Chasing the Big 5 on Safari in Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa, and named after its visionary founder Paul Kruger. The park contains the Big 5 – a term that was coined by big-game hunters in the colonial days and refers to the 5 most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Cape Buffalo. As part of our Southern Africa trip, we were fortunate to visit Kruger for a few days and spent an entire day on safari within the national park.

We stayed at the Protea Kruger Gate Lodge which was literally a few minutes away from one of the gates to the park. While we were there, there had been Leopard sightings near the lodge and the staff were cautioning visitors to be vigilant. It was exciting yet terrifying at the same time – knowing that we were in such close proximity to a wild predator, yet apprehensive about actually coming face to face with it!

Bust of Paul Kruger at the gate entrance welcoming visitors

We started out in the wee hours of the morning, and the open safari vehicle made for a chilly start

The Big 5

Our day started with an early morning game drive in an open safari vehicle as we hoped to maximize our time in the park. We had another drive before a quick lunch time at a small camp, and finally one more outing in the late afternoon before it was sadly time to head back to the lodge. It must have been our lucky day, because we managed to see each of the headliners (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Cape Buffalo) within the same day! Our knowledgeable guide played a big part in that – he took us to multiple watering holes and a few different parts of the African bush to help our exhilarating quest for the Big 5 through the day.

Similar to during our Chobe River Safari in Botswana – being in Kruger and viewing these majestic wild animals in person turned out to be such an awe inspiring experience. Our only regret about this bucket list experience was that we couldn’t spend more time in Kruger, since we had a flight to catch to Cape Town for the rest of our South Africa trip.

The first sight that greeted us as we drove into the park – couple of Rhinos out for their morning jog

This Lioness captivated us with her piercing gaze

These Elephants on the other hand refused to pose for us and gave us the cold shoulder

Cape Buffalo making its way to one of the watering holes

Can you spot the Leopard?

The Supporting Cast

Besides the Big 5, Kruger National Park is also host to hundreds of other types of animals, birds and native vegetation. During our game drives we also came a cross a variety of these other animals and birds within the park – such as Giraffe, Impala, Baboon, Warthog, Kudu, Jackal, Vultures and Crocodile.