Kruger
National Park

29th March

Up and at ‘em at 0600, and away into the field with our two local drivers, Jan and Paul. We did a total of three game drives today, interspersed by breakfast and a pretty chaotic lunch back at the camp.

We scored really heavily – mammalian highlights were a single sleepy but gorgeous Cheetah, Spotted Hyena, Giraffe, Burchell’s Zebra, Waterbuck, Grey Duiker, Bushbuck, lots of Impala, Vervet Monkey and Baboons. Birdwise, things were even busier – with scores of new species, including cripplers like:

Southern Ground Hornbill, Lilac-breasted and European Rollers, White-throated Scrub-robin, Common Scimitarbill, Green Wood-hoopoe, Red-backed, Magpie and Southern White-crowned Shrikes, White-bellied, Marico and Collared Sunbirds, Natal Francolin, five species of Kingfisher, including Brown-headed, Grey Go-away Bird, Bearded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Parrot, Burchell’s Starling, Lappet-faced, White-backed and White-headed Vultures, Ashy Flycatcher, Chinspot Batis and various eagles and other raptors – awesome stuff! Add on Nile Monitor Lizard, Nile Crocodile and all sorts of insect, plant and other odds and ends, and it was a fantastic day!

Back at camp, a brief walk turned up African Goshawk, a calling but unseen White-browed Robin-chat, lots of fascinating trees (Acacia and various others), three superb Elephants right by the riverside deck, Water Thick-knee, Fruit Bats and so on.

30th March

Julia and seven of the boys were up stupidly early for their walking safari departure at 0445. Would we ever see them again? Yes – we did – and they had a great time, seeing Hyena, Lion, White Rhino, lots of Zebra, Giraffe, Wildebeest and plenty of birds. The other half will have to wait a day or two for their foot safari…

Team X, on the other hand, had a luxuriously late start of 0545, and had a thoroughly good time – the highlights being a pride of 12 Lions (plus a single male in the long grass elsewhere), Blue Wildebeest, and above all a brief but good sighting of a young male Leopard! We’d just missed a female with a cub at a fresh kill, and our heads were hanging, but the radio crackled and we made it to the site in time to see this fantastic predator emerge and cross the road. Group disharmony threatens.... (and proved to persist – no Leopard for Team Y...)

On our return, Team Y took the jeep out for another decent drive, while Team X slept or swam – lazy gits! Team Y did score with another Lion, plus Spotted Thick-knee and some more good birds – including Saddle-billed, Black and Woolly-necked Storks.

After lunch, we finally joined up again and took a paired drive along the river – White-fronted Bee-eater, Grey-headed Bush-shrike, Mosque Swallow, Yellow-breasted Apalis and Crested Barbet were all new.

And finally (finally!) we boarded the 20-seater charabanc for our long-awaited dusk/night drive. What a corker! We scored on the bird front with Bronze-winged Courser, Water Thick-knee, Verreaux’s and Spotted Eagle Owls, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Cape Glossy Starling and Fiery-necked Nightjar – and assorted creepy crawlies included a couple of Flap-necked Chameleons, a Boomslang (deadly) and another Puff-adder (deadly). But the mammals were great too – in addition to all the obvious herbivores, we found a group of five White Rhinos in the darkness, and best of all, a superb Cheetah which approached the bus, crossed the road and posed for the cameras! What a night-drive – fantastic stuff, and smiles all round.

Back for dinner – and one last panic: yet another Puff-adder, this time on the restaurant deck overlooking the river! Gulps all round, photos from a safe distance, and a very ginger walk home to our comfy beds – torches much in evidence!

31st March

An early pack up and bags into Jan’s trailer, and then away towards Pretoriuskop. The longish drive was fair to middling – no great crises en route, apart from a trio of lionesses by a watering hole and a very few new birds – including Red-breasted Swallow – plus a mating pair of Giraffes. That has to be seen to be believed!

We breakfasted at the camp (yum) and headed out pretty much straight away for a long drive in the heat of the day. We did see a few bits and bobs (the best being two distant White Rhinos, Kudu, Retz’s Helmet-shrike and Kurrichane Thrush), but it was generally rather quiet – although the hilly, gabbro-dominated landscape made an interesting change from the plains of Skukuza.

We stopped for lunch at a bizarre little café-cum-picnic site in the middle of nowhere, where we were rewarded with a singing Marsh Warbler, Southern Boubou, White-throated Scrub-robin, Green-backed Camaroptera and best of all, a roosting African Scops Owl in full view!

The two vans headed off once more for the long drive back to Pretoriuskop – again things were largely quiet, though there was lots of photography to be done – and we did see another pair of Southern Ground Hornbills.

Unfortunately we got split up, and while one van saw rather little (apart from a very large herd of Buffalo), the other saw things liven up, with Brubru, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, a pair of distant Secretary-birds, a female Black-bellied Bustard and a stunning, really hefty White Rhino right by the road, grazing a termite mound.

Back at base, we sorted out a room misallocation problem quickly enough, and then variously walked, chilled or swam until dinner time.

1st-3rd April

Our two nights at Pretoriuskop were by turns hectic, exhausting and wildlife-filled! The ‘other half’ of the group had their morning bush walk (roaring Lions in the distance, African Hoopoe, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Sabota Lark), and everyone saw several more White Rhinos (no Blacks, alas), plus new birds like Red-collared Widowbird, Broad-tailed Warbler, Didric Cuckoo, Lizard Buzzard, Stierling’s Wren-warbler, Green-capped Eremomela and Grey Penduline Tit.

Our second night drive was not quite as spectacular as the first, but still turned up Spotted Thick-knee, Mozambique (=Square-tailed) and Fiery-necked Nightjars and an incredible 24 Spotted Eagle Owls (!), plus African Rock Python and a decent selection of mammals.

On our last morning, we took one final game drive, and then packed up for the long journey home. Jan and Paul drove us as far as Hazyview, where our coach picked us up for the final leg to Johannesburg. A few last birds on the journey livened up the six hour marathon – African Snipe, Pin-tailed Whydah and Whiskered Tern were the highlights.

Finally, at O.R.Tambo airport, we said our fond farewells to Rainer, and headed off for check-in – where we compared ourselves favourably to the returning Marlborough College cricket tour party checking in dressed in full sports uniform on the same flight!

We landed just half and hour late in dense fog, and finally emerged at about 0845 – minus Crispin’s and Josh’s suitcases, which had never made it onto the plane! We went our separate ways, with five boys and us successfully getting a minibus back to Winchester – shattered but very happy!

Full blow-by-blow
trip report (PDF)

The final reckoning:

350 bird species noted by the group as a whole - with over 100 lifers for both Simon and Julia!