This was our 18th trip to Kruger NP in 18 years, although we haven’t been every year and been twice in a couple of years. We did one of our fly in trips to Kruger Mpumalanga International (KMI) airport, arriving at lunch time on the 1st of June, picked up our hired car, provisioned at the P&P in White River and we were in the Park via the Phabeni Gate by mid afternoon. We took a slow drive down the S3 and S7 and arrived at Pretoriuskop (our first camp) late afternoon. Our accommodation for the 3 nights was an odd 2 bedroomed dual rondaval (with the separate entrance bathroom between the 2 bedrooms) in the old part of the camp. After settling in, we took a late afternoon stoll around the camp perimeter.
Hover over the thumbnails for the caption and click for a larger image.
The next morning was spent atlasing pentad 2510_3115 (which includes the camp and the more south-eastern roads) for the Sabap2 project. We recorded 61 species in the pentad but being winter, the migrants weren’t here. Here are some of the birds that we picked up.
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As we have done a few times previously, Cassia and I cashed in some Voyager miles and flew up to the Kruger National Park for a week at the end of January. The only downside of flying up is having a low slung rental car instead of your own vehicle, otherwise it’s great – up on a Saturday and back the following Sunday with 8 nights in the Park. We decided to kick off with a few nights in Pretoriuskop Camp because, at this time of the year in the Park, many of the trees are at their best against stormy black skies and the Pretoriuskop area has some of the best trees in Kruger. We arrived at Pretoriuskop Camp mid afternoon (a little later than usual) on a hot Saturday as we had accessed the Park via the R40, Hazyview and Phabeni Gate route after collecting some provisions in White River. After a “cuppa” and with the storm clouds building, we decided to go and have a late afternoon sundower at Mestel dam, where we have seen huge herds of Buffalo on previous trips. On the dirt access road to the dam, however, a huge storm hit us and with lightening bolts striking all around and a river of water roaring down the road we decided to beat a hasty retreat back to camp before we got bogged down or stranded. When we arrived back in Camp, we were greeted by the sight of Impala sheltering from the storm under the eves of the chalets.
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Pretoriuskop Camp has the oldest (1954) and loveliest swimming pool in Kruger with natural granite rock sliding into tepid water surrounded by a variety of shady iconic lowveld trees. Cassia and I had a daily swim there in the afternoons, even completing a few lengths of rusty breaststroke and in Cassia’s case crawl and butterfly. It was great to wander around the Camp photographing birds, trees & plants.
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After only a few days back at work after Easter we were off again! Some time previously, we had planned a trip with John & Gillian Wall to Doug Starling’s “Highland Run” on the Spekboom River in the Mount Anderson Catchment Reserve, near Lydenberg, for some dry fly action for a few days followed by a week in the Kruger NP.
Our 1st stop-over for the night was, as it often is, at the Karoo NP, one of the highlights being a pair of very active Cape rock elephant shrews (Elephantulus edwardii)
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We also had an over-night stop-over at the “Trout Lodge” near Dullstroom where we had a crack in the main dam for about an hour late afternoon without success unlike our previous visit in 2005 when we had a great session late afternoon with dries during a mayfly hatch.
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“Highland Run” on the Spekboom River in the Mount Anderson Catchment Reserve is the creation of Doug Starling and consists of 2 well appointed lodges, well separated from each other, on about 4-5 kms of river with runs and pools crafted by low stacked rock weirs. There are good sized Rainbows and Browns to be taken on dry flies and nymphs and always the chance of a trophy fish. Conditions were excellent and we had some wonderful sessions producing a number of good fish.
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