Berg En Dal - Kruger National Park

The crossing back into South Africa went very smoothly and we were through both border posts in less than five minutes - must be some sort of record. We were heading to Komatiport and the Kruger National Park, the weather in Swaziland had been very good, some cloud but dry and hot, but as soon as we reached Komatiport it started to rain- here we go again we thought.

At Komatiport we needed to re-stock the fridges and get some other provisions plus re-charge the gas bottle before entering the Kruger. We were booked to camp at Berg en Dal which was to the west of us and had hoped to drive into the park at Komatiport and then drive the hundred or so Km's through the park to the camp. However, by the time we finished shopping there was insufficient time to reach the camp via the park route (they close the camp gates at 6.30pm) so we had to race back to the motorway and enter the park at the Malahane gate which is just 12 Kms from Berg en Dal.

We reached Berg en Dal at 6.20pm and it was dark by 7.15, it looked like there had been a lot of rain but at least it wasn't raining now. We were very uncertain about how much we would take to the Kruger with its tarred roads, stockaded camps and rules and regulations. Certainly first impressions of Berg En Dal were not that good, the camp seemed like a concrete jungle compared to Swaziland's and too sophisticated by half.

One thing about Kruger though is most of their campsites have mains power points, water taps, Braai's (BBQs to us Brits), hot showers and boiling water 24/7. The mains power is especially useful for charging batteries and running the fridges and at R105 (~£10) per site/per night it represents good value for money.

We camped as close as we could to the perimeter fence and that first night we had Hyena calling close by which was nice. The next morning we were out by 7am for our first game drive in the Kruger, Berg en Dal is situated in one of the hilliest areas of the park and there wasn't much game about although we did see some Rhino, Zebra and Elephant.

The day was very hot and you could sense another storm was on its way, that night we had Lion calling very close to camp, hearing Lion is always exciting although we must admit not as exciting as when you know there is no fence to protect you as is the case in the Kruger camps.

We awoke at 5am to the sound of heavy rain so we snuggled back down nice and cosy in the ground tent. At 6am we had a short dry spell and took the chance to make some tea and went  back to bed. The heavy rain continued until 10am so we decided rather than rush out on a game drive we would have a leisurely breakfast in the camp restaurant and go out later.

Fate works in mysterious ways and I have always believed destiny rules. At breakfast we bumped into a local game ranger to ask about a huge insect we had seen a Yellow Billed Hornbill catch the day before. During the course of the conversation he asked how we were enjoying the park and we explained it was our first time to the Kruger and we planned to travel the whole length from South to North so hopefully we would get some great sightings, especially Wild Dog if we could.

To our amazement he told us he had seen Lion and a pack of Wild Dog at dawn travelling on a back road between Berg en Dal and Crocodile Camp. Croc Camp is the first camp you reach if you enter the park from Komatiport (where we had shopped two days before) and the route would probably have been the one we would have taken if we had had time that day.

It's hard to explain to anyone who is not interested in Africa or its wildlife how hard it is to see Wild Dog these days. Admittedly they are now on the endangered list but we have spent 20 years searching in vain for them. In Botswana we had bushman trackers looking for them, in Zambia the game scouts kept in touch with our guides via radio in case anyone came across them but all we had ever seen was a paw print - it was even more galling when we met people who had seen them on their first visit to Africa - for us they had become our Holy Grail!

Now Kruger is roughly twice the size of Wales and the spot where the ranger had seen them was at least 50km away so the chances of them being still around were slim to say the least, especially as they tend to move around a lot, but we had to go look so we jumped straight into the Landy.

As we neared the spot where they had been seen a car approached and the driver flagged us down, now in the parks you tend to get two types of drivers, those who are happy to share their sightings and those who keep stum. Rangers and tour guides usually fall into the second category as they like to keep the good stuff for their clients. 

The driver spoke very slowly and seemed to have a stammer, "if you carry on about 1km down the road there is a cut off to the right" yes yes I was willing him to get the words out, "in there just in the bushes " yes yes "there are" he seemed to pause for an age, please don't say Lion I prayed "some Wild Dog" ! We tried to act as nonchalant as we could but our hearts were racing, we thanked him and in turn gave him the unequal news there were Elephant on the way he was going!

As we turned into the cut out at first we couldn't see anything then a single dog came out of the bushes and stood in front of us, then another and another, 20 years of searching across thousands of miles had come to a very happy and unexpected end.

Most people who have seen Wild Dog had told us the experience was usually far too brief as (unless denning) they tend to be constantly on the move and so go out of sight deep into the bush.

Sure enough as we turned off our engine they got up in ones and two's and started to move away, but  the gods were smiling on us today, the early rain had made the day very hot and humid so they were not interested in doing anything but keeping cool and were just moving onto the track to lie in  the many puddles of water - this was just getting better and better!

At the moment it was just us and the Wild Dogs so our biggest concern was more cars would come along and turn it into a circus, which tends to be the norm in the Kruger. However, this day it was as if we were being rewarded for all our long years of endeavour as we stayed with the pack for over five hours during which time we saw no more than a handful of other vehicles.

As the Sun started to go down one by one the dogs began to rouse themselves to go hunt. The big Alpha male was collared so the pack were clearly part of some sort of monitoring program but by now we were completely alone with them. It was very interesting to watch their pre hunting bonding rituals as each dog went to the other licking and playing with each other, the younger ones being especially frisky.

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