Our flight was at 13:15 from Nelspruit Kruger airport and so we decided to leave Skukuza via the Malelane gate which meant about 70 kms of driving in the Kruger Park. It was our last  opportunity for game viewing. We left at about 7am but it was already quite warm (25 degrees C) and game viewing was quite sparse until we got further south. While the game viewing did pick up, what also picked up was...

160 km to travel and it was predicted to get to 36 degrees C so we decided to head out early. We left by just after 6am. About 5 kms outside Letaba our 3 day elephant curse was finally broken and the rest of the day yielded 100s of elephants (literally). They must have gone on a conference or something and came back today. We saw a reasonable amount of game and birds from Letaba to...

We had elected to spend 4 nights at Letaba because it was Helen and my favourite camp. You might notice I used the past tense in that sentence.  While Letaba remains one of our favourite camps, Helen and I think Shingwedzi has now clearly surpassed it.  One of the reasons is that the game viewing has not been great.  We have had 2 full days in which we did not see any of the big 5...

It rained most of last night and at times quite heavily. It must have somehow affected the electricity at the camp as it tripped out a number of times during the night (we know because the aircon went off and on each time). When I woke and ventured out the water was making mini-dams inside the camp.  It clearly had rained quite a lot and as the soil is pretty hard, it wasn't soaking in at...

We had three nights at Shingwedzi and after the first evening drive of seeing the 4 cheetah we remembered why we like it so much.  There is significant game around the camp and the drives along the river always seem to yield a variety that you just don't see elsewhere.  There are also very few people so you are often by yourself at sightings. The last 2 mornings we have driven on the road heading north...

We woke early so that we could set off by no later than 6am as we were driving from Olifants to Shingwedzi. We figured it was better to get as much of the drive in as possible before it became to hot as it was predicted to hit 37 degrees C again. It was still relatively cool at 22 degrees C when we left Olifants. The terrain is mainly Mopani trees/bushes between Olifants and Letaba and...

We are staying at Olifants Rest Camp for 3 nights. It probably has the best view of any camp in the Kruger Park but unfortunately the game viewing around the camp isn't great.  I last stayed here with Michael in October 2017 and we had the same experience. On all the drives we have done so far (morning and evening) we have only seen hyena by way of predators (and we did see hyena during both...

Helen and I so enjoyed last years' 2 weeks in the Kruger Park that we decided to repeat it again this year.  It set the year up so well for us and we are trusting it does the same for 2019! We left yesterday morning at 10am to fly into Nelspruit Kruger airport. We arrived 30 minutes early (strong tail winds) and had our car and were out of the airport before we were originally meant...