Road Trip - Heading For A Kruger Park Safari

On our way to Mpumalanga for a well deserved break, Bronwyn, Ryno and I decided that we were going on a road trip. We wanted to experience a Kruger Park safari. We were headed from Cape Town to the Kruger National Park where we were going to stay for three nights at the Phumulani lodge. Now some might say that we were absolutely crazy, but that’s what we’ve always done: unplanned road trips and outings that never go according to plan, but somehow always worked out and worth every minute.

Getting there

The drive from Johannesburg to the Kruger National Park was not only chaotic but a true test of our friendship. We got completely lost in Johannesburg city centre, and believe me, it’s not the place you want to get lost in. Taxis and pedestrians everywhere are there to confuse the situation even more, because somehow, the three of us managed to take the wrong turn-off and instead of driving away from Johannesburg, ended smack in the middle of it.

So eventually, after much debate, we found the right turn off that took us all the way through to Mpumalanga and to the Kruger National Park.

Checking in

We eventually arrived at the Phumulani lodge and we weren’t a pretty sight. To say it was hot in the Kruger National Park is an understatement; it was more like walking into an open-air sauna. Now although it’s nothing unusual, this weather was the exception. We struck it lucky, or rather unlucky, because most of South Africa was hit by a heat wave that was lasting way too long. Hot and irritated from the drive, we decided that we needed some refreshing. We decided to go for a swim and soon enough the air of irritation was gone and in its place, an atmosphere of adventure.

This was going to be three days of spending some time in Africa’s wilderness, but more importantly catching up with old friends. Bronwyn has been living in the UK for the last three years now, and since then we’ve decided make a pact that whenever the three of us are together we would spend it going on our usual road trip or simply just going away together for a few days.

After we cooled down from the swim, we headed to the Lodge for lunch, followed by a quick power nap and then just enough time to get ready for our first game drive. Although there was a game drive just after lunch, Ryno refused to sit in an open 4x4 in the midst of the hot weather, so we opted for the drive at dusk.  I didn’t blame him, because although I couldn’t wait to go into the bushveld for some game-viewing, dusk has always been my favourite time of day and the weather was taking some time getting used to.

A bumpy ride …

As we got on the back of the 4x4 Bronwyn told us about this interesting National Geographic programme she watched about the African Hyena. Apparently they’re not as thick as I thought. Personally the Hyena has always been least of my favourites in the animal kingdom. I’ve always thought them to be weird looking animals with a laughing cry that is absolutely dreadful, but after listening to everything Bronwyn had to say I almost felt bad for disliking the Hyena so much. According to her, they have an impeccable social structure where a female is the matriarch. But before she could finish continue telling us all about the life of a hyena, we spotted a heard of buffalos.

They were in the open field grazing. My first thought was whether we’ll be seeing any horrid hunting, but before I could mention it the game ranger pointed out lions hiding in on the outskirts of the open field. This was it! The big moment any tourist either dreads or hopes to witness. But after sitting there for an hour the lions decided that we seemed much more interesting than any tender buffalo. Ryno was not really impressed with this attention. It’s not that he doesn’t like animals, but in his whole life he’s only ever owned one dog. Whereas Bronwyn and I both have cats and I have two dogs. Watching Ryno’s facial expressions was absolutely priceless. It was a combination of fear and being not quite sure how to handle the situation. But soon enough they moved on and we were on our way again.

Heading back

In the next few days we saw more wildlife and then of course made a lot of jokes between the three of us. We’ve always been a tightly knit group of friends; very different in personality but still had a connection that others found difficult to understand. After our roundtrip through the Kruger National Park and a bit of sight-seeing in Mpumalanga we were on our way back to Cape Town.