By Roxanne Reid
If you’ve stayed at Kruger National Park’s Satara camp you’ll know that you can tick off the Big Five in a matter of a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Sometimes it’s just too much excitement. So we like to spend time at Kruger’s Sweni hide: an antidote for Big Five Fever.
If you’ve stayed at Kruger National Park’s Satara camp you’ll know that you can tick off the Big Five in a matter of a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Sometimes it’s just too much excitement. So we like to spend time at Kruger’s Sweni hide: an antidote for Big Five Fever.
On a recent visit, the closest we got to the Big Five at the Kruger National Park's Sweni Hide were the sounds of elephant tummies rumbling offstage. Onstage was a parade of African jacanas, openbill storks, pied wagtails, whitebacked night herons and goliath herons. A small group of impalas tiptoed to the water’s edge to drink while a sprinkling of crocs dozed and a pod of hippos snorted gleefully in the water. A giant kingfisher flew past low over the water on the lookout for lunch.
The views from Sweni hide, a place to chill while watching birds and other animals go about their daily lives
Then calm returned to the waterside. Red and blue dragonflies hovered over the water. There was a turquoise flash of kingfisher streaking towards the rocky outcrops of the Lebombo mountains, and a water thick-knee appeared on the far edge where a croc had slunk silently into the water.
This hide along the Sweni River southeast of the humming camp of Satara is a good place to chill and be calm, to recognise that you don’t need the Big Five when you can get a quiet insight into the lives of their smaller creature-cousins.
This hide along the Sweni River southeast of the humming camp of Satara is a good place to chill and be calm, to recognise that you don’t need the Big Five when you can get a quiet insight into the lives of their smaller creature-cousins.
Impala drinking from the river in front of the hide
A hippo barked a sudden warning and a bigger baboon burst onto the scene with a rock star swagger. Without a second thought, he invaded her patch and she jumped to another rock to give him space. But this boss baboon didn’t understand the value of quiet contemplation and careful eating; before long he rushed into the bushes barking like crazy and there was a short tussle and much screaming in a nearby tree.
Sweni hide is a good place for bird watching and spotting crocs
You may or may not see some of the Big Five at Sweni hide, but you'll discover that it doesn't matter
Most entertaining was the small troop of baboons searching in the mud for food. One of them turned over handfuls to find what looked like a water lily bulb, then jiggled it around a bit in the water to rinse it before taking one quick bite to open it, a few bites of the inside, then discarded the outside.
She jumped to a second rock and then a third in two quick bounds and an openbill took flight. She held her tail horizontal and high out of the water while she fed. Her muddied hands looked like little brown gloves, but she never dipped too far into the mud to get her arms dirty.
She jumped to a second rock and then a third in two quick bounds and an openbill took flight. She held her tail horizontal and high out of the water while she fed. Her muddied hands looked like little brown gloves, but she never dipped too far into the mud to get her arms dirty.
More about Kruger National Park
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
