Friday/Saturday/Sunday 17th-19th May 2024

Who hasn’t heard of Kruger National Park, the largest national park in Africa and the oldest in South Africa? The iconic wilderness region is situated in the north-eastern part of South Africa, covering around two million hectares, making it a little smaller than Belgium!

When well-known author, and friend of Dave’s, Tony Park visited Wagga in March this year, Dave and I went along to the Museum of The Riverina to hear his fabulously interesting book talk. Tony was visiting Wagga as part of his Australia-wide month-long book tour to promote his books which include 21 novels set in Africa and ten non-fiction biographies.

The morning following the book talk, we also had breakfast with Tony, and his lovely wife Nicola who divide their time between Sydney and southern Africa. We got to chat that morning a little bit about our (then planned) trip to Africa. They both got me pretty excited about the adventures that could lie ahead for us and especially about the African wildlife, which they both passionately support though their involvement in a number of philanthropic animal support organisations. They even invited us to stay with them!

And so, after saying goodbye to Will and Emma at Cape Town airport, we boarded our plane for Nelspruit Airport, which is about 500km north of Johannesburg and around 100km south of where Tony and Nicola live, close to the Paul Kruger Gate, one of 10 entrances into the Kruger National Park.

Given Will has been to 71 countries, you would think I would be used to saying goodbye to him, but as usual, it wasn’t easy! We had such fun travelling with him and Emma… they are fabulous travel companions – relaxed, fun, easy going and always willing to give things a go. As I mentioned before, if you get a chance to travel with your adult kids, I highly recommend it.

The flight to Nelspruit took a little more than two hours. This time we flew with Airlink, and similar to our experience with South African Airlines, we were very impressed with them. A simple, efficient and polite check-in, on time flight, no lost baggage – and even a reasonable chicken sandwich during the flight.

We’d had an early start on Friday morning as W+E’s flight left an hour before ours, at 8am. They flew to Johannesburg, where they enjoyed a four-hour private car tour of Joeys, driven around by the son of a longtime friend of Dave’s, before they flew out to London on Friday evening. Needless to say, I was pretty weary, especially after navigating and driving near to the airport to fill the car up after we dropped Will and Emma in the departures area… all before dawn, and in the rain! I think I slept for 90 per cent of the flight, but quickly woke up and got enthusiastic as we landed into Nelspruit (now known as Mbombela), then easily picked up our bags and the hire car (a lovely, very new Volkswagen Polo sedan), and began the drive towards Kruger Gate Hotel, where we had booked for the night.

The flight landed around lunchtime, and even though I had eaten the sandwich on the plane, we were not long into the drive and started searching for a lunch venue. The world-wide sign for hygienic, reasonably priced, toilet-provided, but not nutritionally sound, restaurant came into view as we entered the town of Hazyview.

Yep, you guessed it… the Golden Arches – McDonalds!

Should I be writing a McDonalds tour Blog – hmm perhaps not, but this is my third McDonalds visit in three weeks 😉 Who says poor Dave never gets to eat what he wants!

I enjoyed (??) my Big Mac (I reckon they put more special sauce on here then they do in Australia) and Dave his two hamburgers and a chocolate sundae. With a drink each, total cost around A$9. It might not be nutritionally sound, but at least it was cheap! Can I say the service was excellent, the facilities second to none, and their online and app ordering system worked more efficiently than in Australia.

By the time we reached the hotel, I was ready for a nap, but not before booking a post-dinner leg and head massage and enjoying a long soak in the large, deep bathtub. This hotel is reasonably fancy and definitely the most up-market accommodation during this trip. We often take the ‘feast and famine’ approach to choosing holiday accommodation, swinging widely between options that just meet our basic needs and the other end of the scale where we feel like royalty. This was more on the royalty end of the scale, with a bed turn down service and a lovely garden view. With both dinner and breakfast included, plus a morning game drive – it was actually quite reasonable value, though we opted out of the game drive – I just couldn’t face a 4am wake-up!

The promise of a buffet breakfast, however, did get me out of bed by 8am. Who doesn’t love a decent self-serve, full-spread breakfast, complete with both omelette and pancake/waffle station? As expected, I overdid it, and even needed a post-breakfast lie down 😉 before we packed up and checked out – then drove the short distance (2km) to the Paul Kruger Gate, one of 10 entrances into the National Park. Here entry formalities were required, with proof of identification, a detailed form completed, and 952 Rand paid (for two). It’s probably easier and cheaper to get into some countries, and again the rate was much cheaper for locals (200 Rand), but again I am supportive of this approach as it makes it affordable for tourists internal to South Africa.

We drove around the park for about two hours, before departing via one of the other ‘gates’ further south of where we had entered. Phabeni Gate, which was only about 10-minute drive from Hazyview.

What a fabulous couple of hours of safari-ing this was, with sightings of so many animals!

I kept a list as we drove and at times struggled to simultaneously wind my window down, take notes, take photos and contain my excitement, as we regularly spotted wildlife. In total on Saturday, we saw: Baboon; Monkey; Mongoose; Impala; Zebra; Elephant; Kudu; Crocodile; Giraffe; Wildebeest (Gnu); Tortoise and Egret. OMG!!!!

By the time we left the park it was about 2pm, so we ducked into Hazyview for a Wimpy lunch. I can’t quite think of anything comparable in Australia, but Wimpy is a down-market chain fast-food style restaurant often found in shopping centres and in road-side fuel stations. My ‘mixed grill’ was pretty average, but Dave enjoyed his ‘special’ of a hamburger and shake for 79 Rand ($A7) but was disappointed his 1987 Zimbabwean Wimpy Club membership card didn’t get him the 10 per cent discount it once did!

We then drove back towards Paul Kruger Gate to Tony and Nicola’s place and after a warm welcome and unloading our bags, Tony took us for a quick Land Rover ride down to a shared BBQ area overlooking the river. It was so lovely sitting by the water, enjoying a sundowner, and seeing a herd of elephants (complete with a tiny baby elephant) arrive right across the river from us was a big bonus!

Back to the house, and some neighbours of T+N arrived to join us for a delicious Braai (BBQ), cooked over an expertly tended open fire. Dinner included perfectly pink and tender fillet steak, (so delicious with Nicola’s creamy pepper sauce); a juicy and tasty lamb chop; and the obligatory South African specialty – a thick, flavoursome Boerewors sausage, grilled in its well-known spiral shape then cut up before serving.

Nicola had also prepared a couple of delicious salads, fresh crusty bread and some toppings for the foil-baked potatoes (butter, cheese, sour cream) which Tony had also cooked to perfection on the open fire. Not sure why he would want to, but I reckon if he ever gets sick of writing best-selling African thrillers, he would make a great chef 🧑‍🍳 🤣

Our little self-contained guest room came complete with a simple outdoor shower. Deciding whether to shower at night when I couldn’t see what creatures may be around, or during daylight when it was me giving others a fright, was quite a dilemma 🤣. I decided on the night-time option, then into bed!

Sunday

Tony recommended an early start for our best possible chance of lion sightings, suggesting we pass through the gate before 6:30am. A quick breakfast of tea, plus yoghurt with strawberries was prepared and eaten as quietly as possible so as not to wake the others on a Sunday morning! (Apologies to T+N if we failed!) We passed through the gate around 6:20am, completing forms and paying the daily fees again at the office, but this time it was slightly crowded, though still only took about 10 minutes to get our passes and have the car searched for firearms and be on our way in pursuit of more wildlife.

We were not disappointed, adding Hippos; Bushbuck and Buffalo plus Cassowary and Guinea Fowl to our alread extensive ‘Kruger sightings’ list from the previous day.

We travelled about 150km in a triangle, the first corner at Lower Sabi, about 60km east of Paul Kruger Gate, where we had a toastie and hot chocolate at Mugg and Bean, a chain coffee store that strangely has a venue at this remote ‘rest camp’ location. The next leg of our triangle took us north to Tshokwane rest camp where we again stopped, this time for toilets and drinks, then the final leg taking us back southeast to the Skukuza ‘camp’ which is only about 10km before the gate we entered. We stopped in Skukuzu for a look at a hotel that is converted from old train carriages sitting on a long rail bridge over the river… how cool!

We also had a late lunch in Skukuza camp – at another part of the disused railway line – with some restaurant tables even set up inside more old carriages and a well-preserved 1949 steam engine on display. (Dave = Waffles, Me = Pizza)

We arrived back at Tony and Nicola’s mid-afternoon in time for a quick rest then met up with their friends and enjoyed drinks and buffet dinner back at the Kruger Gate Hotel. Good food, lots of stories and laughter, and a really fabulous G+T (or two 😉 ) was the perfect way to spend our penultimate night in Africa!