As a destination however, it never fails to leave a lasting impression. I was fortunate to spend 10 glorious days in the Letaba rest camp recently, camping of all things! And what a great time I had!
To me, the Kruger Park is peace. It is tranquility. It is powerful, splendid, savage nature at it's very best. The African Bush in all it's majestic grandeur.
My love affair with the African Bush goes a whole lot deeper than merely saying "I like it here". It is just there - a very deep, very real, very integral part of who I am. The smells, the sounds, the ambience of the bush stirs something in my soul. Here, I feel at home and at peace. In the presence of something far greater than anything mortal homo sapiens can ever accomplish.
Have you ever ended up in the midst of a huge herd of buffalo, all around you, hundreds of them. All staring at you, those massive horns glinting in the late afternoon sun. There must have been 300 to 400 of them in this particular herd. I was still busy counting hoofs and dividing by four when it became time to hurry back to make gate closure time, so only a rough guestimate!If you watch some of the large old bulls, their faces and bodies covered in the scars of countless close encounters, calmly looking at you, communicating the clear message - I am a bad-ass bovine, don't even think of messing with me!
In order to really drink in the bush, one needs to become very quiet. Quiet enough that you can hear noises you might not hear otherwise. In order to do this, I take solitary drives and find quiet spots on roads less travelled. A lot of people tend to stick to the tar roads, so the dirt roads offer great opportunities.
Being totally quiet is a skill not many people have. Most people fidget and scratch and cannot keep quiet for longer than 30 seconds. This won't do. You need to teach yourself to keep absolutely immobile. This means even ignoring that pesky fly! Not even turning your head. Hardly breathing. Not looking around - the idea is to listen, not see.
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Then you start experiencing a whole new world. The total quiet sometimes. Bird calls. Animal noises. Insect noises. All those small noises that personifies the bush. Then you will learn what total relaxation really is. Try it sometime. You wil be amazed. Welcome to my world!
Of course, being the lover of big cats that I am, my all time favourite sigthing is of Africa's premier carnivore - Panthera Leo. King Lion. The fact that lions may not have the highest hunting success rate amongst Africa's carnivores, does not mean anything when you come face to face with one of these incredibly powerful beasts.
King Lion demands more respect than any other predator! His sheer size and tremendous power. That deep, deep roar that makes your very bones turn to jelly. Those yellow feline eyes that seem to stare right through you. All of this leaves you in no doubt - this is truly the King of the Beasts. 4 sightings in 10 days - not bad at all!
The game in the area around Letaba is prolific. We didn't see rhino - probably due to the very high elephant population. And of the secretive leopard we only saw spoor and drag marks where he dragged his prey accross one of the dirt roads.
Other than that, we saw practically anything you can think of. We are actually convinced that we saw every Steenbok in the park! Whilst in a hide at the nearby Engelhardt dam, a klipspringer actually jumped on a rock about 2 meters in front of us and stood staring at us for about 10 minutes! We even saw a porcupine. Hyena, elephant, kudu, nyala, zebra, blue wildebeest, baboons - do treat yourself and spend time watching these intelligent creatures, they are guaranteed to make you laugh - and lots and lots of others.
Bush Joke!
Lion smacked Hyena. Baboon was sitting in the tree, watching. Hyena, very disgusted, asked
Baboon, "Why didn't you help me?!" Upon which Baboon answered, "Well, you were giggling so much I thought you were winning!".
Elephant Dining
On the last night, an elephant decided to snack on the tree directly over my tent, which was pitched immediately next to the fence. At about midnight I woke from a strange noise. Whilst trying to figure out what this was, branches above me started breaking and tearing, leaves falling like rain on the tent. Then I heard an unmistakeable stomach rumble and immediately knew what was happening. Uncle Elephant stood right next to the fence and had his trunk over the fence, enjoying "my" tree! I was tempted to stick my head out the tent but sometimes it is better for sanity to prevail, so I just lay there and took it all in. Another unforgettable Kruger experience.
Good things
I must also congratulate the Letaba camp staff. It was clear that they work hard to maintain everything and keep it clean to make your stay as enjoyable as possible. We also ate at the restaurant and found the food to be of good quality and, if you don't order from the formal restaurant menu, you also get good value for your money. Whilst there my stretcher broke. We took it to the camp workshop to borrow their tools, fully intent on fixing it ourselves. The maintenance guy would have none of it, insisting that we leave it for him to fix, which he did that afternoon. An admirable job by a great guy doing something that is certainly not in his job description. Thank you Simon!
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Surfing Tips
Yes, we did that too! You wake up one morning at about 3, and realise your hip is quite ready to be amputated. Then you realise the blow up matress has ceased to offer support. Deflated. Gone with the wind, so to speak...
So we tried to see where it is leaking. And eventually stumbled upon the brilliant idea of inflating it, and taking it to the swimming pool. Sounds good right? Ah well, it did at the time. So here I am, standing on the matress in the shallow end of the pool, trying to get as much of the matress under water as possible. Let me tell you, this is NOT a stable platform. So my first effort was an admirable one! For a non-surfer. Then we turned it around, and tried round number 2.
And that was more or less where the whole surfing theory went out the window. The matress suddenly got a life of it's own and shot out from under me! At that point in time the matress had something in common with one specific superhero - the dude in the blue suit who wears his red underpants over it - you guessed it - Superman. You know, the part about being "faster than a speeding bullet"....
According to bystanders, it was not a very elegant thing. It seems I did almost a full somersault! Do you have any idea when last I managed to do a somersault?? The landing was the problem. Especially the bit when the knee hit the bottom first. Left me limping for 3 days!
Moral of the story - when your blow up matress deflates - just go buy a new one! Please. Or borrow a stretcher, like I did. Which then also breaks.... At least nobody said life in the African Bush is easy!
Bad things
Unfortunately, one always finds the odd person in the Kruger Park that really ought to rather stay home. These are people with little or no love for nature, and little or no respect for self or others.
Let's just refer to them as idiots. Total, blithering idiots.
They are the ones who drive around at speeds way exceeding the speed limits. I always wonder if they go home and say they hardly saw anything? Fancy that! Ever noticed how brilliant the natural camouflage of the animals work? Trust me, the odds of you seeing anything at speeds over 30 to 40 kilometres per hour are practically zero, unless they stand almost in the road with a sign around their necks - HERE I AM!
The idiots are the ones driving around with loud music playing. Or radios and televisions blaring in camp at night. Partying till what time. Disturbing everybody's peace. They are the ones who litter in this beautiful place, who would not think of discarding bottles and other rubbish out of their cars. I know - I picked up some of their rubbish! They are the ones who would charge in upon your sighting, talking and making noise.
In short, they are the people who ought to never come here. Who ought to stay home and make a nuisance of themselves where they can only upset their neighbours!
Please, when you visit this beautiful place, have respect for others. Have respect for the animals. It is not a big ask. If you cannot - what are you doing there in the first place?
In Conclusion
Letaba (meaning River of Sand) rest camp has a great atmosphere, by and large peaceful and quiet. Lots of large trees -Sausage Trees, Apple Leaf, Natal Mahogany, Sycamore Fig - which makes for much shade with large lawns. The camping area is well kept and clean with very good facilities. If you sit still long enough you will soon be approached by one of the many bushbuck residing in camp, coming to see if you have anything to eat.
When you take a stroll through the camp your ears will be subjected to a virtual Babel of international languages. Dutch seemed prevalent, and there were also Germans, French, Americans, British - name it!
Quite wonderful to hear and it bears worthy testimony to the incredible value of the Kruger National Park as one of South Africa's premier tourist destinations. See you there!
