Kruger National Park - See you soon!

I could not be more excited about the fact that this fall I will go to Kruger National Park in South Africa for the eighth time; some of those visits were only a day or two but many were for extended periods of time; wonderful time spent in this historic, sometime dangerous and always magical place. 

Historic because Stone Age hunters, a half a million years ago, roamed the very land that is today Kruger National Park.  Around fifty thousand years ago Bushmen or San People came through the area leaving behind cultural artifacts, archaeological sites, rock paintings and engravings that can still be seen today.  In more modern times Paul Kruger, who in 1898 was the President of the Republic, became deeply concerned about the dwindling wildlife in the area due to poaching, increased trade in skins and ivory and

Visitor to Kruger long ago

excessive hunting.  He established the land a game reserve and appointed James Stevenson-Hamilton as South Africa's first game warden.  Stevenson-Hamilton pushed for the status of National Park which was finally declared in 1926.  The Sabie Game Reserve and, further north, the Shingwedzi Game Reserve merged creating what is now Kruger National Park, named in honor of Paul Kruger.  Today this unfenced park joins lands in Zimbabwe and Mozambique to create a large area - the size of Switzerland - where wildlife can roam freely and migrate as they have since the historic times of the Bushmen.

Kruger is potentially dangerous because I drive myself amongst wildlife such as elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and hippo.  I walk in camps potentially sharing close proximity with nine species of deadly venomous snakes.  I grill dinner outside my hut or tent with the false pretense that the camps' fence

Potential danger - Rhino
On a road in Kruger

will keep out the hyena that would love to steal my steak or worse, aware also that an elusive leopard may have snuck past the gate guard to see what is on his dinner menu - me?  Or, leisurely I might walk in camp and find myself in a battle with a monkey who thinks my intentions are other than a mere walk.  Just this week two tourists, while driving, got into a tussle with an elephant.  The details are not clear as to exactly what happened although rumors of the tourists speeding and being stupid in front of the big bull elephant are circling.  Regardless of how it happened, the people ended up in the hospital and the rental car in the junk yard. 

The experience of being in Kruger is magical because I never feel more alive than when I am in Africa and particularly in Kruger National Park where I don't have to rely on a guide or a driver and can be completely on

Bushbuck sleeping outside my tent
Lower Sabie Camp - Kruger

my own time and schedule to sit at a watering hole for hours on end if I so choose.  I can pass much time simply watching to see what of the parks' 147 mammal species, 507 bird species or 114 reptile species might make an appearance before me.  Magical because I fall asleep listening to the true calls of the wild; a lion grunting his territorial sounds followed by hyena whoops calling in more of his clan to a potential kill; a fish eagle announcing the rise of the morning sun.  Magical because of the uncountable number of stars I see in the night sky above Punda Maria camp; seemingly I could reach up and grab a few to put away for future reference.  And magical because I can sit right on the porch of my accommodation on the perimeter of a fenced camp and watch a parade of animals wonder by; perhaps a lion or leopard kill just outside the fence beyond my porch, witnessed without so much as cranking a car or strapping on hiking boots.



I will spend eighteen glorious nights in Kruger this fall.  I will be traveling from south to north and back south again staying at many camps along the way including some of the smaller more secluded bush camps I have read so much about.  My life all year is hectic filled with schedules, demands, budgets, and people pulling in every direction.  But for those eighteen days and nights I will be doing what I choose as I enjoy Africa time.  And as everyone who has gone to Africa knows, the clock runs slower there.  Everything runs slower there in a delightful African way....  Things that seem so important before leaving home fly out of your mind like a feather in the wind once you set foot on her soil.

 

This may be my eighth time entering Kruger National Park but every time is new and I cannot wait to see what she shows me this time whether it be historical, a bit dangerous or more of that Kruger magic!

 

Olifants Camp, Kruger
Chilling

 

To plan your trip to Kruger National Park download a copy of Dana’s book "Traveling Africa, A Woman's Guide" today.  It is available for your Kindle, Kindle Apps, Nook or Nook Apps.  You will find an entire chapter dedicated to Kruger National Park.