Big 5, Kruger National Park

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The Big Five are the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and cape buffalo. They were named the Big Five not because of their size alone, but because they were the most challenging of South Africa's large animal species to hunt. Tourists who come to Kruger tend to get fixated on the Big Five, often to the point of missing out on sightings of other, smaller, but still interesting species, such as impala, warthogs, and birds.

Of the Big Five, leopards are by far the hardest to find, becasue they are nocturnal and are usually sleeping during the day, often up in trees. Lions are the second-hardest to find. Usually the easiest way to find the Big Five in Kruger is to look for stopped cars. Where two or more cars are stopped, there is usually a Big Five animal nearby that they are all watching.

We saw three (elephant, rhino, and cape vuffalo) of the Big Five during our drives through Kruger. We saw a leopard in Sabi Sand, a private game reserve next to Kruger, where we went on an evening game drive.

5 day 4 night Tour

Day 1

Upon arrival at OR Tambo International Airport, you will collect your hire car (Toyota Corolla or similar) and begin your Safari.

Your first stop will be Stonecutter’s Lodge just outside the picturesque town of Dullstroom.
Stonecutters Lodge is a trout fishing and holiday venue of exceptional quality. Travel to the Mpumalanga Highlands, just two and a half hours from Johannesburg International Airport, and stay in this 4 star-graded lodge. The lodge lies between Dullstroom and Lydenburg, in the heart of South Africa's fly and trout fishing territory. A superb chef provides guests with meals of outstanding quality....

Click the website link to view the full itinerary as its to long to post.

Elephants can drink quite a lot of water in one sitting, as much as 7.5 litres can be sucked in at any one time.

It then proceeds to curl its trunk under, sticking the tip of its trunk in its mouth, and blows the water in.

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Elephants have various uses for their trunks, eating being one, and pulling down trees being another... but another rather important one is to keep itself cool! Elephants live in hot climates generally, the KNP is a very hot climate certain times of the year, and they squirt cool water over themselves to keep cool in the blazing heat. After that, they squirt a fine layer of dust over themselves... which, when combined with the water, makes a thin type of mud layer... their sunscreen :)

They also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water. They are incredibly good swimmers, something which I dont think many folk realise :)

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The trumpeting elephant is an elephant that is feeling threatened. If you are close by, make haste to get away from it. Their trunks will most likely be in a type of periscope position at this time.

They are social creatures, with closely knit family groups. They hug each other by wrapping their trunks around one another, they also nudge their young gently with their trunk too, and, as a young child does, a baby elephant (calf) sucks on its trunk too.

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If you are in the KNP, there is a good chance you will see buffalo, although mostly at night, or at dusk. They stand around in large herds, either as families, or as old bulls who have banded together.

This herd were lazily grazing, then suddenly something, not quite sure what, gave them a fright and the next minute, all you could see was a cloud of thick dust... then they were gone.

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Buffalos fall into the BIG 5 category with ease, they are large, lumbering and have a certain reputation. They have thick horns, popular with hunters unfortunately. They are gregarious and are generally quite fearless as they are safe to a certain degree from lions. The only buffalo a single lion will catch with ease is a baby buffalo.

It takes a herd of lions to get one mighty big buffalo down. Often the chasers became the chased though haha, when buffalos turn on the lions and start chasing them

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Elephants and trees...the one loves the other, but not so for the other! haha Elephants are prolific in their destruction of trees, they pull them down and eat the vegetation off of them, with scant regard for the destructive manner in which they do so. It makes tracking them VERY easy, you just need to look for torn roots and shoots to know where they have passed by.

The trunk may look clumsy but it is anything but! It has two little finger-type things at the end of its trun which act like fingers, and are quite nimble. This enables the trunk to pick up a small berry off the ground, or clasp a thin leaf in its trunk.

Pretty amazing :)