Tag: Photos

Kruger Park Accommodations: Shimuwini Bushveld Camp

This is the second in a series of posts about the great places to stay in Kruger National Park. Overall, we spent five nights traveling north to south and we highly recommend Shimuwini Bushveld Camp, a highlight of our trip.

Overview: Shimuwini Bushveld Camp

Shimuwini was special! It’s a small camp with a reception area and not much else besides the houses for guests. The remote atmosphere made us feel as if we were secluded away in our own paradise.

Because of its location on the Groot Letaba River, it felt like we were staying in a summertime resort. We even had our own house, which was a roomy riverfront cottage with a beautiful view.

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Spotting the Big Five in Kruger Park

Before I went to Kruger National Park – my first ever safari experience – I was excited to see ANY wild animals. I had heard of “The Big 5” but wasn’t even sure which animals were labelled within that group. We learned from a guide during one of the organized walks that this term originally comes from hunters. As a result, hunters considered the biggest animals the most important for their trophy cases and thus the Big 5 designation was created. We tried to spot the Big five in Kruger Park, with some success.

It is a goal for many safari goers to see all of “The Big 5.” While this wasn’t my goal, the whole park experience pushes that as a priority. Each campsite has a couple of boards where people can mark their daily sightings of these most wanted wild animals, plus some other rare and interesting animals. Except the rhino. Due to these beautiful animals being close to extinction, the park will not advertise sightings of rhinoceros as a way to protect them against poachers. Because of this, a rhino sighting is a tough find.

For the most part, we drove around, did a couple of game walks in the bush, and just enjoyed our sightings of all the animals and birds. But in the back of our minds, especially as the days passed, we did still hope to see all of the Big Five.

Here’s a rundown on our Big Five sightings in Kruger National Park:

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Kruger Park Animal Crossings

Kruger National Park in South Africa is a wonderful place. If you like the outdoors and wild animals, this is already on your list to visit, or should be. I just spent 6 days and 5 nights there and am compiling all the photos, videos and stories for future posts! My first post is about Kruger Park animal crossings.

Driving Kruger Park

One of the unique things about Kruger National Park is that visitors drive along the roads looking for wild animals. The park is the animals’ home so humans are not supposed to walk around except in camps or with guides. Drive slowly so you don’t miss an animal, and so you don’t miss a car suddenly stopping in front of you because the driver has just seen an animal! Sometimes you don’t even need to look for animals, because they just decide to cross the road immediately in front of you.

Here are a few examples of animal crossings in Kruger National Park last week:

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