Hello ,

The past week we had an awesome adventure that had us seeing Sabie, Barberton, Kaapsehoop, Komatipoort, The crocodile river, Lower Sabi Rest Camp, Orpen Rest camp and Satara Rest camp. As you can see from the list a large part of our travels went through Kruger National Park, and with this the age-old question arises: Where and how do you get the best animal sighting?

To answer this question, we first must understand the difficulties that this question poses. Firstly, no one, not even the best wildlife guide, ranger or animal expert can guarantee an animal sighting in Kruger without inside info like radio collars. Secondly, the biggest component to a once in a lifetime sighting is luck. Thirdly, you shouldn’t be disappointed if you don’t have a great sighting, it is part of the experience! If we were all to see a once in a lifetime sighting every day, when we visit Kruger, it would diminish the worth and make it a daily mundane sighting.

The first difficulty we cannot change or make better, is predicting an animal’s route and behaviour exactly, as this would take the fun out of the exercise, or it would destroy the beauty of the sighting with neck collars and 100’s of vehicles sitting in wait for the action.

The second difficulty, luck, well there we have some measure of control over it, to greatly improve the probability of having an amazing sighting. The most basic way to increase your luck is to study the animal species you would like to encounter in detail. When are they active, when do they sleep, where do they hunt, what do they hunt, where in Kruger are the most sighting of them, what time of the year are you most likely to encounter them, when do they go to drink water, where are they known to go to drink water, etc.? These questions are of critical importance to improve your probability of seeing your dream species.

Most of the large predators are active during the night and will still be moving around just after sunrise, thus the best time to go out looking for them is right after gate opening times in the morning. They will also be laying down in shade during the middle of the day, so spotting them then will be a MASSIVE challenge!

The third difficulty we can see as an encouragement. The more times you spend in the park, the larger the probability becomes of having that once in a lifetime sighting!

So next time before you head out to Kruger or any other National Park or Nature Reserve, make sure to study up and plan your game drives, breaks, lunchtimes, and even your routes based on what you have learned in your studies. This will increase your chances of spotting the animals you would like to see, but remember, even if you do all the research and planning, you still stand a chance to be unlucky and spot none of the big 5.

Weekly Top Shot: Cellar Spider spiderlings!

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps – Proverbs 16:9