We are back in South Africa, visiting family and friends, and once again making a road trip of it. Our road trip started in Johannesburg, and includes stops in Natal and the Eastern Cape on our way to Cape Town. However, before starting our travels down south, we first headed north-east to the Kruger National Park.
The Kruger National Park is approximately 360km from north to south and approximately 65 km from east to west. It covers a total area of nearly 2 million hectares, and you would need several days to adequately cover the whole park.
We had decided to stay at the Letaba Rest Camp, which is approximately mid-way between the northern and southern boundaries. With three nights at the camp, we were able to spend a full day exploring south of the camp and another full day exploring north of the camp.
Letaba Rest Camp also has a fantastic Elephant Hall that provides all sorts of interesting facts, photos and specimens relating to elephants. A set of statistics that we found particularly interesting was the growth of the elephant population over the last 120 years. By around 1900, the KNP elephant population was almost non-existent. Through conservation efforts, the population rapidly grew, and in the 1980's and 1990's the park carried out culling programs to maintain the population at between 8,000 and 9,000 elephants. The culling program was however heavily criticized and the decision was taken to terminate the program. Today, the elephant population is estimated to be between 16,000 and 17,000. The challenge for the KNP authorities is making sure that this large elephant population doesn't negatively impact on the park, and specifically the vegetation. This is done by, for example, managing access to water and forcing the elephants to move on in search of alternative water sources. We also enjoyed reading about some of the 'great tuskers' and learning more about these amazing animals. The Elephant Hall is definitely worth visiting!
And now for some photos from our time in the park.
All of the above photos show buffalo and yellow-billed oxpeckers. It is believed that the yellow-billed oxpecker was extinct in South Africa by 1897, largely due to the use of toxic cattle dips. But, in 1979, the birds reappeared without any human intervention. Although the population has been growing since their reintroduction, there is still a lot that is not known about these birds. The yellow-billed oxpecker project has therefore been set up to allow visitors to the park to contribute information about sightings (http://www.wildcard.co.za/kruger-yellow-billed-oxpecker-project/).
Elephants! We must have seen over 100 of these magnificent animals whilst in the park.
Lilac breasted roller
Franklin
Impala
Wildebeest
Hippopotamus
Duiker (?)
African wild dogs and waterbuck.
With only 450 to 500 African wild dogs in KNP, this was a special sighting.
View from Letaba Rest Camp.
Heron
Crocodile
Plover
Giraffe
View over Olifants River from Olifants Rest Camp
Zebra
Squirrel
Hornbill
African fish eagle
Warthog
Tortoise
Burchells Coucal
Bee-eater
Throwing mud around!
Kori bustard - the largest flying bird native to Africa
Baobab tree
Stork
Marabou stork
Although difficult to see in this photo, these two juvenile elephants have an even smaller elephant between them.
And our accommodation at Letaba Rest Camp.
