Birding krugerpark (1 Viewer)

So what do you do when the Lions, having sniffed the 'food' inside, rip the tent open in 3 seconds flat? Or when the Elephant catches the tent guys in its legs and pulls the whole lot away (you and all!) accidentally?


Oh, and did the vehicle start again after being crushed by the scratching Elephant?? :eek!:

The best I came with was telling some freshmen that elephants at night will pick leaves from the tree they are camping under. To get to higher leaves, they will rest their front legs on their tent. Good to get a place in the shade to put your tent.

You simply don't go out at night, and if you must, you shine the torch to see what is around.

jurek said:

You simply don't go out at night, ...

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Yep - but a tent effectively is 'out at night', it couldn't withstand anything with claws and weighing more than about 10 or 20 kg :eek!:

Nutcracker said:

Yep - but a tent effectively is 'out at night', it couldn't withstand anything with claws and weighing more than about 10 or 20 kg :eek!:

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It's the small stuff at night that you don't see which often causes a problem. My wife had an excruciating week having stepped on one of Africa's most potent Scorpions Parabuthus villosus in open shoes on the way back to out tent from one of the water holes at Okaukuejo in Etosha, Namibia.

She now has a morbid fascination with Scorpions and I ended up buying her a UV light, at her insistence, for her to look for them at night and it's an activity she really enjoys now. We've found that Scorpions are extremely common in many places, far more so than people realise until you buy a UV light.

With the odd exception, the greatest danger to people in places like Kruger, is their own stupidity.

I know one well traveled fellow, who inadvertently, ended up giving a lift to a Baboon having left a window open........

I go out a lot at night and spotlight around the camp: it's good for busbabies. Maybe stick to Europe.

I have camped in non-fenced parks in Namibia/SA. I could hear lions roaring in the Namibian one but felt fine until my bladder started to stir.

Nutcracker said:

So what do you do when the Lions, having sniffed the 'food' inside, rip the tent open in 3 seconds flat? Or when the Elephant catches the tent guys in its legs and pulls the whole lot away (you and all!) accidentally?


Oh, and did the vehicle start again after being crushed by the scratching Elephant?? :eek!:

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Lions do not too open tents, Elephants are very sure footed and delicately step around tents. Had one feeding on the acacia above my tent one time in Mana Pools ...was raining down little bits of tree, but not a touch by the actual Elephant. Hippos slightly more of a potential issue as they run back to the water if spooked and there is one case of going straight through a tent en route ...but put it into context, many hippo-camper encounters every nights, incidents once in a blue moon. Bigger risk crossing the street somewhere in London.

As for the car (actually small truck) and scratching elephant, felt like a boat swaying on the sea, but car was perfectly fine.

Just was in Kruger two weeks ago (on an organized tour). Wild cat was seen every night near our lodging at Satara. We had lion roaring one evening outside the camp and came home from dinner one evening to find a honey badger rummaging though our rubbish bins!

IMO Kruger was surprisingly light on big game, at least compared to my experience in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Elephants, giraffes, and various antelopes were somewhat plentiful, but there weren't a lot of buffalo or cats. We only saw three lions (together), one cheetah, and one leopard in roughly three days in the park. The lions caused a traffic jam that would make the Cross-Bronx Expressway look like a empty road. We didn't see any rhino - most of them have been moved elsewhere to protect them from poachers coming across from Mozambique. The birding was good, but we had a local guide who knew where to find certain specialties. I can't tell you about bird life in Satara, because we were never there during daylight.

You aren't allowed outside the camps at night except on organized game drives. It's basically an anti-poaching measure. They want to know where everyone is after dark, and anyone outside the camps is assumed to be poaching first and a tourist second.

My biggest complaint about Kruger is the "Volunteer Rangers". They're supposed to be assisting in conservation efforts, but these self-important little p***ks try to feel big by policing the visitors. We were standing next to our van looking at a bird with no megafauna around, when one old b***h drove up to us and before even asking us to get back in the vehicle, snarled she was gong to "report us" and started scribbling down our plate number. We were right beside the van, so we simply hopped in and drove off before she could finish her lecture. Another time we were in the van with the sliding door open, and one of them drove up and asked us to close our door. We weren't even out of the vehicle! A third came us and told us were were pulled over on the wrong side of the road. It really made things unpleasant.

Jeff hopkins said:

Just was in Kruger two weeks ago (on an organized tour). Wild cat was seen every night near our lodging at Satara. We had lion roaring one evening outside the camp and came home from dinner one evening to find a honey badger rummaging though our rubbish bins!

IMO Kruger was surprisingly light on big game, at least compared to my experience in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Elephants, giraffes, and various antelopes were somewhat plentiful, but there weren't a lot of buffalo or cats. We only saw three lions (together), one cheetah, and one leopard in roughly three days in the park. The lions caused a traffic jam that would make the Cross-Bronx Expressway look like a empty road. We didn't see any rhino - most of them have been moved elsewhere to protect them from poachers coming across from Mozambique. The birding was good, but we had a local guide who knew where to find certain specialties. I can't tell you about bird life in Satara, because we were never there during daylight.

You aren't allowed outside the camps at night except on organized game drives. It's basically an anti-poaching measure. They want to know where everyone is after dark, and anyone outside the camps is assumed to be poaching first and a tourist second.

My biggest complaint about Kruger is the "Volunteer Rangers". They're supposed to be assisting in conservation efforts, but these self-important little p***ks try to feel big by policing the visitors. We were standing next to our van looking at a bird with no megafauna around, when one old b***h drove up to us and before even asking us to get back in the vehicle, snarled she was gong to "report us" and started scribbling down our plate number. We were right beside the van, so we simply hopped in and drove off before she could finish her lecture. Another time we were in the van with the sliding door open, and one of them drove up and asked us to close our door. We weren't even out of the vehicle! A third came us and told us were were pulled over on the wrong side of the road. It really made things unpleasant.

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Sorry but I'm with park policy on this. Animals are a lot faster than you and it's the ones you don't see coming that get you.

Me too, too many idiots out there to police themselves - would only be a question of time till an accident, with all the accompanying bad publicity

In answer to Jeff s post I have been to kruger twice before and if you read the park rules you will see it says that your not to get out of your vehicle and to keep windows closed except in rest camps not anything to do with poaching it's for your safety

After a lot of hunting around the Internet I am going to hire a car and do the birding by myself starting from crocodile bridge anybody know of any special places around that part of the park

birdthing said:

After a lot of hunting around the Internet I am going to hire a car and do the birding by myself starting from crocodile bridge anybody know of any special places around that part of the park

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I suggest you buy a copy of the Southern Africa Birdfinder by Callan Cohen et al - it's a fantastic book and has quite a long and detailed section on Kruger.

DMW said:

I suggest you buy a copy of the Southern Africa Birdfinder by Callan Cohen et al - it's a fantastic book and has quite a long and detailed section on Kruger.

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I can only echo this,
I've commented before that IMHO, this is arguably the best book of it's type and comes with a superbly useful, pullout map for the country and site locations making it invaluable in planning a wider itinerary. My only small gripe is that it's not very well bound and with regular use, will soon start to fall apart, never the less, a must have.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Southern-A...22&sr=1-1&keywords=Southern+Africa+Birdfinder

Kruger is well covered with tips on where to look for birds and animals.

Thirded. On the car front Kruger can easily be done with a standard 2WD but last time I enjoyed the extra height and clearance of a SUV and when a Nissan Quashqai was still only about £18 per day it wasn't very decadent.

I understand the park policy and I understand the justification for not allowing people out of their cars. My problem was with the attitude of these people. They were snotty, rude, and self important.

As to the true risk, I was with two local, professional guides who were familiar with the park and its risks. Given the paucity of dangerous animals in the park, and the likelihood of a major traffic jam if any dangerous animal were actually to be seen, they concluded that standing next to your vehicle to look at birds, with no mammals present, was low to no risk. And having your window or door open while parked to look at a bird, was zero risk.

I've also been to other parks in Africa where people foolishly got out of their cars to get better pictures of a pride of lions eating a kill. They were appropriately told to get back in their car by pretty much everyone around. So I get it. But this was a very different situation from that.

In a dozen or so visits to Kruger, I personally have never encountered any park employees that have been anything but friendly and courteous. Regarding traffic jams, travel north of the most touristed sections of the south and it is very easy to be totally on your own, as it is indeed along some of the less visited back roads in the south too.

Incidentally, are you sure Rhinos have been moved? I don't think they have. Saw a good number in the south of Kruger a year ago (about 15 one day), but managed a zero on them on the previous trip a few months earlier, so a bit of luck needed yes, but there are still good numbers present (but note, their locations are not publicised on the information boards for obvious reasons)

Jeff hopkins said:

As to the true risk, I was with two local, professional guides who were familiar with the park and its risks.

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If these guides took you into Kruger, then encouraged/allowed you to violate the very well publicised park regulations concerning staying in your vehicle, they were not really very professional. Rule one, guides should respect the regulations of the reserves you are visiting.

Jos Stratford said:

Incidentally, are you sure Rhinos have been moved? I don't think they have. Saw a good number in the south of Kruger a year ago (about 15 one day), but managed a zero on them on the previous trip a few months earlier, so a bit of luck needed yes, but there are still good numbers present (but note, their locations are not publicised on the information boards for obvious reasons)

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A couple of years ago but we were seeing tens per day in the South. The only problem with Jos's idea of heading North is that there are far fewer large mammals.

I think we spent two weeks in the park, moving all the way down from Pafuri and we were in to the second week before we started seeing anything other than the odd Elephant or Giraffe, far more animals in the lower half of the park.