Kruger National Park, South Africa

Kruger Four Day Walking Safari

Our four days walking and camping in the backcountry of Kruger was a highlight of the trip.  It was an entirely different experience to be out walking among all of the animals.  A few of the memories:

We fell asleep the first night listening to lions roar back and forth from two sides of our camp.  They were within a few hundred meters of our camp, and alternated from growls to full roars.  A really good reminder that we were in their home!

Walking through the bush was a bit of dance - searching out the animals (mostly we searched for lions from their tracks and likely habitat) and getting close enough to see them, then changing course to make sure they didn't get scared or feel trapped.  One morning, we ended up changing directions and backtracking four different times as we found ourselves getting too close to lions.  We ended up seeing (and being surrounded by) at least 10 lions, and there were probably several more we didn't see.

As spooky as the lions were, they weren't the most dangerous animals.  We ended up closer than we wanted to a mother elephant with two babies.  It's surprising how quiet and difficult to see elephants can be.  We reversed direction and quickly moved out of her way!  We also watched a group of cape buffalo from about 50 meters across a shallow floodplain and watering hole.  Our ranger considers cape buffalo as the most dangerous of all of the animals.  While a lion or elephant will false charge, a buffalo is quick to charge and won't stop once charging.  Over a twenty year career, our ranger has had to shoot two animals to protect his group; one was a buffalo (the other was an elephant).

We were fortunate to be able to go on the walking safari; Katie just made the minimum age of 12.  It's now clear why they have a minimum age.  It's not her size; none of us are a match for the animals we saw.  It's to make sure the kids can walk long distances, remain quiet, and follow directions.  A younger child that decides to run away or scream at the wrong time could quickly create a big problem.

We also saw many raptors and other birds, giraffes, impalas and other antelope, crocodiles, warthogs, and a colony of African bees.  The craft of reading tracks, working upwind, and moving quietly were fairly easy to pick up.  The craft of spotting animals at a distance was much more difficult.  The rangers could pick up a fragment of golden lion mane in golden tall grass from two hundred meters, which was amazing.

It's either a walking safari or a forced march by armed guards.

This is not a hive.  It is a colony entirely made up of African honey bees.  Don't mess with them.

I'm not sure who is watching who!  One day, we were surrounded by 10 lions (that we saw).

Alive and happy at the end of a walking day!

A tawny eagle; one of at least eight different types of eagles we saw frequently throughout the park.

Every river and watering hole seemed to be guarded by at least one giant crocodile.  This one guarded a watering hole right below our backcountry camp on our walking safari.

One of two male lions sleeping while an entire herd of impalas walked by single file.  The impalas would stop and look at the lions, and then keep tip-toeing on by!

We walked each afternoon until sunset, then had a "sundowner" and cold drinks to top off the day.

It's not a good picture, but it's a reminder of the gorgeous skies we saw every night.  The Southern Cross constellation wasn't as dominant in the southern sky as the Big Dipper is in the northern sky.  However, the brilliance of the stars, planets, and Milky Way were stunning.

Two wild encounters we captured on video

Giraffe combat

This video is of two male giraffes fighting for dominance.  It's called "necking," and despite the name, was surprisingly violent.  We saw several giraffes with deformed necks as a result, and the rangers said it wasn't unusual for giraffes to be killed this way.

Elephant vs. wildebeests

We were watching a group of zebras and elephants at a watering trough when a huge train of wildebeests arrived.  Here's a picture after some wildebeests have arrived, and a long line continuing to approach:

As the wildebeests arrived, they pushed the zebras and elephants out of the watering trough.  This video shows excerpts of one of the elephants fighting back.

Experiencing Kruger, South Africa after Chobe, Botswana

Following the animals

Life in Chobe National park revolves around the Chobe River (at least in the dry season).  There is a daily migration of animals from the hills down to the water to drink and cool during the heat of the day, and migration back up in the evenings.  The only exception were the baboons, who foraged in the hills during the day, then returned to trees above the river at night (with an elaborate process of checking the trees for leopards).

Kruger has many smaller watering holes and (often dry) rivers, so the movement of the animals is more varied.  However, the basic movements between foraging, resting, and water areas are similar.

Camping

Most visitors in Chobe went into the park only for the day, and stayed in surrounding towns at night.  We camped two nights within Chobe.  These camps were entirely temporary; tents were set up each night, with no fences or boundaries.

It was quite the opposite in Kruger, where everybody had to be in large permanent compounds with electric fences before dark.  The fences helped to reduce the accidental interactions between people and animals, but didn't really keep the animals out.  Baboons, honey badgers, monkeys, and antelope were regular visitors in all of the camps.  We didn't see any hyenas inside the camps, but if the honey badgers can get in, the hyenas can as well.

The only exception to the large, electrified camps at Kruger were the bush camps for walking safaris.  They were still permanent camps with fences (unlike Chobe), but the fences weren't electrified, and the fences were really to "just keep the guests from wandering off."

Walking and getting near animals

Neither Kruger or Chobe allow any walking in the park (other the walking safaris at Kruger described above).  You can only be outside a vehicle at camps and designated picnic/stretch points.  These stretch points are not separated from the rest of the park (no barriers, fences, etc.), and provide fixed points to help animals predict where people will be.  The predators tend to stay away from these areas, and the monkeys and birds tend to congregate there to scavenge snacks.

Getting to experience both walking safaris and vehicle safaris was eye-opening regarding animal behavior.  These animals have not evolved to recognize vehicles, and it is easy to get within 30 meters of just about any animal in a vehicle.  However, the animals all recognize people as apex predators when walking, and getting within 100 meters requires patience, skills, and some luck.  Aside from whether these animals should be hunted at all, it is hard to imagine how anybody should hunt large game in Africa with the aid of a vehicle - there is simply no "fair means" when a vehicle is involved.  I suppose it's the same in the U.S., but the animal density is so much lower in comparison.  The animal density in these areas show how amazing a (somewhat) functional ecosystem can really be (despite habitat destruction and other pressures).

Chobe has a web of sandy and rocky roads that require a 4WD vehicle.  Kruger is much larger, with a network of paved and dirt roads that are easily driven by regular vehicles.  One the roads in Kruger, we were stopped by elephants, giraffes, buffalo, kudu, impala, zebras, wildebeests, and other animals.

Chobe allowed elephant hunting until 2013.  They are now the only country in southern Africa that has banned big game hunting on all government lands.  However, after decades of hunting, the elephants have genetically selected towards smaller tusks.  This was evident as soon as we entered Kruger, where we saw elephants (like this one) with much larger tusks (Kruger banned hunting decades ago, and works hard to fight poachers).

New animals from Kruger that we didn't get pictures of

We didn't get great pictures of some of the animals that we saw in Kruger:

Cheetah

We were fortunate enough to see a cheetah, even though their population is in precipitous decline.  There are now only about 150 cheetahs left in Kruger (compared to 2,500 lions).  After seeing leopards and lions, a cheetah was still striking to see.  We all were surprised how tall and muscular it looked.  We only saw it strolling casually, but it's potential speed was evident.

Cheetahs are struggling to survive everywhere.  In parks and reserves, there is a dense concentration of lions, leopards, and hyenas, who kill more than 90% of cheetah cubs.  In other areas, cheetahs hunt during the day, and are therefore seen more often than other nocturnal predators.  As a result, they are unfairly blamed for livestock deaths and killed by farmers.

Honey badger

Honey badgers raided our camp in Chobe, but we didn't see them until they raided our camp at Tamboti in Kruger.  They are twice the size of American badgers, and most similar to wolverines.  They are also fierce fighters that will fight for hours.  They can fight off lions and have been known to kill cape buffalo (by attacking their genitals until they bleed to death!).  

They are also one of the few species that have been observed using tools.  In Tamboti, they have learned how to defeat the "animal proof" garbage cans.  After they opened our garbage can twice in the middle of the night (complete with lots of growling and snarling), I decided to gather our garbage and move it to the larger central garbage cans.  However, when I opened the tent door, there there was a honey badger inches away and waiting to come in!  Fortunately, the badger also took a couple of steps back, and I was able to close the door.  There would have been chaos if a honey badger got into the tent with all of us!  I was able to go out a few minutes later and move the garbage, but was uneasy carrying garbage across the camp in the middle of the night with honey badgers patrolling nearby!

Bat 

It was fun to watch the bats fly around our campsites.  Even with echolocation, one flew directly into my shoulder.  We also had one decide to sleep under our tent flap.  And they have a really cool name:  Mauritian Tomb Bats.

Rhino
We visited only the northern half of Kruger, and the rhino population is mostly in the south (where they were first reintroduced in the 1960s).  The only two rhinos we saw were at sunset on our walking safari, and they were at least half a kilometer away.  With Kruger as the last area fighting (and struggling) to keep wild rhinos alive, I hope the remaining rhinos continue to stay away from roads (and poachers).

Bush babies
We saw two different types of bush babies.  First, we saw the greater galago bush baby, which looks like a small monkey with huge eyes.  Then on a night game drive, we saw several South African galagos.  The S.A. galagos are the smallest monkeys in Kruger, and aren't much larger than a mouse.  They are amazing jumpers, jumping six feet into the air.  They can do this because 1/4 of their body weight is in their legs.

African civet - It's a cat, but looks like a fat, fluffy raccoon.

New animals from Kruger that we DID get pictures of

Here are some new animals that saw in Kruger and have pictures of (we're trying to not post additional pictures of the same animals we posted previously from Chobe!):

Verroux's eagle owl - big, soft, and fluffy, with sharp claws.

We only saw a couple of ostriches, and both times, their size was impressive.

Tsessebe - These look like demon antelope.  They are actually the fastest sprinting antelope in Kruger at speeds over 55 mph.

A dwarf mongoose - despite it's small size, it's one of the primary predators that control dangerous snakes in the area.

Vervet monkey a.k.a. thief monkey.  These were everywhere at picnic areas and campgrounds.  At one picnic area, we were all standing around a small table, and one of these ran between Alex and Katie, up onto the table, stole Katie's lunch, and ran off laughing.

A kori bustard - the heaviest flying bird in the world - can weigh over 40 pounds and still fly!

African darter, which is also called a snake bird because it often swims with only it's neck above water.  Its wings do not have oil in them, so they become waterlogged swimming and diving.  In the picture above, the African darter is drying out its wings.

This Sharpe's Grysbok looks like a baby, but is fully grown.  They only grow to less than 20 inches tall at the shoulder, and aren't even the smallest antelope species in Kruger!

This spotted hyena looks sort of cute, but I think these were the creepiest animals we saw.  They are constantly growling, snarling, and fighting each other, and seem ready to attach and kill anything.  Fortunately, we didn't see any hyenas while we were walking.  Fun facts:  They are better at problem-solving and social cooperation than chimps.  And a pack of hyenas can devour an entire zebra in an under an hour, and don't even leave bones (they digest everything, and their poop is white and contains only bones).  In other words, they are pretty much the real-life version of the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

Alex really wanted to see turtles.  He didn't expect to find them (terrapins, actually) sunning themselves on hippos!

 A few final pictures

Katie is now blessed with good luck after getting pooped on by a bird.  Alex had worse luck - a bird pooped on his lunch wrapper.

The gate where we entered Kruger National Park.

A cape buffalo getting his eye poked out by a murderous oxpecker.

"EES SO CUTE!"  - Katie

What happens when Katie takes over as photographer.

Good night from Kruger!