Sunset XXV - Kruger National Park
It’s a tough life touring Africa for a month, but an even tougher one trying to describe it. As our biggest blog yet, trying to remain fresh has been difficult considering most days are filled with images of wildlife, and avoiding repeated superlatives has at times been a task. But that in point is Africa. Africa is primarily about the animals and repeated safaris are integral to that journey because you never know what you’ll get on any given day. And trying to find the perfect words to accurately portray what that experience is like can be difficult because at times, it truly is inexplicable.
The day started with our 19th safari and we’d gotten ourselves into a pretty good rhythm in tackling them, how to dress and what to expect. And in truth our expectations today were more focused on enjoyment as we’d managed to see just about every entry in the African Animal Encyclopaedia so began to slouch back a little in the cruiser and left the cameras on our laps for longer than normal. Our first encounter was a rather large herd of impala that in the suns morning glow took on a whole new level of beauty. As savannah junk, pretty much seen everywhere, these glamorous creatures can at times be overlooked as, well, savannah junk when seeking out the Big Five. Renowned for their powerful leaping and bounding, capable of impressive horizontal and vertical distances to escape predators, they have scent glands above their rear hooves that release a strong scent when leaping to help herd members stay together during escape. What superheroes. This morning these impalas truly impressed and gave us some imagery we will remember for a lifetime.
There are over 30,000 Burchell's zebras in Kruger National Park and it is quite possible that between us we photographed every one of them. As with the elephants only yesterday, the zebra is just too elegant an animal not to fall in love with behind, and in-front of the lens. With their distinctive black-and-white striped coats, unique to each individual, several theories have been proposed to their function with most evidence supporting being a deterrent for biting flies. However, they travel in single file and with their collective noun being A Dazzle, these pattern are skilfully employed to confuse predators. Found in a variety of habitats such as savannahs, grasslands, woodlands, shrublands, and mountainous areas, zebras are primarily grazers and can subsist on lower-quality vegetation but sadly, despite their large populations, now sit on the IUCN list as near-threatened. As one of the most recognisable animals on earth, featuring in art and stories for centuries, the most compelling question surrounding zebras is are they white with black stripes, or black with white stripes? En masse and out on the grasslands, torched by Africas golden hues, the zebra is without question the most beautiful of African wildlife and as photographers an animal we simply couldn’t stop clicking the shutter for.
Next stop was our morning sun-uppers, which unsurprisingly had been anticipated since rising. With her own stash of “additives” hidden in the jeep, Janine managed to replicate yesterdays scrumptious hot chocolate which we enjoyed perched on safety mound. A lions roar could be heard to the North proving they did exist in Kruger with some radio chatter boasting of a few sightings that very morning.
Returning to camp it was again a procession of breakfast, a few libations, a swim then lunch. Rinse and repeat Hoyo Hoyo style. We had well and truly clocked out by now, with this our last full day of the odyssey, so we took full advantage of it, even managing a little mid afternoon nap which was a rarity. Hoyo was an absolutely remarkable lodge, hidden thick among the Kruger action with a European level of service and chicness about it. But if truth be told it was a little aged and noticeable on arrival. However, after meeting the owners, because you know of course we always seem to, they were in only a matter of weeks about to undergo a full re-decking of the facility with bungalow extensions to enclose the outdoor showers. Given the resort is approaching 20 years, it is both needed and warranted given the hefty daily price tag. We ordered another planetary sized gin and tonic as our own personal compensation for the fading deck. Any excuse really.
The afternoon safari was anything but pedestrian with Janine taking us to a pocket of the reserve we as yet hadn’t visited. Hunting those elusive lions and leopards we sadly missed out, however for Fatpap we stumbled upon a most fortuitous photographic opportunity. After visiting a baobab tree over 800 years old, a pair of tawny eagles were spied atop the frame of a long passed tree. Nothing new for Kruger, but against the bluest of sky a waxing gibbous moon split the pair forcing Fatpap into all sorts of contortionist gymnastic positions to acquire the perfect frame. At one point upside down in the front row of the cruiser, the eagles did their best to oblige with head positions and provided the images below which are close enough to what was being envisioned.
The afternoon gave us some wonderful wildebeest spotting, the usual collection of avian pageantry and a tree seeded around the time of the sacking of Constantinople. A group of much younger chacma baboons took over the road to provide reason to stop and whip out the cameras. Making their way from the adjacent river in search of food, the sun gave them excuse to pause where they went about their monkey business oblivious to our presence. Sitting somewhere between frightfully disgusting and cheerfully playful, monkeys are to many a polarising animal who can at times be unappreciated. Maybe if they weren’t always picking at their genitals or brown-eyeing every passing car like teenagers they might garner a bit more love.
Down by the dam the bloat of hippos sprang to life upon our arrival as did the Egyptian geese washing in the shallows. On the rock wall opposite some more baboons sat picking at their genitals while wandering down the steep embankment a group of impalas came to drink. Like drawing blood from a stone, the operation was a process of checking, rechecking, and then double checking before splaying the front legs and dropping the eyes making them more susceptible to attack. In the end everything went according to plan, however given we’d witnessed the resident nile crocodile first hand and the dam is a renowned killing zone, these heedful impalas did the right thing.
It was coming on sundowner time but Janines ear was buzzing with muffled Afrikaans and Zulu chatter about a lion spotted down by the river bed. With a new objective we skidded the cruiser 180 degrees about and raced, compared to our normal travelling speed, in search of a lion to add to our Kruger bingo card. Long story short, the directions were botched. A reasonably new guide understandably got the roads mixed up and we spent the remaining good light chasing a phantom feline. Undismayed we choose gin to relieve the disappointment and en route found the big cat by chance walking up the river bed exactly as originally described. The problem though was she was hundred of metres away and virtually in shadow. But, we did see her and grabbed the grainy image above to prove it. But the African gods were shining on us today as we spotted our first painted dog of the tour.
The African wild dog, commonly called the painted dog due to their extreme colourings, is a wild canine native to sub-saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa with an estimated population of 6,600 adults living in 39 subpopulations, all of which are threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation consists of fewer than 250 individuals, the painted dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990. Satellite and VHF tracking collars have been fitted to many to monitor movement, behavior, and survival, together with specialised anti snare collars designed to protect them from snares used in their hunting grounds. These collars are crucial tools for wildlife conservation and research, providing data to inform management decisions and protect wild populations.
Painted Dog, Kruger NP
Our last African sunset, Kruger National Park, June 2025
After finally making it to our last sundowners on African soil, we witnessed maybe the most spectacular of sunsets - or are we now just being too nostalgic - and reluctantly headed back to Hoyo a little behind schedule and almost now in darkness. With her spotlight at the ready Janine decided a quick check on the dam was needed and lucky she did because we saw the most stylish leopard right on the waters edge enjoying a drink. With the spotlight right upon her, she stalked back and forth as if on a catwalk (pun intended), modelling the latest leopard print evening wear from the finest African designers. Her reflection in the water was sublime which unfortunately was difficult to capture to its fullest, but we saw her there as beautiful as any of gods creatures and were thankful for our afternoon delays. That is how Africa delivers its wonders. It doesn’t promise anything but gives where it can and usually better than expected. To top it all off we saw hyenas on the road going home rounding out an afternoon of four new Kruger species.
Dinner again tonight was fireside at our private table consisting of spectacular lamb cutlets and accompanying South African wines. It would be our last on the continent and we quite rightly toasted the tours success and played a little game about our favourite things while being away. With such a broad spectrum of experiences there were no clear winners as every newly remembered adventure was claimed to be the best. Management had on request secured another bottle of Amarula from one of their sister lodges so after dessert we instructed Morgan to stoke the fire and settled in for an night of waterhole watching. During dinner and only 3 metres away, we could hear, and ultimately see, a big bull elephant ransacking through the thick set of trees surrounding the lodge enjoying his own meal along with ours. Not to say it had become blasé, but this occured so frequently we had gotten quite use to it with any concern now completely removed. That beautiful elephant finally emerged to cross the parched bed of the Mluwati river to take a drink from the waterhole opposite. Over the next few hours a parade of animals did the same thing including buffalo, hyena, impala and the occasional baboon. However the greatest surprise was that of a leopard, our second sighting in Kruger, who alone entered the arc of light provided by a tree mounted bulb to circle the waterhole before taking a drink. We won’t say it was amazing, but it was. We won’t say how excited we were, but we were. And we won’t say it was the nights highlight, because it wasn’t. Almost ready to pull up stumps, a painted dog entered the spotlight as if to encore our most fabulous day. Collared, it could possibly have been the same one we saw earlier near camp but of course would never know. Without tripods and pretty much no way of capturing these animals at night, we sat back and enjoyed what could quite possibly be our African show stopper.
In the end the night caretaker had to escort us to our bungalow as everyone else had gone to bed and it was just us, the few animals and of course an empty bottle with nothing more to offer.
