“Just kidding”. And suddenly, I feel I might be safer outside the vehicle than in.

Oily antelopes

We press on. It’s the usual line-up at Lower Sabie when we stop for lunch, but then a fish eagle swoops towards the dammed part of the river and a magnificent waterbuck bull wanders into view. As their name would suggest, they are aquatic antelopes, built for moving through marshy areas where lions find it difficult to follow, and to add to their defense they release an oily substance when they die which makes their meat taste awful. It sounds like a fullproof plan, until we learn that they are the favourite prey of crocodiles.

The problem with only doing day tours is that you quickly become bored with what excites everyone else. Yes, another giraffe. Oh my, more zebras. It would be no problem at all if they were doing something interesting, something photo-worthy, but they’re not being dramatists today. Still, a cluster of cars never ceases to grab my attention, and we approach one slowly when the girl from the dorm tells Sophia to stop. “There’s something down there”. Along with everyone else, I peer down a steep drop on the right side into a dried up riverbed. There is indeed something moving down there. And then, I gasp. It’s the best view of a leopard I’ve ever had. It doesn’t last ten seconds like in Sri Lanka, and it’s not hundreds of meters away like yesterday. It is in this moment that any past feelings of regret over bringing my zoom lens rather than a smaller one on this trip are banished. There are few sights more beautiful than a fully grown leopard in its natural habitat, though a poacher in a body bag might qualify.

Crashing into a tree with lions nearby

Despite that high point, we’re not quite done with Kruger yet. With the girl from my dorm, her dad and his Thai girlfriend, we go out for a stroll one morning to a viewpoint, and tonight we’ll be in the park itself. Nothing they haven’t seen appears, except for a dramatic view of the river, but I break off for a minute and find a flock of shiny sunbirds, one green, one turquoise, one black and red, and I’m frantically taking ID shots then ticking them off in the book lest I forget. We have some spaghetti cooked by the Thai girl that night, a sort of fusion cuisine judging by all the spice in it – I cannot show my appreciation enough, especially given my nonexistent cooking skills. The night before this, we sit on the rooftop terrace watching the moon turn blood red, a full lunar eclipse. It’s a slow show, but good things come to those who wait and one might think the apocalypse were starting. I’ve no doubt some loonies were making such claims, but we’re all alive as far as I can tell. If this is heaven, I sure expected the Wifi to work better.

Night drives can only be done in park vehicles as an anti-poaching measure, but the monopoly has predictable outcomes; the trucks are more like open-air buses, and for the guides being friendly is a mere choice. Luckily, we get one of the good ones, smiley, helpful and full of information. Unfortunately, we don’t get a seat with a spotlight and, at first, those who do are not exactly adept at using them. Additionally, they are a little introverted about shouting to the driver to stop but as soon as I spot some eyeshine, I decide to lead by example – and it pays off, for from that moment on everyone else is a bit more confident. The tourists quickly learn where to illuminate and the guide’s not a half bad pair of eyes, and it’s a good night for everyone.

My target is some of the smaller animals, given my inability to let the whole honey badger debacle go. Eyeshine bobbing around the trees means bushbabies, which the guide isn’t so keen to stop for for some reason, but she does so for everything else. A couple of civets and a wild cat appear in full view, mostly on my side of the truck, and hares run along the road. More familiar animals behave unusually, such as giraffes sleeping upright and a hippo jogging miles from water, but the highlight is no doubt the lions, themselves far more active. The cubs are full of energy, while the lionesses save theirs, looking on as little Simba lands on them. The first pride we come to is a little off-road… now, I can’t give too many details here either since we agreed with the guide that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but once we’re done we sort of reverse into a tree. OK, no damage done, these trucks are hard like nails. And then, the whole bumper falls off. “OK, I’m going to get it, keep your eyes out” says the guide. That pride is a few hundred meters away, but she calmly exits, trusting a few tourists with spotlights with her life, hoists the three meter steel beam, opens the door and asks us to place it on the aisle. I really do hope her boss didn’t notice afterwards!

Reflections

At many points in South Africa, I asked myself if I had made the right move coming here before being able to rent a car. Yes I had, said the experiences in Kruger. Seeing the cheetahs unobstructed rather than through the windows of two rows of cars, being able to clearly admire the leopard down in the ditch than peering over the edge, the facts the guides shared, room to stand and move around, having multiple pairs of eyes keeping watch, not having to worry about punctures or breaking down as we trundled down 4×4 tracks… now, one can certainly argue that I could have driven myself there and then gone on a guided safari, but that’s not how I work. My last night in the dorm was shared with a group of travellers who were definitely more tight with their money than other people I’d met – as a result, there was no way I could convince them to ditch a car they’d already paid for hiring that day and experience Kruger from a jeep. I will freely admit that I’ve been the penny-pincher myself, and will continue to be so, and I likely would not have splashed out the extra cash if I hadn’t had to. You can’t always tell which expenses are worth it, whether it’s before or after you buy, but in this case there was no doubt. I will be sure to cover more tips and information on visiting Kruger in an upcoming post, but for now I will say this; talk to the owner and get yourself on that jeep!