Last week, we were so excited to tell you about our time at Kruger National Park’s newest accommodation offering, the Pafuri Border Camp, that we skipped over the part of our visit leading up to our time in the extreme Far North of the Park.

We’ll take this opportunity to rectify that now.

We arrived at Phalaborwa Gate on the Friday, early enough to allow a slow drive along the H14-road up to Mopani Rest Camp, where we were booked for a one-night stopover on the way to Pafuri Border Camp.

Tired old elephant bull crossing the road

Zebra at Ngwenyeni

Crocodile along the Ngwenyeni stream

Big herd of elephant crossing the Letaba

Black crake at Shipandani Hide

A quick afternoon sojourn past Mooiplaas, the Nshawu Vlei and Tinhongonyeni delivered no less than 6 tsessebe sightings, lots of energetic zebras, good numbers of other animals and birds, and a very dramatic storm brewing over the plains…

Tsessebe just near Mopani

Zebra cantering at Mooiplaas

At full stretch

Getting started

Again with the running!

Secretary bird

Reedbuck female

Tsessebe at Nshawu Marsh in Kruger National Park

Another energetic zebra

Blue wildebeest marching away from Tinhongonyeni

Storm brewing over Tinhongonyeni

Wind-blown jackal

That evening we enjoyed a lovely meal at Mopani’s restaurant, the howling wind putting an end to any ideas we might have had of braaiing (the traditional South African barbeque) at our bungalow. Afterwards we searched for nocturnal animals among Mopani’s natural vegetation, and were not disappointed.

Mopani bungalow no3

Scrub hare in Mopani

Free-tailed Bat leaving the roost

Leaving Mopani as soon as the gate opened Saturday morning, under heavy skies accompanied by a constant soft drizzle, we anticipated at least one good predator sighting. Sure enough, near Olifantsbadpan, we had a terrific encounter with two big female spotted hyenas and three of the cutest, most playful cubs you could imagine. Only afterwards did I realise that they were so close to our vehicle that I didn’t manage even one full body photo of them!

Spotted hyena

Spotted hyena cub

Spotted hyena

We expected to have good sightings of elephants around Shingwedzi, and our favourite rest camp delivered the goods just as we had hoped. It was still raining softly as we set of from Shingwedzi after breakfast, heading northward past Babalala Picnic Spot. The north of the Kruger Park is also well known for its exceptional birdlife and all these special sightings made the long road seem much shorter.

Waterbuck

Tree squirrel

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Great white egret

Saddle-billed stork

Elephant bull

Elephant crossing

Woolly-necked Stork

Kudu female

After a quick turn in Punda Maria for lunch, fuel and to stock up on some last minute goodies, we could tackle the last stretch of road to the magical paradise that is Pafuri.