Xmas Day 2025

Today was like any other day in the wilds of Kruger National Park. It didn’t feel like Xmas, not that it’s been a day I’m that keen on since the kids were little. We were all pretty keen to get back into the bush, so with a quick “merry Xmas’ between the touring party of six, we were in the capable hands of FJ and Mike.

The reason I’ve been a Grinch at Xmas is because of the day’s mass commercialisation.

Shops have Xmas merchandise out in October and Easter hot cross buns out on Boxing Day! The poor Messiah has barely spent a day on earth and the supermarkets are nailing him up! I’m afraid it has lost its true meaning for me. I don’t reckon Jesus would approve and quite frankly he deserves better.

Yesterday, within five minutes we spotted a leopard in a tree with a dead impala he had recently captured. He had clearly had a gutful and was lying limp over a big branch sleeping with one eye open.

This morning we found him asleep in the grass near the tree, guts still full and dreaming like a pet dog with a twitch. Incredibly cute.

In the afternoon we returned and he was gorging on the headless impala in the tree. Everyone was silent as we uniformly did for all the viewings and you could hear the leopard crunching through the impala’s bones.

Lynda took this terrific photo of the leopard feeding and the scraps being cleaned up by a hyena.

In the interest of time I might just download some photos and the odd comment from what was another incredible day. Its late and we are off tomorrow. I doubt we will be able to sleep on the plane to Cape Town while we relive the memories of Idube.

I think one of the keys to the Lodge’s success is the fact only a maximum of twenty four guests can stay at any one time. It just provides a calm atmosphere for the staff who work like FIFO’s in Australia, four to six weeks on and two to four weeks off.

Everything here is understated, laid back, unpretentious and ultimately super relaxing. The perfect holiday spot and no surprise the three couples we shared the tours with were all on honeymoons. Lovely young couples from New York, Philadelphia and Sweden.

Elephants. We came a cross a large herd on day two eating their way along a plain of grass, almost in military formation. There was a  collective scream of joy upon the sighting, especially from the old people in the Jeep…that being us.

One of the funniest moments was seeing these four baby warthogs playing like kids while mum filled up on grass. Very amusing.

Water Buffalo. Caught these two having a chat in a spa. Apparently they are good fighters and cause considerable damage with those horns.

African Wild Dogs. A pack of about thirty were hidden in long grass a foot away from us when suddenly a couple of hyena entered the fray and the dogs jumped up simultaneously and chased the hyenas away. Scared the bejeezus out of us.

Zebra are simply majestic as are giraffes and we caught sight of quite a few.

Not a lot of crocodile siting’s but they share the waterholes mainly with rhinos and hippos.

Hippos are Lynda’s favourite (lets face it there are similarities to myself) and we saw lots of them in various states, either asleep in the water with a heron on their back or yawning with those 30cm long fangs. Awesome creatures along with the rhinos which were a bit shy.

Hyenas are natures cleaners along with vultures. They can also be relentless when in packs when it comes to pulling down some prey. Shifty buggers but play their role to perfection.

The wilder beast got a bad rap from our guide FJ for being a bit stupid, ‘the belt not going through all their loops’ etc but they are an impressive beast close up.

It’s very hard to take your eyes off the big cats especially when they are snoozing. They look so serene it feels like you could pop one in the car and take him home, only to discover he’s clawed your arm from the shoulder with one swipe of his paw.

There was much, much more as we drove through the myriad of trails in the park. The vehicle was a converted Toyota 4WD and very comfortable given the state of the tracks at times.

We felt safe at all times with FJ and Mike. FJ is very experienced, carries a rifle and is 205cm tall.  We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. 10/10.