SpringBreak-Hyenas at the Watering Hole

Our goal this week was to travel the length of Kruger National Park as we took leave from Mountain High Hospital with our son Erik. We also sought fine game spotting and the joys of life in the Bush. The Park is approximately 200 miles long, consisting of different ecosystems every 30 miles or so. So driving through the park is like traveling through thick acacia woodland, savannah, rocky red sandstone outcrops, riverine, mopane groves and grassland.

We entered the Park at the South end through the Numbi gate and headed for Pretorioskop Bush Camp, our home for a few nights while we toured the south end of Kruger. What a shock to see that much of the terrain in the lower half of the park had been scorched to the earth in the tremendous July fire. Being cut off from the media, we had no inkling of the fire’s extent, burning every tree and blade of grass to char. In some of the most devastated areas, shoots of grass were noted sprouting up in the blackened earth and impalas beginning to graze on the new grass. However it appears that even the seeds in other areas were destroyed in this horrific fire. We found routes that avoided the fire’s fury and enjoyed viewing lions at a waterhole, white rhinos feasting on the grasses, herds of cape buffalo grazing, six rare sable buck eating new shoots of grass and even a leopard sitting on the road during an evening game drive.

Pretorioskop Bush Camp has it own charms as impalas, wart hogs, vervet monkeys enter the camp daily to feast on the grass parklands and entertain the guests. A unique feature of the camp is its bare rock swimming pool which was refreshing on a hot day after game viewing.

Kruger’s Numbi Gate at the south end is a short drive to Blyde River Canyon in the Drakensburg Mountains. Blyde River Canyon is the South African equivalent of the Grand Canyon and certainly its equal in spectacle and magnificence. The canyon starts as a small river gouging out round “potholes” in the rocks with swirling eddies. Twenty miles away the river has cut a canyon miles deep with rounded Rondaval forms, red rock tables and dense vegetation The snaking of the river is visible far below the viewing point. The Panorama drive includes several waterfalls and stops in pleasant tourist towns with old pioneer re-creations and great locally grown coffee and pancakes.

However, the most fun was driving the length of the park, viewing the terrain and watching the game roll out. About two hours from Pretoriokop the parades of elephants began with the females and babies traveling in a train and the bulls solitarily gorging on trees by the road. Viewing game at this close distance brings awe and some anxiety to the viewer. Elephants are known to become angry and attack vehicles when they are disturbed or threatened. Their tusks can easily penetrate the side of a car. The situation seems benign but there is an element of fear. Baboons appeared in tandem with the elephants as the troupes ran along the road with the babies hanging onto the mother’s bellies. They are charming to watch but can also be very dangerous when aroused.

A side trip to a watering hole brought the drama of a lifetime! A flurry of fur and activity were spotted at the edge of the watering hole. Six spotted hyenas were pulling at the carcass of a male kudu with the giant spiral horn jutting boldly into the air. Ten brown vultures lay in wait for their turn at the kill. Every few minutes a vulture would venture closer to the carcass-a hyena would then charge toward the vulture and force them back to wait. The hyenas grew hot as they worked at meat pawing and clawing. They jumped into the watering hole and splashed with glee just like dogs at the beach. Then back to work. Off in the distance a stork waited for its turn to enter the watering hole but was no competition for the hyenas and vultures. One brassy hyena got hold of a Kudu leg and tromped off into the bush with his luscious treat leaving the others to push pull and grab. Then splash down to cool off in the muddy water.

Our destination for exploring the northern half of the park was Mopani Bush Camp, named after the mopane trees that cover the landscape. Accommodations consisted of a self catering thatched rock house with full kitchen, sleeping for 6 and a covered patio. The camp is situated above a dam where game come to drink and hippos lounge in the dirt. The camp is the real mopane bush with an electrified fence around. It felt and smelt like the bush as opposed to the older Pretorioskop in the south with grass parklands inside the game fence.

Game viewing from the car or jeep is fun but the sights, smells and feel of the bush demand that one hit the dirt. The national parks offer day hikes in the bush accompanied by nattily dressed naturalists armed with rifles, just in case. So at 5am we headed off in a jeep with two naturalists and two rifles to experience the bush on foot. We drove a few miles from the bush camp, crossing a river with crocodiles swimming through the water and a hippo clan dozing in the center, looking like rounded rocks. As we got out of the jeep a twinge of fear hit but also a sense that we finally had the opportunity to explore and experience the real bush in a slow way. The guide explained that we would walk single file in silence three hours through the bush and could click our fingers if we wanted any explanation of the flora or fauna. Hiking is my favorite pastime so this sounded like great fun. We set off down a riverbed next to the mopane trees. The landscape was dotted with termite mounds and dung of all sizes, shapes and freshness. Dirt for the termite mound is dug below the ground and combined with termite saliva. Then Amos, the senior naturalist, described the source of the dung (giraffe-small elegant; elephant-profuse, wet and fibrous; impala smaller and used as territorial markings) the significance, and the next customer who will use the fresh dung for food. The guides also tore off leaves from the bush plants to smell; one like cat urine, one sweet, and a wild mint. The guides knew the names and calls of every bird and their peculiar habits. The female lays her eggs and finds a new mate; the male guards the eggs. We walked by impalas who quickly ran away, scared by our scent. Ironically, the game are not intimidated by vehicles and are accustomed to the sound of the engines. Man on foot is another story.

Our guides took us to a small rocky mound where they pointed out a large grey object that looked like a rock in the distance. In fact it was an elephant and they turned toward the mark. We walked for about a quarter mile across the bush silent in our single file trek to the game. We came up on the bull elephant and its bull companion tearing mopane trees with their trunks and stuffing the branches and leaves into their mouths. This certainly was more thrilling and more ominous than viewing from a car. Plus the experience of walking through the bush and coming out of the trees upon these massive creatures eating and living their lives was both exciting and humbling. We watched in silence from 30 meters trying not to anger them or scare them. These were older bulls, massive in size. We headed off on our trek and sat down on some rocks for snacks. Off in the bush we spotted two hyenas darting off to find what they could scavenge for the day. They look and move like very large dogs with long fur and rounded features. We arrived back at the jeep and felt safe again to be protected by man’s inventions but missing the closeness to the earth and its smells and sounds.

After the game hike we tried another drive through the back treks of Mopane, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn line. The drive seemed insulated compared to the hike but when the stalking leopard crossed the road I was glad to be safe in the car. The back roads yielded beautiful birds; ostrich, ground hornbills, yellow hornbills, vultures and hammerkops. The delights of Kruger are too numerous to mention. Last year the sight of an impala or zebra was enough to titillate; after spotting leopard and hyenas devouring their kill one realizes that man is easily jaded and always looks to the next level for excitement.