It was hot. It was dry. It was dusty. The bellowing and snorting of buffalo filled our ears, their smell hanging thick in the air. The ground around our position was already littered with the trampled dung and tracks of hundreds of the animals. And still more of them kept coming, making their tiresome way in single file up the steep bank of the Mphongolo, then standing at the top catching their breath before rushing after the rest of the massive herd disappearing into the mopane. The last thing a tired buffalo needs at the end of a long, hot Lowveld day is to be caught alone when darkness falls…
Catching their breath in the Mphongolo road
Crossing the Mphongolo road
Catching their breath in the Mphongolo road
Crossing the Mphongolo road
Waiting their turn
Up the steep bank in single file
Up the steep bank in single file
Stragglers making their way into the river from the opposite bank
Still they keep coming from far in the distance
Up the steep bank in single file
Still they keep coming from far in the distance
Still they keep coming from far in the distance
Up the steep bank in single file
Still they keep coming from far in the distance
Tired old cow further burdened with a load of Yellow-billed Oxpeckers
During our September 2014 visit to the Kruger National Park, we encountered several exceptionally large buffalo herds around Mopani and Shingwedzi Rest Camps. This sighting however was the most memorable and we’ll undoubtedly think back to it every time we pass the location in future. The dry winter season had seen to it that the Mphongolo River was reduced to little more than a few stagnant pools surrounded by deep, soft, dusty sand. These pools sustain an incredibly diverse array of birds and game through the dry winter, making the 30km-long S56 Mphongolo River Loop, which follows the river course and offers dozens of good vantage points over the river, one of the best drives in the Shingwedzi area.
