Results 21 to 30 of 73
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29-04-2017, 19:09 #21
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Location
- Bryanston
- Posts
- 1,461
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29-04-2017, 19:24 #22
- Join Date
- Apr 2014
- Age
- 37
- Posts
- 3,277
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29-04-2017, 21:13 #23
- Join Date
- Feb 2015
- Location
- KZN
- Age
- 63
- Posts
- 1,445
Re: Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
Please do a write-up, Skaap!
I thoroughly enjoyed the hikes I did when a lot younger.
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29-04-2017, 21:26 #24
- Join Date
- Oct 2013
- Location
- near pmb, kzn.
- Age
- 36
- Posts
- 2,494
Re: Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
I've been hiking in golden Gate national park this weekend, back home on Monday.
Keen for the next challenge, looking forward to your write up.
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29-04-2017, 23:54 #25
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- Gauteng
- Age
- 51
- Posts
- 3,602
Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
Yup, please do a detailed write up on this experience when you have a moment.
We have been doing the KNP hiking trials (hiking from a rural camp site each day) for the last few years and live them. That said, would like to find out about the hiking with full kit option...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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30-04-2017, 09:39 #26
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
- Location
- Kzn
- Posts
- 3,147
Re: Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
Agreed Mnr, please do a trip report.
Stay Bladed.
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30-04-2017, 09:43 #27
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- False Bay, Cape Town /\/¯¯¯¯¯\/\
- Age
- 53
- Posts
- 4,172
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30-04-2017, 15:43 #28
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Location
- PMB
- Posts
- 702
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30-04-2017, 20:36 #29
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Virtutopia
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 9,390
Re: Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
I would also love a write up. Very interested in the gear and food you took.
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30-04-2017, 21:29 #30
Re: Lonely Bull hiking trail, Kruger National Park
Olay. Where to start? I cannot describe the experience in words or pictures.
We started out on Wednesday. We were dropped on the southern bank of the Letaba, about 8km from the nearest tar and public access road. From there we hiked southwards.
Pretty soon we were shown where elephants dug for water in a riverbed, and were then shown how to do it ourselves. Much to my surprise, this hole in the ground was suddenly our life-line. Our only source of water, as sulphuric as it smells, and as yellow as it looks, and as organic (not in a good way) as it tasted, this was all we had.
We made camp about 200m from there in a nice bend in the river, with a rock face as backdrop. The night gave us sounds of scops and pearl spotted owl(et)s, hyenas and lion.
The next morning we kept south, following some fresh lion spoor for a possible sighting. Unfortunately they eluded us. We had a close encounter with a dagha boy when one of the ladies startled it during a toilet break, which made for a few tense moments. Luckily the sound of a .458 cartridge getting chambered made it think twice about a charge.
From there we walked to find water, to find it occupied by a big ellephant bull. We sat on the banks watching him, with the wind blowing our scent directly toward him. He was not bothered, and after about 20 minutes he calmly walked past us, not 10m from where we were sitting. Unbelievable experience.
We had dug a fresh water hole and made lunch and had a siesta, from where we had a pretty hard walk to where we wanted to camp again.
Impossible as it seemed, this campsite was even more picturesque than the first, again in a dry riverbed. The guides let us decide where set up camp, but after we chose, they pointed out that it's right next to a well-used elephant path, and that our presence may prevent them from drinking. We moved about 300m onwards.
We found a place to dig for water again, about 100m from the tents. This night the lions roared quite a bit, and we could audibly track the pride. I woke up early to take a leak, with the sky still very grey. As I finished I saw three big grey animals moving towards our water hole, and without my glasses I assumed them to be hippo. I made a tactical retreat to my tent, from where I got the bins, only to realise that it was 3 rhinos coming for a drink. They were very skittish, and when another hiker unzipped his tent, they vanished. Going to collect water for the day showed very clear evidence that a male leopard visited the water hole during the night as well.
We broke up camp, for another close encounter with a buff, and finally reached the Letaba. Our guides found us a shallow pool with no crocs, and we were able to cool down a bit. The feeling of running water is immense, after two days of having practically only survival water with us.
Our drinking water from then on came from the Letaba, which is quite polluted. Our water drops were used religiously from then on.
Our last camp was on the sand, on the bank of the Letaba. Absolutely breathtaking. Crocs and hippo around us all night.
The final day saw a short walk to the pickup point, where we were greeted with cold beers. After 4 days of suspect, luke-warm water, this went down very well!
I'll update tomorrow with gear and food, tips and lessons learnt.Sent electronically, thus not signed.
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