2014/08 South Africa
For our big trip of 2014 we headed to South Africa for a 3+ week adventure. We started from the Nelspruit airport, where we rented a small car for the first half of our adventure. We started by touring Kruger National Park from south to north, with two nights in a bungalow in Berg-en-Dal rest camp, one night at a bungalow in Olifants rest camp, three nights backpacking on the Lonely Bull hike (where it was just us and our two guides!), one night in a bungalow in Mopani rest camp, and two nights in our tent in Punda Maria rest camp. Other than the backpacking tour, we spent almost all of our time in the car searching for wildlife. Needless to say, we were not disappointed!
From Kruger, we then drove to the Madikwe game reserve, with an overnight stop to camp at the Bontle campground in Marakele National Park. This park turned out to be incredible, with a completely unfenced campground with various animals running through. After Marakele, we had three nights at the Mosetlha Bush Camp in Madikwe. It was nice to have guided game drives after spending the first part of our trip searching on our own for animals, and we definitely saw more predators in Marakele than we did in Kruger. Lindsey was even able to see wild dogs!
Next up was a night of luxury at the African Rock hotel in Johannesburg before our flight to Upington. After arrival, we picked up our 4x4 rental and headed into the Kalahari in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. We toured most of the park, with one night in our tent in Twee Rivieren rest camp, one night in our tent in Nossob rest camp, two nights in the hut in Gharagab wilderness camp, two more nights in our tent in Nossob rest camp, and one final night in the hut in Bitterpan wilderness camp. As with Kruger, we spent most of our time driving around in search of wildlife. Although Kgalagadi doesn't have a lot of the big game that you see in Kruger (like elephants and rhinos), it is full of big cats. For our final night in South Africa, we made the drive to Augrabies Falls National Park, where we stayed in one of the bungalows.
