behind the guides in single file, not talking and if we had a question or had spotted something of interest we were to snap our fingers as this is a more natural noise than talking. We walked along the river where we spotted crocodiles and hippos in the water. Our guides explained the flora and fauna in the area. They also showed us the differences between elephant, buffalo, zebra, and rhino dung. Eric taught us to tell the difference between black and white rhino dung by picking out a piece of stick. He said you could tell it was a black rhino as they cut both ends of their twigs on a 45 degree angle before they swallow them. The guides also could tell which animals had been in the area that morning by their prints in the sand. We all got very excited when they said a leopard had walked this way earlier and that it would have picked up our presence long before we knew he was around. After about 1.5 hours we stopped and had a small snack. After the snack we continued walking away from the river and into the bush. The guides spotted vultures up in the trees so we headed their way. The closer we got we noticed more vultures were gathering in the tree tops. As we approached the area both guides slid their guns off their shoulders and held them in the ready position. Eric begun walking in and under the brush, he then squatted down examined some prints, looked up at us and said “It’s a lion!” then LOADED HIS GUN! Andrew and I both looked at each other with excitement and terror and thought if there’s a lion WHY are we walking towards it while he’s enjoying a meal? The guides reassured we were all safe and they’d protect us if need be so we continued even closer into the kill zone. Eric found that the lion had just fled the scene of the crime and showed us what he had been eating, or as Eric called it, “snacking on”. He held up a piece of bone and flesh with some fur of an impala then showed us the impala’s stomach contents. It was so exciting!!!! The rest of the walk was great but the kill was for sure the highlight! We were totally impressed at how knowledgeable both guides were and would recommend anyone doing an organized walk or drive in Kruger if they get a chance. BTW each walk and drive are 3 hours long, a drive costs $23 and a walk costs $43 per person. On the second last night we were staying at the newest rustic (no electricity) camp called Tsendze. After dinner we walked to the fence to see if we could spot any wildlife. We came back after not seeing anything. Guys from the campsite came over because they had thought we had seen something interesting. Two of them went to check out the fence and quickly returned. They said they saw an elephant on our side of the fence eating out of a tree on the other side of the fence. At first we didn’t believe them but when we went to investigate we quickly saw the evidence of the pushed over electric fence. One of the guys, the one whose parents own a part of a game reserve, took charge as he is semi experienced with game encounters and informed us that elephants can be aggressive if spooked or feel threatened so we should definitely be careful and inform someone. So as a group we walked over to the ranger's (Roger) house, which was right next to where they saw the “ellie”. Roger looked at the fence and calmly said “don’t worry guys he’s out see I’ll show you where he came in but be careful lets walk as a group." So as a group we walked along the fence to the opposite side where we saw that another section of fence was pushed down towards the camp. Roger explained that because this fence is pushed towards the camp and the other fence was pushed towards the bush he came in one way and left the other way! He remained calm and said that this happens from time to time as the elephants get thirsty and sometimes break the water faucets that the campers use to wash dishes. I thought, "great he’s gone but what else is inside the camp" since about 1 hour before the elephant came through the camp people said they could see a leopard in a tree near the fence and could hear lions roaring nearby. Since there wasn’t anything we could do to not be eaten or trampled we decided to set out the tent's guy wires (elephants have been known to delicately step over guy wires) and enjoyed the rest of the night. The next night we thought we could hear the chain link fence rattling again and we assumed the elephant was back. In the morning I checked and the fence had once again been pushed over. Do you know what everyone’s remark was to this story… “What? This is Africa!”
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For those of you that have been to or heard of African Lion Safari near Guelph, Ontario you know that there are Rhinos, Giraffes, Zebras and even some Lions. But did you know that Africa has its very own African Lion Safari? It’s called Kruger National Park and it’s a little more rugged and wild than what we have in Canada. Being in South Africa for a few weeks now we had heard the hype of Kruger. Everyone we met said it was fantastic but we may or may not see the big five (buffalo, lions, leopard, elephant, and rhino – are called the big five because during the good old poaching days these were said to be the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt). We had also heard that Kruger books up quickly so we were glad that we had pre-booked our 14 days of camping in June while we were in Mendoza, Argentina. We read up on some of the camps and thought because we had the time we would start in the South and work our way North through most of the park. Kruger is about 20,000 km2 in size, which is comparable to the size of Wales. 74 km east of Nelspruit we drove through the Malelane Gate where our adventure in Kruger began! On the way to our camp we spotted rhino, elephants, zebra, crocodiles and countless impala. Once arriving at our first “camp” (Berg en Dal) we were totally impressed because the “camp” is more like a resort; including a curio shop (small grocery/souvenir shop), a restaurant, ice cream shop, several self-catering lodges ranging in size to fit between 2-12 people, a swimming pool with waterfall, a beautiful walkway over-looking a dam, which continued into the Rhino trail (mini hike around the camp), and a large campsite each with individual braais, a shared water faucet, garbage cans, and then bathrooms with hot showers, a kitchen with gas stove tops and on-demand boiled water. Most of the campers, more like glampers (glamorous campers), set up along the fence line so we found a nice spot at the back next to the fence. We stayed at this camp for three nights and really enjoyed ourselves. All of Kruger’s camps are similar to the description above. We split our time into five different camps, three were normal and two were rustic (running water but no electricity). As you can imagine this blog would be enormous if we wrote all of what we saw so we are only including the highlights split into two semi chronological blogs. Our first morning in the park we did a morning drive, which is a guided drive in a Parks Safari truck with 8 other people. We met at 5:30am with our coffee in hand. We asked Raymond, our armed driver, if there would be a washroom break. He told us no so we went before we left. The drive lasted three hours but Andrew’s bladder didn’t! The drive was really exciting as we got to use a huge spot light to look into the bush while we drove. Our first spot was a rare antelope, and almost immediately after we spotted two lions laying on the road. As we approached they stood up and we followed them along the road and up through a restricted road where Raymond explained that they were mature young males urinating to mark their territory for the lioness’s. We saw lots more wildlife on our drive but the lions were the most exciting part! We’ve both seen lions in zoos and at African Lion Safari near Guelph, but there are a few differences between the caged and wild animals. First we noticed that the wild lions were enormous and muscular. They were also quite scruffy looking as if they had been in a few good brawls. During our time in Kruger we were fortunate enough to spot a lot of cool animals right outside our camp fences. Hyenas were quite common in the evenings and at night. They would pick up the delicious smell of braais from miles away and come in search of some scraps. People are told not to feed them as they become more comfortable around humans and eventually very aggressive towards humans once they realize they aren’t always going to get food from them. The characteristic hyena wooooo-ooop could easily be heard all night at most camps we stayed at. It wasn’t until our last night at the rustic camp, Balule, that we heard a whole pack of hyenas doing their characteristic laugh or cackle. We both woke up in the night to the sound and Andrew was convinced they were inside of the camp and had gotten a hold of a small child. Turns out a female was in heat and the males were going bananas right outside the fence in front of our tent! Once we were taking photos of them and they came right up to the fence and licked our camera, good thing it wasn’t my hand as they have the most powerful bone crunching jaw of any land mammal! At the rustic camp, Balule, we saw a male hyena submit to a female one in surely one of the most awkward displays of submission out there. Check out the video below. This may come as a surprise with all the mating going on outside our tent, but believe us it’s not very common to see baby hyenas in Kruger. We lucked out however and were able to sit with (inside our car) the furry cubs and watch them play with each other. Sitting next to our fire we saw the neighbors spotting something in the bush. We went over and saw it was a huge Rhino grazing! We also got to see giraffe, a less common small-spotted genet, small marmots running about, a family of warthogs eating along the fence, and two bush babies that jumped incredible distances from one branch to another all from our camp! Also from camp we commonly heard lions roaring at night, it’s not the sound you expect from The Lion King, it sounds more like a really loud old man’s snore, more of a belly grunt noise. Every day we would drive the roads surrounding our camp or pack up and travel North to another camp. Most days we spotted tons of animals, especially in the South. Our top spots were... Watching a herd of zebra walk in sink bobbing their heads, which we later found out was because bont flies lay larvae in their noses and they bob to get them out…pretty entertaining. Watching herds of animals walk right out of the bush and onto the road, giving us great picture opportunities. We laughed every time we would see impala drinking then get spooked and dart off in every direction, the impala looked like they were always on edge, probably because they are a great snack for any big cat! We saw a wildebeest fight, buffalos drinking and bathing in a swimming hole, a crocodile eating an antelope (its legs were still sticking out from the croc's mouth) while the antelopes new born was on the shore trying to nurse from another animal with no luck. It was sad to watch as you knew shortly after the new born would become a light snack for another predator. Big cats are very hard to spot because they are perfectly camouflaged with the dry grass or trees but we lucked out by getting to see them a few times. Our first sighting of lions, after the morning drive, was a piggy back spot (where someone else spots) and you observe! We watched two lionesses laze around under a tree rolling on their backs; they then stood up and walked towards the river where buffalo had been grazing. The buffalo walked away from the river, crossing in front of our car, and continued into the bush. We were given some advice from a Ranger who said that if you see a herd of buffalo, there are usually some lions following close behind. The second time spotting lions was early in the morning; we had just stopped on a bridge to observe the crocs and hippos. When we began to drive away we saw four lions crossing the road right in front of us, we weren’t able to snap a picture but it was pretty awesome! On our way back to one of the camps 3-4 cars were pulled over, which usually meant a big cat was in the area. We stopped and saw a guy was out of his car pushing someone else’s car. When we asked if they needed us to call anyone they said someone was on their way but to look over there as there was a huge lioness a few meters from the road. Luckily she decided not to eat the man outside the car and begun heading towards the bush. Using the piggy back method we saw leopards twice! The first leopard was really hidden up on a tree branch, we thought it was amazing that someone could actually see it. The guy had lots of patience explaining to everyone where it was until we all saw it. I laughed when his mom finally spotted it then said “oh my it looks like a fur coat!" The second was on the ground; right when we pulled up to the area it crawled up into a tree and stayed there for some time. I (Courtney) was watching with the binoculars where it began crawling out further on the branch towards us giving everyone a great view. It is truly amazing to see how well camouflaged the animals are. Their colours are so bright and vivid in the wild, very different from a zoo; they must feel so exposed in zoos.
After our brief stop in Hluhluwe we headed further north crossing the border into Swaziland. Swaziland is an independent country separate from South Africa. It is also one of the last countries in the African continent that is still ruled by a King: his excellency King Mswati III. Crossing the border was like night and day at first. On the South African side the Immigration and Customs building was quite large and very modern. On the Swazi side the Immigration and Customs building was more or less a shack and no one was even wearing uniforms. At one point a guy in jeans and a t-shirt came up to us in the parking lot and asked us if we had paid our cross-border vehicle tax – which we did – so he let us go. Upon leaving the border we travelled on unpaved roads for a couple kilometers where we reached a sign noting the current highway upgrades. After this sign we were shocked to see how good the roadway infrastructure actually was. The pavement was mostly all brand new and the highways were very large and well marked. One of the other things we noted fairly quickly in Swaziland was that there were a lot of kids and old people, but not too many middle-aged young people. When we inquired why we were seeing this divide we were told that the aids rate is quite high and many young people have died from the virus leaving their elders and their children behind. 26% of all adults in Swaziland are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus (by some reports although there are ones that show a higher infection rate). The average life expectancy in Swaziland is 32 years, the lowest in the world. That said, the people of Swaziland were very friendly and quite cheerful at all the places we visited during our quick three day stay in the country. We had heard about this good backpackers called Lidwala in Ezulwini and so we got ourselves a private room (we earned it after 7 nights of camping). On our first full day in Swaziland we drove to the Mlilwane Game Sanctuary to hike up to a place called Execution Rock. As you can probably imagine the rock gets its name from a time when people who were believed to be witches were thrown off the rock for practicing witchcraft. The hike took about 4 hours round trip and over the course of the hike we could spot impala, wildebeest, zebra and other furry African creatures. After our hike we had a bit of time to explore one of the local markets in Ezulwini. The market was put in place by the Swazi government with the help of some private sponsors to promote local arts and culture. The market was fun to walkthrough as the majority of shop owners weren’t pushy and loved to joke around with us! A nice change from some of the markets we’ve visited on our trip. Later that night we had a delicious authentic Swazi dinner cooked by the ladies that worked at our backpackers. Pumpkin, curried beans, porridge, cooked spinach and roast chicken were the foods that made up our traditional Swazi plates. Before we left Swaziland we decided to do a shorter hike right behind our backpackers known as Sheba’s Breast. This time we had company. The owners little dog, a Jack Russell whose name we didn’t know, came along for the hike. The hike was pretty steep up the entire way and in a couple of sections ladders were affixed to the trail so that hikers could easily navigate the terrain. Dogs don’t do ladders so well so we had to carry our little friend up and down the ladders but he did make it the whole way up with us. On our way out of Ezulwini we garbbed a couple newspapers for starting camp fires and quickly noticed that excessive nudity is common place in them. Swaziland has newsprint figured out! Canada needs to get its act together! After the hike we left Swaziland and drove back into South Africa towards Nelspruit where we would prepare for the next 14 days in Kruger National Park!
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