Day 4 Pretoria to Satara Camp, Kruger National Park
After a Murray breakfast, we left Pretoria just before 8 am, and drove via Witbank to Orpen Gate, KNP. We stopped in Belfast at the Spar to stack up on fresh food and packed our little fridges to the brim. Another essential stop in Dullstroom for biltong and droewors, then a fuel stop at Ohrigstad. The scenery just got more and more beautiful – orange orchards with trees groaning with fruit, dams probably filled with trout, then winding our way through the Drakensberg, down the escarpment towards KNP.
At last we arrived at Orpen Gate, collected out Gate pass and entered SA’s iconic game reserve. Richard has never visited Kruger, and in the hour trip from the gate to Satara Camp we saw plenty animals, including a herd of impressive buffalo coming down to a dam for their evening drink
This time of year the camp gates close at 5:30….it is dark by 6 pm. We squeeked in, and settled in to our comfortable rondavel for the night.
Day 5 Satara to Skukuza
We had a late start next morning as we were both rather tired. After packing up, we handed in our rondavel keys and enjoyed a granola and yoghurt breakfast at the restaurant while watching impala, wildebeest and zebra stroll by. Civilized way to start the day ?.
Now the game drive to Skukuza – lovely day with sightings of bateleur eagles, martial eagles, kori bustards, ground hornbills, open billed stork, saddle billed stork, and a clump of vultures resting on a river bank. We saw elephant, kudu, Nyala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, ground squirrels,…
We arrived at Skukuza, had a lovely shower in our rondavel with a river view. Tonight we decided to eat in the restaurant…. very pleasant and extremely reasonably priced. Tomorrow we head to Crocodile Bridge Rest Camp, do the laundry and meet up with Sue and Patrick Holloway, before starting the Lebombo trail early on Sunday morning. It is a guided trail, Bush camping, with a couple of brief stops in the camps to refuel and shower. We end the trail in Pafuri.