EXPEDITION WILD
Olifants Primitive Wilderness trail
The heart of the central Kruger National Park
Expedition Basics:
6 night extended primitive backpacking trail exploring the Olifants River valley.
The region is a harsh contrast from the lush river system to the surrounding Olifants rugged veld type characterised by its rocky wooded habitat.
September 2018 - late dry season, hot and dry!
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Overview:
The Olifants wilderness area extends along the northern and southern banks of the river as it flows eastwards through the Kruger National Park along its journey into Mozambique and the Indian ocean. The trail begins at the western boarder of the kruger as it leaves the adjacent private nature reserves that extent the contiguous conservation area westwards into what is now the Kruger to Canyon biosphere. The trail hugs the river course eastwardly as it winds its way through the surrounding wilderness devoid of humans with its harsh but spectacular rocky outcrops and large mainly dry river beds that cut the landscape into undulating valleys giving relief to this arid region.
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Description:
The area has recently endured a major drought and in this already arid region one can hardly contemplate the impact on the surrounding fauna and flora as it seems already so arid and harsh, not what you would ordinarily expect on a major river system. The river is truly the life blood of this region and as you leave the river the baron, rocky landscape dominates.
Buffalo are scarce which is not surprising as grass cover is hard to find especially at this time of the year, but then one realises the plight of the large hippo population as seen by the numerous worn paths that transect the landscape for miles in there search of fresh grazing each night. On our route we decided to cut one of the large bends in the river and head inland following these well worn paths to a spring which even our local guides had not been too before. The well worn paths and spoor leading in and out of the spring gave us the feeling just how precious this late dry season spring was to the creatures that clearly depend on it.
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The trail eastwards from the Kruger boundary was hard going along the river with its many long stretches of sand, steep banks and rocky outcrops. Hippos where of-coarse common and we walk right past a few sleeping giants, luckily without incident. Kudu, waterbuck and impala where common and seemed always in view, elephants where never far away and we saw a number of small breeding herds especially during the hotter part of the day, with the odd dagga boy hanging around. The birding was also great, one noticeable local resident was the hooded vulture that could be seem regularly in and around their many nests in the tall riverine trees lining the river banks, and we where also lucky to see Pel’s Fishing owl. The lions and hyena’s also kept us well aware at night that we where not alone with there distant calls, the weather was hot, the river cool and refreshing during our many daily wallows and of course another great team that made this EPIC trip.
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