Contiki Cape to Delta: Kruger National Park
- Mike McHugh
- Jun 27, 2025
- 9 min read
For the first time ever, I woke up at 3:30 AM feeling rested - maybe I should go to bed earlier more often! We departed our hotel at 4:00 AM to head to Cape Town Airport to fly to Johannesburg. The interesting thing for this flight was that people were able to carry on larger liquids, including full bottles of wine that they bought the night before, since it was a domestic flight. I've never heard of that before.
We were at the airport with ample time to relax ahead of our flight, so I grabbed an espresso and light breakfast by the gate and relaxed. Our flight started to board earlier than it was posted, so I paid my bill and got in line to go on the plane. The plane boarded from a jet bridge, but people at the back of the plane were asked to walk down stairs to the tarmac and then up the stairs to board at the back of the plane. I was in the middle of the plane, so I was able to board using the jet bridge.
The flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg was uneventful - a few of us talked for the beginning of the flight before things quieted down and people took naps since it was such an early morning wake up. We arrived in Johannesburg after a short two hour flight and promptly got off the plane. A large group of us accidentally wound up past the security checkpoint, so a few people had to go back through security to get the rest of our bags. Once we were sorted out, we walked about 10 minutes to get to our bus for a 6 hour ride to Kruger National Park!
After about three hours, we stopped at a rest stop for a quick bite to eat at a chain fast food restaurant called Steers and some snacks. Our accommodations in Kruger were at a campground, so we needed to prep a bit more than we would if we were staying in a hotel. After another three hours, we wound up near the Crocodile Bridge Entrance into Kruger National Park. It was here that we said bye to our coach bus and transitioned into our safari vehicles!
The safari vehicles were much harder to get into than the ones we used in East Africa. Whereas those were essentially vans with pop up tops, these were closer to modified pick-up trucks to have seats in on the bed of the truck. This meant that I had to essentially climb up over the side of the pickup truck, forcing myself to kneel onto the one step at wheel level and then using my upper body to push myself up to the actual seats. This took a while to get the hang of, but, like anything, practice makes perfect. Once we were all set, we went through the gates of Kruger National Park! Even typing it out here is surreal, Kruger is one of the most famous national parks in the world and I had a chance to not just visit it, but also camp in it.
Within two minutes of being in the park, we saw our first animal - a giraffe! I've been spoiled having gone on an East Africa Safari a few years ago, but I don't think seeing an animal for the first time on a safari will ever get old.
Within a few minutes of driving, we saw a bunch of cars huddled around an area - usually a telltale sign of a rare wildlife sighting! We followed the crowd and got wind that there were lions relaxing near a bridge near a wildebeest herd, which could be an opportunity to see a live kill. The lions were pretty hard to see as they were blocked by a few man-made structures, but we were eventually able to see them sunbathing. We also had our first elephant sighting of the trip!
We continued on and saw some vultures in a dead tree, really epitomizing the "circle of life" vibe within our first few minutes of our visit to the park.
We continued driving en route to our campsite as the sun set on Kruger National Park, stopping along the way to see elephants and other animals as we passed.
Then, out of nowhere, we had an epic sighting of wild dogs which is very rare as there are less than 500 of them in the entirety of Kruger National Park and they are some of the more elusive animals on African safaris. We didn't see any when I went to East Africa, so this was a real treat. We were running tight on time and our guides would have been fined if we were not in the campsite by a certain time, so we didn't have a lot of time to watch the dogs.
We arrived at Lower Sabie Campsites shortly after sunset. It was much nicer than I thought it was going to be in that it was part of a large complex with multiple types of lodging from bungalows, to caravan stations to tents - we were in our own area of the campsite and had tents as our accommodations. I camped outside in my entire life, so this was something I was really looking forward to. Our campsite was comprised of a bunch of dual occupancy tents in one row and then a few single occupancy tents tucked away into a corner of the site. I had my own tent, so I unzipped my tent and checked out my digs for the next two nights. It was much nicer than I thought in that it had a mattress, side table & power outlets to charge my gear. After we were all settled in, we went to the main area of the campsite complex which had a restaurant for us to grab a bite to eat. With our stomachs full, we headed back to our campsite where a fire was already going - which was perfect because it was starting to get nippy. We sat around the campfire for an hour or two, and I just soaked in the fact that I was in the middle of Kruger National Park about to retire for the evening to my tent under the stars. We all peeled off as the night wore on to head to our tents, as we had an early morning the following day.
The following morning, we were up and out before sunrise as sunrise and sunset are the best times for game drives! It was freezing cold and we were all bundled up in blankets, but watching all the colors on the horizon during the sunrise makes it worth it.
It took a while to find wildlife, I guess the animals were sleeping in. We passed some zebras and wildebeests, but didn't really see anything. Eventually, we stopped to watch some giraffes graze and elephants walk near the road.
We eventually came across a lioness trying to blend into the bush looking for its next prey. It was so still and calm, but it didn't see anything when we were watching it.
We passed a few more wildebeests on our way to a picnic area overlooking the water. It was in the middle of the park with no fences, just a pavillion with a few tables - it felt so weird to hop out of the vehicle in the middle of Kruger National Park! We had some coffee and a few biscuits and watched some hippos in the water, all we could really see were their eyes popping out of the water. They almost looked like rocks.
We hit the road again and passed a bunch of different birds including storks & eagles, but my two favorite ones were the Kori Bustard & the Yellow-throated Longclaw.
We continued to drive towards our camp for lunch when we stopped near a watering hole to see some crocodiles relaxing near the edge and hippos in the middle of it.
While we were on our way back to camp our guide was ripped off to one of the big five, a leopard, that was sighted nearby. Of course, we put our lunch plans on hold and sped towards the leopard. It was pretty hidden in the tree, but my leopard spotting skills were better than most to start because I had seen a leopard during my East Africa Safari and knew a bit more about where to look. With some impressive maneuvering from our driver, we were able to get a perfect viewpoint for fantastic pictures!
Having seen the leopard, it was time for lunch - we were starving. Our safari vehicle dropped us off at camp so we could put our belongings in our tent and charge our batteries. Since it was daylight, I was able to appreciate the tent camp we had.
It warmed up quite a bit, so we changed into cooler clothes and headed to the restaurant for lunch. It was the first time we saw the restaurant during the day and the view from it was astounding. It overlooked a river which was a watering hole for the animals, including elephants and hippos which were across from us. A beautiful bird, a Greater Blue-eared starling, came right up to our table to try to steal some food.
Bellies full, we continued to relax in the restaurant. We ordered a few drinks and took in the view before heading back to the camp to get ready for our afternoon game drive. One of the first animals we came across is a very frequently seen one, an Impala, but this one had a red-billed oxpecker bird on its back. Even though impalas are a dime a dozen in Africa, I think they move gracefully and are beautiful animals.
As we continued down the road, we saw a lioness walking along the side of the road.
We then continued on and saw a tower of giraffes (a herd), zebras, and a few other animals and I snapped a few pictures I'm very proud of.
We continued to drive when our tour guides started going crazy - we had another sighting of wild dogs and some of them were literally on the road! Again, wild dogs are a very rare sighting and we now saw them two days in a row.
As the wild dogs walked into the sunset, we headed back to our camp for the evening. After dinner, we learned about the work that the K9 Project does to combat poaching. They essentially pair anti-poaching law enforcement with a dog who is able to pick up the scent of poachers and help track them in the bush.
We relaxed around the fire and, on my way back from the communal washrooms (which were pretty substantial as they were for the fully campsite, not just ours), I decided to try to use my phone to take a time lapse photo of the sky. It came out beautiful!
The following morning, we checked out of our campsite and headed out for one final game drive in Kruger National Park. We drove around a while before coming across a cheetah which was looking for it's brother. We knew that they were both about 2 kilometers apart, but they were struggling to find each other. We followed one as it walked towards the other, with it marking it's territory as it went to make sure that its brother would know the direction to move if it came across the scent. While we didn't ultimately see them reunite, we are pretty optimistic that they did.
We continued to drive out of Kruger National Park and passed a beautiful Vervet Monkey in a tree on the way.
We made one final stop at a viewpoint on the way out.
With that, we left Kruger National Park to head back to Johannesburg. It was quite a long ride, so we relaxed and made a few stops along the way. One of them was at a rest stop that had protected rhinos in a field right outside, this was my first time seeing a rhino as it was the only one of the big five that I personally did not see in East Africa. They had their horns removed to minimize the attractiveness of them to poachers, but it was still a sight to see.
As the sun was setting, we made it to our hotel in Johannesburg. It was in a fenced compound with barbed wire, which fit my previous understanding about the city. I had heard it was not as safe as Cape Town. We only had one night in the hotel, so we checked in, took a nice shower (needed after our two days in Kruger National Park), dropped our laundry off at the front desk, and went to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Some people went to a nightclub that the hotel organized, but I was starting to feel a bit under the weather so I decided to do the smart thing and stay in. I always get sick on Contiki's given the pace of the tour, so I wanted to try to be a more sensitive to it and take care of my body.
After relaxing by the fire with the other people that didn't go to the club, I decided to head to bed pretty early. We had an early morning flight to Zimbabwe the following day, on our way to Victoria Falls!