Kruger

Days 4-10

We stayed at Belvedere Lodge, in a town called Malelane, which is on the Crocodile River (which is in Kruger Park).  We literally looked into Kruger Park !  From our lodge balcony, we saw Elephant, Hippos, water buks, Crocodiles, and lots of other wildlife (ie, birds).  A fantastic location.  We got to know the host really well (Edmond) - he gave us quite a few rides into town / restaurants.



Belvedere was a fantastic Lodge.  A little quirky, built to look like an old country estate, but we loved it.  And apart for the 2.3 km walk to town, its location was perfect !  Set amongst large / luxury homes and a perfect view of the river / Kruger !

Edmond introduced us to Charles, a school teacher come tour / safari guide.  we used him on a number of days to travel around the area :

Day 1 - morning safari of Kruger park
Day 2 - afternoon safari of Kruger park
Day 3 - Drive to Hazyview (adventure / fun for kids and Elephant Sanctuary)
Day 4 - rest day
Day 5 - Drive to Swaziland
Day 6 - Self drive (we had our rental cars by then) to Nelspruit and Barberton
Day 7 - we drive to Escourt

In Kruger was saw lots of animals, even (maybe) a leopard during the night safari. In the beginning, it was hard to spot any animals, but once we saw the first Elephants, then there were lots of spottings !  Lots of Elephants, Rhino, Cape Buffalo, Giraffe, some Zebra, Lions (yes, we say two sets of lions, although there were sleepy and not moving much).

Some Mongoose, monkeys and lots of birds !  Hyena, lots and lots of Impalas (food for the predators) and other goat like and pig like creatures.

Some of the sample shots of the animals we saw :











Kruger park was started (formally) in 1926, and is around 20,000 kms squared (Belgium is 30,000 kms and Netherland is 40,000 kms).  Around 450 km high and at times 50 kms wide.  The animals have been living in relative peace for almost 100 years !  Although, there are current issues with poachers killing Rhinos for their horns . . .



In Hazyview, some of us went quad bike riding.  We went to an Elephant Sanctuary , where they rescue elephants.  Some were so large - over 3 metres tall !  Then Danielle and Emma wanted to go on a Canopy ride (riding very high flying foxes over 1.2 kms long !)



My impressions of Malelane :  not really set up for tourists, especially those without a car. Many locals, walking on the roads and in the shopping centres, No taxis or public transport for outsiders (local taxis are not for tourists).  Very few restaurants.  No tour operators (we found one on the last day).  We did a little research, but obviously not enough !  But, we made it work and it was fantastic.

By the way, we decided NOT to go to Mozambique.  Mozambique is only a hour or two down the road.  Problem was that with the Christmas holidays approaching, many Mozambicans were returning home for the holidays.  And there were many.  Cars, buses, with FULLY overloaded trailers were driving towards the boarder.  We were told that there would be long delays at the border.

Problem with these way overloaded cars was they they often had accidents.  They overheated, the drivers were tired, the trailers would lose a tire, etc. . . we saw some of these.



From now on, if we see an overloaded trailer, we will say : they are going to Mozambique !