Balule, Mopane & Shingwedze, Kruger National Park

At Oliphants we booked to stay another two nights at Balule. The great thing about our trip is if we like a place  we can stay as long as we like (providing there is space) and if we don't we just move on. It's a quite relaxed and seat of the pants approach as each day we don't really know what we will be doing the next - but that's how we like it. 

Oliphants has lovely views but we wouldn't see it as being particularly good for game as it is quite high up in the hills. It also has just the one road in and out so it could become a bit monotonous. We found a lot of people tended to drive back towards Balule and then fan out from there.

We needed supplies and planned to get them at Oliphants but probably because there is no real opportunity for self catering we found their shop was nowhere near as good as Satara's the next camp south. We later found there is a distinct divide between the parks shops with those from Satara Southwards being very good but from Oliphants northwards they got progressively more barren, in fact those in the far North such as Punda Maria are almost bereft of anything decent and you can forget all together about getting any fresh milk, meat or bread.

People overseas probably don't appreciate how huge the Kruger is especially if you want to drive throughout its length. We were just over halfway and still had at least 200 miles to go before we would exit at the northernmost gate at Pafuri.

We decided to drive back to Satara the next morning and do one last big shop while we could. We left camp at 6.45am and headed to Satara, the Southern Kruger is where the highest densities of game can be found but it also has the highest densities of visitors. However, on this morning we drove the first hour without seeing a soul but also unfortunately not much game, then suddenly we came across a big lone Male Lion walking in the bush about 50 yards off the road. He was probably finishing his night patrol and was walking quickly to find the rest of his pride so we only had time to take a few snatched photo's before he disappeared out of sight which was a shame as he was quite a handsome boy. 

We arrived at Satara just before 10am and did all our shopping, we even took the opportunity to get Rupert washed as they have a car wash there run by a young lady who gives it a good going over first with the jet wash then by hand, all for just R25 or £2.50!

Sadly the next day it was time to move on, Balule had been great but we needed to make tracks. The next camp with a campsite is Letaba but this is not that far away so if we stayed there it would leave us too long a journey to the following  campsite at Shingwedze.

About halfway between Balule and Shingwedze is another camp called Mopane. Like Oliphants this caters for a more up market clientele so does not have a campsite but unlike Oliphants which has Balule nearby, Mopane does not have a camping option close to it, so it looked like we would have to stay in a chalet which would be expensive.

However, on arriving at Mopane we discovered they have a novel alternative for travellers who don't mind roughing it a bit. Less than an hours drive away is a hide called Shipandane, it overlooks a quiet part of the river and is primarily for bird watching as the banks are a bit steep for game. Between 6am and 6pm it is open to the public and anyone can drop in however, as you have to be back in the formal camps before 6.30pm it closes to the public at 6pm and reverts to its alter ego as Shipandane the sleepover hide!

Between 6pm and 6am you can book the hide for your exclusive use. You pick up your bedding, cooking utensils and a huge bunch of keys from Mopane reception but you cannot take possession of the hide until after 6pm. You also need to be self sufficient including water as there is nothing there apart from the hide itself.

We actually left Mopane late and were then delayed on the road by a big herd of buffalo so we arrived at Shipandane in the dark which is not a good idea as there are no lights whatsoever. It felt a bit strange being out and about when everyone else is locked away in the camps so no one would know what time you arrived or if you got there in one piece, unusual by Kruger standards.

The first thing you notice on arrival is there seems to be nowhere for you to sleep only long narrow benches around the windows which didn't look very comfortable. The clever solution is against the walls are six large boards containing posters of African birds. Each board is locked against the wall with a padlock which on opening enables you to lower the board to form a single bed or you can open two close to each other to form a double. In a separate cupboard you find the mattresses, the only tricky bit is finding which key fits which lock.

Attached to the hide is a locked boma (fenced clearing) where you can cook, the whole lot accessed from the outside world via a long reed walled walkway protected by a spring loaded metal gate. Theoretically once behind the gate you are relatively safe unless a Lion decides to leap over the walkway fence or an Elephant knocks down the boma fence, not impossible by any means.

Reassuringly there is also a lockable door to the hide itself so once in bed you are pretty secure. The worst bit is the numerous trips you have to make to your vehicle outside in the dark to bring in your provisions and lights. The drop down viewing windows are mosquito netted but there are so many gaps in the wooden walls that make them almost useless so you need to rig up a mossie net to prevent being bitten to death, as you can see ours didn't quite fit but it did the trick.

Once set up then its actually very cosy, the only bind is it becomes public property again at 6am so you have to ensure you are packed up just in case any keen birders arrive at the crack of dawn! However, its the only place we know of in the whole of Kruger where you are allowed to sleep outside of the fenced camps so its a breath of fresh air in that sense, in fact we enjoyed it so much we stayed again the following night!

The first night had been reasonably quiet but the next night we were woken in the wee hours by the sound of splashing in the river. Although we couldn't see it we knew it was an Elephant wading across a few yards downstream, unfortunately when we shone our light out the bush obscured the view but he was close, maybe 20 - 30 feet away. Little did we know that in few days we would have a much closer encounter with an Ele!

The next morning we moved on to Shingwedze but not before a nice hot shower at Mopane. The good thing about hiring the hide is they give you complimentary use of a chalet in the morning to clean up, excellent service all round.

On the road to Shingwedze we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and of course couldn't resist taking the obligatory photos, later on we came across a mother Giraffe with her youngster making their way to a waterhole. Sometimes you get lucky and get a photo of Giraffe kneeling down to drink but they are at their most vulnerable when drinking so they are also at their most nervous, still we decided to wait and see what happened.

Mum was obviously very thirsty and wanted to drink but as usual initially kept shying away. We stayed absolutely silent as we didn't want to put them off and eventually she summoned up the courage to drink but unfortunately the young one remained too scared and went without, still it was a nice moment while it lasted.

Shingwedze is a large camp with lots of nice big trees, it was noticeably quieter than the other camps, which was a welcome change but it was also noticeable that the amount of game was getting less. We were now in the part of the park which is far less visited which suited us fine.                                  back