Hamakuya (aka basically the middle of nowhere)

                After leaving Skukuza, we spent nine days in Hamakuya, which is located just above the northern edge of Kruger National Park. In order to reach there, we had to spend about 12 hours driving through the park. It took so long because it is a national park and there are strict speed restrictions on all of the roads. We were able to drive in our game drive vehicles (GDV’s) which are open-backed trucks with benches and an overhead covering – basically the stereotypical safari vehicle. The benefit of this was that we got to see a lot of amazing scenery and animals. Not even 15 minutes into the drive, we were stopped while we watched a leopard stalking some oblivious impala. Unfortunately the leopard lost interest, so we didn’t get to see a kill take place. We also saw a herd of about 30 elephants which was incredible, and several herd of buffalo which was exciting because it was first time that we had seen them. Sadly though, we went the entire day without seeing a lion. It’s pretty surprising that we have already had multiple sightings of wild dogs and leopards which are relatively rare, but we still have yet to see a lion, which are a lot more common in these areas. Although it was great to see all of the animals, being in a GDV for such a long time is pretty uncomfortable because you constantly have to deal with wind in your face, which made it a very cold, loud and dusty experience.  It also rained at one point, meaning that we all got soaked.

While we were at Hamakuya we stayed in platform tents that overlooked a river. There wasn’t a lot of free space and we only had electricity for a few hours a day because it ran on a generator, but the views were beautiful. A lot of local villages let their cattle roam free, so there was always a constant clanging of cowbells by the river. There were also a lot of baboons in the area which was annoying at times. They can be very loud and would often wake me up very early in the morning. It was definitely the hottest there than it has been. Although it wasn’t too humid, by the middle of the day it was really hot. Our tents had large decks off of them, so it was nice to be able to sit out there and try to catch a breeze.