Where does the time go? It’s already 2020 and I haven’t posted about our 2019 Kruger highlights. (But at least I’m doing it now considering I still haven’t posted our 2018 trip!). August is pretty much our favourite time of the year to visit Kruger due to the awesome weather and game viewing (although there is never really a bad time to visit Kruger). We were pretty excited about our trip because it had been a full year since we had visited our favourite place in the world and we were also introducing our 5-month old baby to her first safari!
As we were visiting during a long weekend, we decided to go up to Letaba to escape the southern crowds. Also we have had great leopard luck there before so we were hoping to replicate this! We were travelling with six other people but only had ourselves (and Isla of course) in our car.
Here’s our itinerary for the trip:
5/6th August – Fitzpatrick’s Lodge (Jock Safari Lodge)
7th August – Orpen
8/9/10th August – Letaba
11th August – Skukuza
12/13/14/15/16th August Nkorho Bush Lodge and Chitwa Chitwa (private game lodges)
17th August – Satara
Since I am prone to rambling on too much when I write a day-by-day diary (and because I now have a small child who basically sucks all the time out of my day), I have decided to cover just our top 10 highlights of the Kruger trip. This excludes the sightings we had at the private game lodges and only covers Kruger National Park (while self-driving). Oh and except for number one, these aren’t in a particular order as it’s too hard to rank them!
Now if you want the easy way to get a good idea of our trip – here’s a video of the highlights:
Side note: don’t forget to subscribe for more wildlife safari videos!
Our top 10 Kruger National Park highlights for this trip
1.PANGOLIN. PANGOLIN. PANGOLIN. Need I say more? This was a once in a lifetime sighting for us. Van was a safari guide for years and never managed to see one. It had been on the top of our list forever and we finally managed to see it, on a public road in Kruger National Park while driving from Letaba to Lower Sabie for brunch. Amazing.
2. Cheetahs on a kill. Those who visit Kruger frequently would know that any cheetah sighting is pretty special, but three cheetahs on a kill right next to the road is even more amazing. Even better there were only a few cars at the sighting due to the fact it was 15km north of Letaba and not, thank god, in the south where I am quite sure there would have been a traffic jam for approximately 45km.
3. Jackals chasing vultures at Cheetah kill. Same sighting, but as the cheetahs left the kill a heap of vultures hastily ran to enjoy the leftovers. This in itself was entertaining as they look quite funny running but what made it even better was the jackals that raced forth and promptly chased the vultures away. This game of cat and mouse continued for a while and a couple of times the jackals actually caught a vulture! A tussle ensued before the vulture managed to escape…. Only to look for more opportunities to scavenge food!.
4.Lions on road. So lions on the road aren’t that unusual in Kruger but ALWAYS exciting! When we had our fill at the vulture/jackal sighting we decided to go north a bit further to see if we could find the cheetahs who had left their kill. We knew there was a waterhole somewhere but weren’t too sure how far (as it turns out it was a bit too far for the cheetahs). While we didn’t see the cheetahs again we did manage to find some young lions lying next to the road – with only a couple of cars. As the time wore on we ended up being the only car when three of the youngsters came onto the road.
5.Porcupine! Once again while staying at Letaba we enjoyed an awesome porcupine sighting first thing one morning when leaving camp. We turned the corner and the cute little guy was busy crossing the road! As it was still dark outside photos were nearly impossible but I managed to get a pretty cute video! I love porcupines and even though they aren’t necessarily as ‘rare’ as a pangolin they are pretty tricky to see so we were pretty chuffed!
6.Wild dogs – two times (three if you count the time at Jock on a public Kruger road). We are pretty lucky with wild dogs in Kruger to be honest but nevertheless seeing wild dogs is always a highlight! This trip we saw them three times – once on the S114 while staying at Fitzpatrick’s lodge, once on the H1-2 just north of Skukuza and once on the H14 close to the H1-6.
7.Baby rhino!! We all love to see rhinos and baby rhinos are EVEN BETTER. We saw a couple of young cuties during this trip but this guy was my favourite – he and his mum went to a waterhole for a nice drink.
8.Zebras and wildebeest playing at sunrise. This is a scene that most people would (and did) drive straight past. But we recognised an awesome photographic opportunity (not to mention a pretty cool sighting). We parked by Ngotso North waterhole and watched these guys frolic and play – and got some pretty cool silhouette photos in the process!
9.Huge ellie bull at waterhole. No one likes a huge elephant bull more than Van. This guy was pretty special just chilling at Nandzana waterhole off the H14.
10. Hitting the big 5 on our way out... Including finding and enjoying our own leopard and lion sightings. Who doesn’t like ticking off the Big 5 just one more time as they drive out of the park! We had to make our way from Satara out Malelane gate relatively quickly (we had a flight to catch from OR Tambo that evening) so we didn’t dwell at any of the sightings, but it was still pretty awesome luck! My favourite was probably this young male lion walking down the road towards us in the rain on the H1-2 – not least because we were the only car at the beginning!
Just another amazing few days in Kruger National Park. And now the countdown begins to our next visit in March 2020!
In the meantime I’ll have to console myself with organising other people’s safaris 🙂 With that in mind, be sure to get in touch if you’re keen on ticking off safari on your bucket list this year (or next)!