Text and photographs by Romi Boom
Source: This article was taken from the Autumn 2011 issue of Wild Magazine
Known as the birding mecca of South Africa, the Punda Maria-Pafuri region of Kruger is the jewel of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Romi Boom falls under the spell of its heart-rending beauty.
The impala lies hardly 20 metres from our safari vehicle. Crouching in a semi-upright position alongside her, the leopard. On the impala’s side of the kill scene, dozens of petrified impala and quite a few zebra snort, grunt and squeal. The sound travels far, it is not so much wailing as telling off. We are witness to a cacophony of bewildered, but angry impala. It is a standoff with a leopard, and no doubt they are expressing collective abhorrence at the dirty deed. They are not afraid it will come for one of them. Once its presence has been revealed, leopard cannot outrun impala. After a while, the leopard slinks away, not quite gracefully.
Hooray, we think, good riddance. What a pretty little ewe she was. Then behold! The impala stands up, Lazarus from the dead, shakes herself ever so slightly, and hobbles away on wonky legs. Shell-struck. My telephoto lens reveals she has a skin wound, a flap of tissue hanging from her jaw, but she seems okay. If only her heart will hold out.
Almost exactly twelve hours later, in the early morning glow of the sandstone cliffs near Lanner Gorge, we see a smudge of tan and black. Or perhaps two smudges? Did it go left? Or right? Perplexed, we hold our breaths while Pafuri Camp’s Land Cruiser crawls forward. Then we spot it, beside the track, five metres to our right. A half-grown leopard, a cub no more, separated from its mother, who scampered the other way. An adolescent, old enough for mom to decide, you’re on your own now, handle the situation. With the aplomb of youth, it saunters into the undergrowth.
We’re in the extreme north of Kruger National Park, and within a day we’ve tallied two leopard sightings. Not to mention the lion kill we saw en route to Pafuri, on the main road north of Sirheni, where the vegetation starts to change from flat, featureless mopaneveld to tree mopane savannah. Two lionesses on an early morning stroll with two cubs, cute as can be. Next thing, a tawny flash from the left across the tarmac. Seconds later, the apparition turns out to be a third lioness, who now has an impala dangling from her jaws. All of this still on the H1. What a sight to see the little ones make a beeline for their aunt and her quarry. The big girls didn’t look hungry, nor would the slight antelope have fed the lot. We imagine the hunt was for the benefit of the rookies.
At Punda Maria we are welcomed by camp manager Christo Knox, who has lived in Kruger for 30 years and attended the primary school at Skukuza. Christo has been at Punda for five years and relishes the peace and quiet, compared to some of the busier camps in the south. That said, the occupancy of the luxury tents at Punda is 95 per cent year round, and the popularity of the 25 km Mahonie loop is legendary. That afternoon, we see a buffalo herd, hundreds strong. Impressive stuff.
“This is a drive you can do at four in the afternoon,” says Christo. “You are likely to see nyala, buffalo, kudu, elephant, perhaps lion and leopard. Where else in Kruger can you sit with lion for 40 minutes without anyone else crowding your sighting?”
Christo gets a faraway glance when he speaks of scarce antelope such as eland, roan, suni and Sharpe’s grysbok, of flowers such as yellow devil’s thorn, sjambok pod and impala lily, of birds such as pennant-winged nightjars and bronze-wing coursers which you see in December and January. It turns out it was a good decision after all to visit the Pafuri region in the off-season. The camp is surrounded by mixed sandveld woodlands and mountains, and when the temperatures drop in the evening, the climate is pleasant.
In the morning, en route to the Thulamela Iron-Age archeological site, we discover one of the most beautiful drives in the whole of Kruger. Guides Alfred Nelukalo and Jobe Shabangu explain that whether you go at sunset on a night drive, or on a morning walk, Nyala Drive is luminescent with dozens of shades of green. In January, in the rainy season, the most striking hue is lime-green, grass which mirrors the trunks of the fever trees.
Thulamela can be visited on a guided tour only, organised through Punda Maria. It is an easy 40-minute hike through alluvial forest. The site dates from 1200 AD and has been restored following its discovery in 1991. There are signs of regular elephant visits and it is clear they knock over walls while grazing on the grass inside the fortress. Artefacts include pottery shards and whetting stones with deep groove indentations made by hand axes.
From Punda we drive across the Luvuvhu River bridge to Wilderness Safaris’ Pafuri Camp, one of two private safari lodges in the Makuleke Concession. Following the Makuleke land claim, a deal was brokered with government that the clan would enter into a private-sector partnership to develop new tourism facilities in the north. The luxury tents of rustic Pafuri Camp are sprawled along the winding river bank and The Outpost, an ultramodern boutique lodge, is situated high above the Luvuvhu. Both will revert to the Makuleke community once the 20-year grant has run its course.
The Luvuvhu River drive to Crooks’ Corner (S63) is one of the most spectacular in all of Kruger. While access to the Limpopo Pans that teem with migrant water birds in summer is reserved for guests at Pafuri Camp and The Outpost, everyone can enjoy the Luvuvhu River drives. No more mopane trees, instead we cross a flood plain of thornveld. The forest is a thick riverine bush, populated by ghostly jaundiced trunks, interspersed with copses of palm trees. Bushwillows, silver cluster-leaf and white syringa trees form a dense blanket.
Game is abundant, plentiful nyala and a fair number of kudu and bushbuck graze peacefully in the shadow of baobabs. Many of these characterful giants, some of which are 4000 years old, have been ravaged by elephant trunks. This confirms that we are deep in elephant territory, in a primeval African landscape with an ancient history.
We manage a glimpse of the Mozambican and Zimbabwean shores where the two mighty rivers meet. This is a place of legend and adventure, where rough-and-ready big game hunters and gunrunners lived as outlaws by hopping along the many bush paths from one country to the next. Theirs was an ivory trail, a network of trade with precious cargo destined for the interior and the Mozambican harbours, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Because of heavy downpours the previous days we are denied access to Crooks’ Corner, nevertheless we penetrate the alluvial floodplains and persevere to the edge of the famous fever tree forest. An aficionado of lush, tropical, verdant landscapes, I am in seventh heaven.
Starting with our big cat introduction to the supposedly game-poor far north of Kruger, our sightings have been incredible. Within 48 hours of arriving at Pafuri, I ticked 96 species of birds on my checklist. From relative amateur, I have morphed into an avid twitcher, who has uploaded close on a thousand bird calls to my mobile. For me, the call of Kruger has become the call of the extreme north.
More info on the area of Lowveld | More info on the Mpumalanga area |