Did you know only six percent of the Kruger National Park is accessible to visitors via the main public roads? The best way to experience more is on foot.
For our April 2016 issue, I tackled the Olifants Wilderness Trail – a three-night wilderness experience at an intimate and rustic bush camp on the banks of the Olifants River – and several other walks from the main camps. Each day’s walk on the wilderness trails covers an average of five to six kilometres and takes roughly four hours. There’s no hard climbing or bundu-bashing, but a basic level of fitness is recommended. It’s your best chance to take in the little details of the reserve you wouldn’t experience from the car, like the different colours of rhino and elephant dung (due to plant tannins) and the colour of the flies that sit on it – blue ones are known to indicate a kill nearby.
I also learnt invaluable tidbits about Kruger’s smaller creatures. For instance, did you know you shouldn’t pick up tortoises? They keep a special reserve of water in a sac at the rear of their bodies and if disturbed they can dehydrate. I also learnt that dung beetles lay 60 eggs – one per ball of dung, which they then have to roll up hills and over rocks before being buried (and, in all likelihood, dug up in winter by hungry honey badgers).
In truth, I now don’t want to see Kruger in any other way except with my tackies on.
Read the full story in our April 2016 issue, and in the meantime whet your appetite on the photos below.
Also read: Kruger National Park’s 10 best lookouts
Also read: Kruger National Park’s Mananga 4X4 adventure trail
Read the full story in the April 2016 issue of Getaway magazine.
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