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Kruger Lodge - Kruger Park - Mozambique Parque Nacionale do Limpopo - Tshipise

In September 2008 we went on a trip to the "Transfrontier Park" in Mozambique adjoining the Kruger National Park.

There are a number of important observations in Siggy's opinion. However not everyone would agree.

1. Never ever pay a deposit for anything until you receive all the details of the trip. We did this - even worse we paid in full - big massive major irreversible mistake. It sets the tone for despising the tour organisers.

2. There is no "Transfrontier Park" yet adjoining Kruger. You may only take in very limited groceries and there is a tax on cold drinks and alcohol, You have to have a passport. The officials seem to be out to get bribes. (In comparison to the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park where if you do not exit the park into Botswana but return to South Africa you do not need a passport and you may take in what food and drink you like.)

3. If I go through the border post at Giryondo again before I die it will be too soon.

Now for the nice bits:-

Kruger Lodge and Kruger National Park

Good friends of ours allowed us to use their timeshare for a week at Kruger Lodge and we arrived on 10 September 2008.

The accommodation at Kruger Lodge is lovely.

There are a number of lakes on the property and it is not inconceivable that they could contain crocodiles.

We were greeted by a lovely sunset.

We walked along the Sabie River and around the property where amongst other animals they have hippos. (This is not a picture of the Sabie River but just a view of part of the area at Kruger Lodge.)

Nearly every day we went into the Kruger Park where we drove around looking for animals.

We were quite fortunate and managed to take photographs of a few.

The pictures were taken in the order shown and I have put captions above them.

An Elephant in the dry bush

Cape Buffalo

We enjoy cooking our breakfast in the park.

and when we do there are always beggars - in this case a yellow billed hornbill. Animals should not be fed as they attract other animals and some become aggressive and sometimes even have to be shot.

Yellow Billed Hornbill

This Bushbuck appeared while we were having breakfast

Grey Heron

A Klipspringer - they are always found in rocky areas.

Zebra

Giraffe

Waterbuck coming to drink at dusk

An Elephant marching along

Two male Waterbuck on top of the mound

The same two Waterbuck drinking. (Waterbuck in this area have rings on their bums and it is said that when Noah was fitting out the ark and the toilet seats were still wet that they went and sat on them.)

Two female Kudu

A Hyena from behind. This one really stank.

A Baboon with his children showing teeth

Cape Buffalo

A road in Kruger showing the vegetation

A Warthog

A pod of Hippo (Hippopotamusses or Hippopotomi) on the bank

Elephants drinking at a man made reservoir

A Ground Hornbill

Hyena

Crocodile - known as a "flat dog"

Two happy Warthogs

Male Kudu

Along the Sabie River

Hippos out the water on the Sabie River

An Elephant in the bush

A Giraffe and Impala at a water hole - note how dry it is

Impala in the recently burned bush

Zebra in an area with little grazing

Hippos on the Olifants River

An Impala Lily

Another type of Impala Lily - the flowers are eaten by Kudu

A Bushbuck on the lawn in the Letaba Camp

The rondavel where we stayed before crossing the border into Mozambique. We decided that as we would be camping it would be nice to sort out and repack the vehicle in comfort.

Elephants crossing the road

Cape Buffalo giving me the eye

The border post at Giryondo

Parque Nacional do Limpopo - This is the park emblem

The idea of the trip was to do a survey of the park and count animals. Five fingers were sufficient in the region we traveled through. This is a picture of the participants taken on a "landing strip" on the Mozambique side.

Late on the afternoon we arrived we saw a large fire in the distance. This could be extremely dangerous as the wind was blowing in our direction. We packed so we could leave at a moment's notice. The picture below shows the fire still smoldering the morning after. This picture was taken about twenty kilometres away and with a twenty kilometres per hour wind the fire could have reached us within an hour.

This picture shows a typical track in the area that the fire had passed through.

A picture of the only elephant we saw. A ranger said that it had died two days previously and that it must have been sick. It seems that there was a strong possibility the illness was caused by lead poisoning administered by an AK47.

A picture of one of the lovely delicate wild flowers

In the rainy season there can be substantial washaways and erosion. It would not be fun if you drove into a hole this deep - and it could be even worse at night.

Baobab Trees "Adansonia Digitata" are spared in parts of Africa because they do not make good charcoal. They take hundreds of years to mature and are not a true tree in that elephants (or people) can ring bark them and they do not die.

Every Baobab looks unique

The Cabora Bassa power line.

A track extending into the distance. This one has a calcrete surface and should be passable in the wet weather.

A track though a fever tree forest.

A sunset showing the Limpopo River

After leaving Mozambique we visited Tshipise - a hot spring - where we spent a few enjoyable days before returning home.