Despite the encouragement from Brett and other drinking neighbours to leave at 4:30am because we would see nightjars on the road, H and I got up slightly later than previous day but still managed to leave at around 5:15am. We have gotten more efficient and into our rhythm. It was overcast which is never great for birding and the bush was very quiet for the first few kilometers while the sun was coming up. The sunrise was spectacular though.

The plan was to head east again but to just visit the two dams on the road and then to turn back to camp again. Coffee stops at each dam. We had noticed yesterday on way back that the second dirt road in the area was now open down to the Transport Dam. The first dam though is the Shitlhave. Not much action there except some hippos have a morning argument. After finishing our coffee we headed off to the Transport Dam. On route though we noticed that one of the other dirt roads was open. It is basically a short cut off the tar road and we thought we should take it.

It started off somewhat rutted and we met one car coming in the opposite direction and so assumed he had come from the other side. We then got to a guy in a Toyota Urban Cruiser who started to reverse toward us so we let him reverse and assumed he didn’t want to go further because of the potholed road. When we got to where he was at, we realised why. This road was now a 4×4 route and not a standard road. No chance anyone without a proper 4×4 was going to make it through. Fortunately, we have Landy and this was really only a minor challenge. We really couldn’t understand how KNP could have opened the road because if this was what they considered passable for open, we would hate to know what the closed roads look like! But when we encountered the grader that we had to bushwhack to get around, we started to think that the road should not have been opened but someone must have moved the closure. When we got to the end of the loop, our conclusion was confirmed as that side was firmly closed and we had to drive around the closure to exit back onto the main road. Unexpected 4x4ing but probably the days highlight.

Onward we went to the Transport Dam which turned out to be very productive for birding in that we saw a rarity for the Kruger Park – a rufous-bellied heron. Was also a lifer for Helen – call it an anniversary present for her as today is a our 33rd wedding anniversary. Talking about lifers – H now has 6 lifers for the trip. She is now closing in on my son (S) as she is now on 529 lifers and he is on 540.

We headed back for a late breakfast and then spent the balance of the day in the camp until just after 4pm when we headed out again to the Mestel Dam which is north west from the camp and on one of the only open dirt roads in the area. This time it was definitely open and newly graded. The dam was a hive of activity with elephant and waterbuck there when we arrived and the birds kept coming and going as well. We have added significantly to our trip list and I am now on 174 unique birds for the trip.

Dinner of braai’d chicken wings, venison sausage, sweet potato and mushroom washed down with a nice Kudu lager, G&T for H and some pinot noir. The other good news for the day was that some more roads and bridges are being re-opened and so now Satara camp is accessible from Skukuza again. I went shortly after we got the news to see if we could change our reservation and luckily we have managed to do exactly that and now we have some nights at Satara camp as well.

Until tomorrow … P & H

PS: Unfortunately no entertaining neighbours tonight as both sets have left and no one took their place.

Gates open at 4:30am until the end of the month. Sunrise is only at 5:30am so that means it is still pretty dark at 4:30am. We believe you need some light to see the game and the birds aren’t really active either until around sunrise. We planned to head out at 5am but we were a little disorganized and only managed to get out at 5:10am.

Our order of seeing animals this morning was (1) elephant (2) leopard (3) hyena. We hadn’t even had a chance to see impala. The leopard was a fantastic sighting. On the side of the road and then he walked down the road and scent marked a few bushes on the side of the road before finally walking 90 degrees from the road into the bush and vanished. One of those Kruger moments – pure timing and a special sighting. Leopards are probably my favourite animal to see in the game park. We did see 4 of the Big 5 today – just missing rhino.

One of the ‘problems’ we have at the moment because of the floods are that no dirt roads are open (or very few to be precise). The flooding has damaged many of the roads and they need to re-graded to enable them to be safe for tourist travel. In addition, some of the bridges are washed away. So if you stay in the south and east of the park (like we are doing) then you really only have two tar roads you can drive which for us is east toward Mozambique and then south down to Berg-en-Dal camp. That is what we did today. It is a long drive though and as you have to drive there and back with no alternative way to return to the camp, we only got back after 1pm.

The other ‘problem’ is since everyone is restricted to the same two roads, the volume of cars and traffic is much higher than usual. In addition, at any predator sighting you are competing with the OSVs (open safari vehicles) who collect guests from outside the park and bring them in for a day sighting. The drivers are generally tip remunerated so there is obviously a big desire to ensure that their passengers see the game and it doesn’t really matter whether other people (like us) get blocked. There were two sighting of lions today where that occurred. At the 2nd sighting (we didn’t even bother to stay to try and see them) there were around 12 OSVs parked off and blocking any viewing really from other cars. To be fair, all the drivers we have engaged with have been very polite and pleasant and they have been very disciplined in not blocking the traffic but it still is something we don’t really experience in the north of the park (and hence why we prefer the north). Even a sighting of Bateleur with a kill had about 10 cars backed up.

We had some drama in the camp tonight when war broke out. It was a trifecta. A troop of vervet monkeys was around and one of them decided to chase and catch a squirrel. Incredibly it managed to do that and I thought it was going to eat the squirrel but it basically traumatized it and then let it go. Then it re-caught it again (or another one). H was not impressed and jumped to the defense of the squirrels. Then when the vervet monkeys left, a woodlands kingfisher (yes that’s a bird for all the non-birders reading the blog) started to attack the squirrels. Definitely felt like they were being ganged up on!

Finally, I forgot to tell you yesterday about our neighbour. On arrival back from his evening game drive, he comes over and introduces himself and then I get his life history including relatively recent divorce, career, his camera equipment value, that he believes you must be out of the gate at 4:30am, that he has seen wild dog everyday he has been here etc etc. Between last night and tonight I am not sure there is anything more we need to know about Brett. When he exhausts conversation with us, he heads over to our other neighbour (lets call them the heavy drinkers and late eaters) and updates them on his days sightings and why they should have driven behind him as they would have seen more if they did (not kidding – actual overhead conversation). Other neighbours are quite chilled from alcohol consumption (drinking wine in gin glasses). They only started their fire when H and I were already sitting down to eat. And boy was it a big fire. Must have had 20 pieces of wood on it (not exaggerating). It is 8:50pm and they are just eating now. At 8pm when H and came inside the chalet that fire was still going strong and nowhere near ready to braai on.

Saying of day (repeated numerous times by H and me) … “Restricted Kruger, even with annoying OSVs, is better than no Kruger” …

P & H

The plan this morning was a quick bird walk around the property and then breakfast and then head out. It was a cooler morning (around 19 degrees C) and so it was a lovely walk around the country estate before breakfast. We added a few more birds to our trip list. Breakfast was a full buffet with the one of the biggest omelettes I have ever had. Glad we did the 30+ min walk before breakfast! We were on the road by 8:30am and we have a 6-hour drive ahead to get to Pretoriouskop in the Kruger Park.

The drive took us through Krugersdorp then round the outskirts of Johannesburg, Centurion, Pretoria, eMalahleni (old name Witbank), Mbombela (old name Nelspruit) & White River. The drive went very smoothly and the road condition is very good most of the route. Some potholes on the road from Mbombela to White River and then onto the Numbi gate but generally the roads were in good condition.

No ironic songs today unfortunately because H and I actually only listened to the ‘Rest is Politics‘ podcast. My favourite line in today’s podcast was ‘It is also best to get as close as possible to the truth’ – it seems actually just being truthful isn’t something that politicians do (not that any of us are surprised by that).

We stopped at Mbombela for groceries for the next 10 days. It is incredible how the town has grown over the years. H and I have been coming to Kruger Park for our entire married life and when we first visited Mbombela it was just a town. Now it is actually a city with multiple malls. It is now home to around 1 million people. We headed for Woolworths and found a really good / large one. It was then lunch time and that meant one thing for me – KFC – my first one in about 18 months! It has become somewhat of a tradition for H and I to have KFC before we enter the Kruger Park.

We have driven past numerous school children the last few days and today was no exception. They were coming out of school just as we finished shopping and all along the route into the park we passed scholars. It was very pleasing to see how together most of them were and how many books they were lugging around. What did surprise us though was the number of students who were wearing jerseys (or jumpers dependent on where you live in the world) and some even with jackets (and/or leggings). It was 32 degrees today!

We arrived the Numbi Gate at about 3pm and after completing the entry formalities we headed to the camp which is only 8 kms from the gate. The park is incredibly green and lush and we only saw impala between the gate and the camp. We weren’t bothered by that as it was afternoon and hot and not the best game viewing time anyway. We will see what tomorrow brings.

A beer, a braai, a glass of wine (or two) and the sounds of the bush … what more could one want to finish off the day.

Until tomorrow … P & H

PS: Shout out to our Edinburgh based reader for calling the blog ‘Buzzing Temple Travels’ … might have to rename the blog!

As we get older it seems that we are starting to wake before sunrise – which was the case today. The gates only open at 7am in the park and we planned to leave as they opened. Waking up early gave us an opportunity to have some coffee and breakfast for me (too early for H) before we packed up the car and headed out. We decided to do the slightly slower option and to drive through the park heading north before exiting at the north (Lilydale) gate. We stopped at the bird hide (Stofdam Bird Hide) which if you can translate Afrikaans doesn’t seem promising as the literal translation is Dust Dam. However, while there was only a little water in the dam, it was right in front of the hide and the bird life was prolific. In addition, we saw jackal, warthog, springbok and wildebeest come to drink in the two occasions we visited it. No lifers this am, but a reasonable number of new birds for the trip.

We had a 6-hour drive once we exited the park as we continue to head north. The route took us through Kimberley, Warrenton, Christana, Bloemhof and Wolmaranstad. Probably not places many people have been to. This is diamond mining territory and all of these towns were either founded or exist because of diamond mining or the diamond trade. We had a bit of irony today because as we entered Kimberley the song ‘Del a Rey‘ which is about a Boer who helped defend and free Kimberley when it was under siege from the British. And then one of the next songs was ‘Diamonds as your skin‘. As you can see, the irony was not lost on us. Warrenton also has significance for the family as my Dad lived there as a child and (if my memory serves me correctly, he started school there). Finally, Bloemhof won ‘Dorp of the Year 2025’ (for foreign readers that means ‘Town of the year’. Why was hard to tell when we drove through it though H said ‘You can see they’re trying’. The fact that they had a 6-lane main road (not kidding) was what I couldn’t get over.

After Wolmaranstad the roads became a little bit sketchy. The R30, R507 and then N14. The R30 and R507 had potholes galore. Waze had the occasional warning but in reality it could have done it the reverse way around and just warned you when there weren’t potholes. Then the N14 was like riding a roller coaster except I was at the steering wheel. I didn’t know that tar roads could be corrugated but clearly they can. We crossed from N Cape into North West province and then into Gauteng and then back into NW again and then back into Gauteng again. The N14 in Gauteng was decidedly better than the portion in NW province. Not sure either provincial government is very organised but seemingly Gauteng is doing better simply by looking at the state of the roads.

We arrived at Mount Grace Hotel & Spa around 3pm which turned out to be perfect timing because just before 4pm a thunderstorm rolled through. It was a pretty impressive display of thunder and lightening. I love thunderstorms on a hot summers day. It brought back childhood memories for me. H & I stood outside on our stoep (another one of those unique SA words) and watched and listened. At one point the thunder was so loud we both jumped. As fast as it arrives, it also goes and within an hour it had cleared and H and I could do a walk around the whole country estate and adding to the bird list (which now stands at 83).

Dinner in the restaurant along with some very jovial and loud conference attendees. It wasn’t disturbing or distracting – it was just lively!

Until tomorrow … P & H

Word of the day: “Petrichor” … for those of you who don’t know what that means here is the dictionary definition ‘a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather’.

Bird of the day: Pied Crow … I just did some quick google research and I see there are numerous studies saying that the population of pied crows in the Northern Cape has increased rapidly over the last few years – it was obvious from how many we saw today.

We had breakfast at the guesthouse at 7am. There was only one lady doing everything at breakfast – she served and cooked the breakfast for us. Not quick because of that but we were nevertheless on the road by 7:45am. Waze told us 8 hours 40 minutes and 750kms to Mokala NP. It was projecting we would arrive 4:30pm. As it turned out, we did arrive around that time after allowing for a (single) stop for re-fueling and the bathroom.

Besides the first hour after leaving Clanwilliam, the drive was very easy with very little traffic and an excellent road most of the time. Only the last hour or so of the drive did the traffic (and trucks) pick up but it was pretty manageable. Driving through the Karoo is an enigma. Firstly, you wonder at the vastness and the views. Then you wonder at how anything could survive living there (especially as temperatures peaked at 40 degrees today) and then you wonder why anyone might want to live there. It was definitely one of those drives today.

We went through towns such as Vanrhynsdorp, Nieuwoudtville, Calvinia, Williston (which AI described as picturesque – AI clearly as a different definition to me), Carnarvon (both H and I had that third thought here about why anyone would live here), Vosburg, Britstown, Strydenberg (named apparently because they were fighting after a farm – ‘stry’ means fight in Afrikaans) and Hopetown (where two of the largest diamonds were found). H read the history of each place for us which is a great way to make long drives interesting. At one point, we had a song entitled ‘Color of Green‘ playing which is about the green harvest fields and all we could see was brown Karoo shrubs. It couldn’t have been a greater contrast.

We arrived at the Mokala NP gate and had a very warm welcome from the gate attendant. He was extremely pleasant and helpful. I guess he doesn’t have many people entering but he definitely made the most of it with our arrival. It was about a 5 km drive to the main reception and after checking in we offloaded. The parking area is a reasonable walk from the chalets so they provide a little cart you can use to load up and take your things to the chalet.

By 5pm we were ready for a quick game drive. The park has lots of buck (springbok, gemsbok, hartebees, kudu, impala), giraffe, warthog, zebra, wildebees & buffalo. It really is plentiful and easy to see. The birdlife is also amazing. We went to a bird hide and at the turn to the hide we saw a lifer – Melodious Lark. At the bird hide we saw another lifer – Black-faced Waxbill. I need 6 more lifers to get to 600 Southern African birds … could I get there this trip?

Only thing to do for dinner in a national park is a braai and that is exactly what we did. While we braai’d, H and I managed to see a number of new trip birds and our trip list is now at 53 birds which given we basically spent the day driving today is a pretty good total. Dinner was lamb rump with salad and toasted (on the braai) leftover bread from yesterday’s guesthouse gift. Wash that down with a beer, a G&T and some wine and our night was done.

We regret not booking here two nights as it has really exceeded our expectations (though not sure what our expectations were to be honest). It would have been nice to have had a day to explore and enjoy the park but instead we will be on the road again tomorrow.

Until then …

P & H

PS: If you wonder where the word of the day fits in, notice the thunderclouds in the pictures … some big drops of rain happened from time to time as we drove and then also at Mokala this afternoon and evening.

PPS: Thanks for the blog readers who very kindly today affirmed how much they enjoy reading them … your feedback is always appreciated.

It feels like ages ago that I last wrote a blog. Since then the suggestions (read criticism) of my travel blogging haven’t ceased from the family and some closer friends. Now I’m going to have to try and incorporate everything into this road trip blog. It’s January and so it is our usual ‘head to a game park’ time. Last year we decided that we should have our own car in the Kruger Park. Google tells me that the shortest route to get to Kruger from home would be 1870 kms. It means the usual 2-weeks in the Kruger trip is now slightly longer to allow for the time to get there and back.

The other ‘small’ (read sizeable) problem we have encountered is that the Kruger Park suffered massive floods last week. Currently only 5 of the 12 main rest camps are open in the Kruger Park with bridges and roads washed away. The Kruger Park is the same size (roughly) as Wales, Slovenia or New Jersey state in the US. But there is really only one main north to south road and that road crosses many rivers and those rivers flooded and have damaged the infrastructure. They are estimating that it is billions of Rands of damage. There is no timeline at this point as to when they might open roads, other camps etc.

The slightly bigger issue was that we had booked camps that were either directly hit by flooding (Letaba), had their electricity knocked out (Satara) or became inaccessible because of roads and bridges being washed away (Mopani, Shingwedzi and Punda Maria). Toward the end of last week I thought we should move our booking into southern camps rather which we knew were open and fortunately managed to do that. Still a few days before we get there so you knows what might happen in those 3 days.The good news is that we are on route and will make the most of it even though we won’t get to the camps we really wanted to go to. It will probably just make us want to do it next year instead!

We left home today around 3pm. You might wonder why so late. The reason … mother-in-laws 85th birthday today and I am still working hard to stay on her good side! Happy birthday again from us. We had a celebratory lunch today but we wanted to start our journey to at least cut off a few hundred kilometers today. As we never believe the best route is the fastest one and that part of the enjoyment is the journey, we are taking a marginally longer route but hopefully more enjoyable than the main N1 road. We headed north up the west coast today. That route even had my daughter confused but the purpose was two-fold, find a good spot about 2-2.5 hours outside of Cape Town and hopefully do some birding on route as well. Clanwilliam met both criteria and that is where we are staying the night.

One small detour on route in that we were trying to add Protea Canary to our bird lists and there is a reliable spot about 10kms short of Clanwilliam. We spent an hour looking but to no avail. The 38 degree C temperature and very windy conditions probably didn’t help our search. H did manage to add a lifer (Lesser Kestrel) while we were driving 120 km/h though so it wasn’t an entirely unfruitful day.

We arrived at 6pm at our guesthouse – Rosenhof Guesthouse. They upgraded us into a 2-bedroom cottage (not that we need all the space) but it is nice to be able to spread out. It is situated quite near the river so we did a quick, short bird walk along the river and added a few birds to our trip list. They had left a freshly baked loaf of bread in the cottage with apricot jam and so we felt it would be ungracious not to have a slice of that (as we had no plans to eat dinner after the celebratory lunch). Not much else to do here but write a blog and then head to bed. We need to be up early as we have a long drive ahead tomorrow.

P & H