Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Skukuza

The Critchfield family while on safari stayed in the camps of
Satara and Olifants, thease camps are situated in the
central and northern sectors of the park. Sightings
were generally good with many different sightings of
Elephant, Giraffe, Buffalo, Zebra, Wildebeest as well as
sightings of Hyena, Crocodiles, Baboon etc. The
Critchfield family also experianced wonderful sightings
on ...

... of the variety of birds found in the area. Our hotel was 100 yards from the Paul Kruger Gate into the park. This gate lies to the Southeast of the park on the map.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to ...

... camp was Punda Maria in the north, and the north of Kruger is somewhere we would love to spend more time if we ever return. There were less tourists, beautiful scenery; the camp was how we like it quiet and well spaced out. Skukuza we would avoid if at all possible. Paul was disappointed he didn’t see many big cats, which we were surprised at as well. We were out early enough in the morning and took our time driving around ...

Skukuza Restcamp, Kruger, 19th September 2009

We were up at 5am and ready for the gate to open which it did just before 6am. We decided to take the secondary road to Skukuza rather than the tar road. The weather was still cloudy and cool, but once we got to Orpen Dam the weather had changed and it was sunny and very warm again. It was very pleasant drive and we didn't see much traffic on these roads. At Skukuza we ...

Our last few days at Kruger we stayed again at our favorite camp (because of the view) Olifants over looking the Olifants river. Got some great pictures (much better in person, you can see about 60 or more miles in all directions) of elephants crossing the river at sunset and during the early afternoon. We will never forget the view of the park from here! Then moved to the main camp Skukuza for our final night.

... another game drive. Cruising down one of the dirt roads we turned off only to nearly run straight into a giraffe. Very funny. Enabled us to get some wicked photos. Love giraffes, they're just so funny looking... especially when they run or bend down to drink. Whilst scoping out the giraffes a car drove by and told us of lions being just down the way so we followed their directions and sure enough there, right by the side of the road ...

The next morning, as we went out for our morning drive we had gone only a short distance from camp when we heard a barking noise that Marcelino informed us was a bushbuck alarming. He told us that it could have been alarming because it saw a leopard, but that it also could have just been a snake or something. We drove a short distance and saw the bushbuck, and Isaac went off into the bush (on foot!) in the direction it was ...

... it's ground. Another very cool experience. New birds we saw included scimitar billed wood hoopoe, African hoopoe, female cardinal woodpecker, gymnogene and tawny eagle. That afternoon we just did a drive. We didn't see too much more than ...

... and clothes, everything, had to be waterproofed. Thanks to Ziplock we got that covered, and envisioned make-shift lilos dragging behind struggling swimmers to the other side of the river. How strong will the flow of the river be? Will we be able to stand? We got a bit worried about this aspect so called the parks board in the canyon who told us that yes, it's pretty high but people are hiking (and finishing). They did have to literally swim through some crossings where the ...