Skukuza Kruger National Park Visit
| Safari Location: |
Kruger National Park, Skukuza
camp, South Africa |
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Company Used: |
Albatross Tours |
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Duration: |
Nine days,
February 2001 |
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Traveller Details: |
Jeanne
Wightman, UK. Seven adults in the group. |
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Safari
Interview Questions
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Could you describe the
accommodation and the food on your safari? |
We stayed
in one of the huts in Skukuza, which was you know thatched little huts, which was absolutely
magnificent - we loved it.
And concerning the food, what did a typical breakfast and dinner in Skukuza consist of?
It was
usually fruit or there was sushi sort of stuff, there was cereal… whatever you
wanted from the buffet.
Evening
meals were the same (buffet) - we tried kudu, we tried various… we would always
go with what was South African, except when there were power cuts when we had
what they could produce.
We saw everything except we
didn’t see any rhino. We certainly saw the others, we were amazed because
obviously we’ve seen elephants in zoos in Britain years ago and I didn’t realise
how big they were, real elephants are just so different. We saw cheetah and we
saw wildebeest, the normal sort of things. We saw hippo, we just were very
lucky, we had an absolutely amazing time.
Did you see any lion?
Yes, we saw lion. People
were very good at pointing them out, aren’t they, and saying to your group there
are lions feeding up there, it was really good.
What would you say your wildlife spotting highlight was?
The cheetahs, there were
two of them lying together looking over this water hole. I think it was also the
time of day and the fact that it was coming on to sunset, and it was warm. That,
and elephants was the biggest surprise, definitely, the sight of them.
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Describe a typical day in
Skukuza from the moment you woke up until you went to sleep in the evening. |
Back to
the Questions |
Getting
up very early, well very early for me! - about 6 or a bit before and having a
very quick cuppa. And then going out and seeing the animals first thing you
know before the sort of real daylight and then coming back and having breakfast.
Then
relaxing and driving about, because we had a hire car as well and just drove
around and saw what we could see… oh and tortoises, seeing tortoises walking
across the road was wonderful as well. You’re bringing back so many memories,
thinking about it!
Then we
would have… usually the guys would have a packed lunch with us or we would go
back to the cafeteria place in Skukuza.
We’d go
out again in the evening before, you know at the sunset time, specifically.
That’s one time I can say, we didn’t see very much, but we drove around in hope.
We saw some monkeys and that.
And of
course our evening meal, we’d go for a evening meal, have a few beers and back
to your little hut.
And did you go for walks also, or did you just drive through the bush on the
vehicle?
We only
drove through the bush and we just walked about the camp. We didn’t walk
outside. We saw people on walking safaris and thought oh, would we be brave
enough?!
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Do you have tips
and advice for safari travellers? Any disappointments on your trip? |
Back to
the Questions |
I would say take warmer clothes than you expect. We sort of
expected Africa to be hot-hot and although there we did have a couple of hot
days, we really could have done with an extra jumper, especially in the
evenings. That was one thing.
And
then the other thing was I would send all my pictures back before by post or
something because it was far worse losing the film than losing the camera or the
video camera.
Was
there anything about the Skukuza trip that didn’t meet your expectations? Any
disappointments or regrets?
No, absolutely nothing. It was the most wonderful
experience of our lives, I think we’d both say that. It was absolutely
fantastic. Our luggage or rather our cameras got stolen on the way home so we
haven’t got a single photograph.
Where
did that happen?
Well, we don’t know. We checked our bags ... they went
away at Johannesburg Airport and when we got to Heathrow there was nothing in
them. Heathrow said it was Johannesburg Airport.
However, shortly afterwards there was an item on the news
that loads of stuff had been nicked at Heathrow. So I don’t know who to blame,
but we lost all our photographs which was a disaster. We had films and films,
and we also had borrowed a video camera to take with us and that was stolen, so
we didn’t have the film on that. We were just very, very upset with that.
But the Skukuza holiday was wonderful.
Make sure you have adequate travel insurance for your safari »
Probably the Wet Wipe type things, because of the dust. We
really didn’t need much sunscreen, we took loads of insect repellent but didn’t
find any insects. I don’t think we saw a mosquito the whole time we were there!
So that was all much better than we expected. But the wet wipes - it is all very
dusty.
How
would you rate your Skukuza safari overall?
I’d give it a 10.
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