Backpack Trails in the Kruger National Park
I remember vividly our holidays as a kid in the Kruger Park. I was always a nature lover and these visits brought me to a place where I could encounter wildlife and experience nature on a level that satisfied my curiosity and made me happy.
However, as I got older I felt less satisfied after these visits and craved to take home more that I had previously been content with. It started when I noticed the broad hippo paths that come at you from one side of the tar road, disappear momentarily, to recommence on the other. I urged to jump out of the car to follow the path and see to where it would lead. My thirst for more made me explore other ways of experiencing the nature of the Kruger, and doing a night drive was the next progressive step. On reaching the required age, I did some morning walks from Kruger’s Rest Camps where one forgets the hunt of the Big 5 and is allowed to touch, smell, feel and taste nature up close. Thereafter, partaking in one of the Kruger’s seven Wilderness Trails was a no-brainer.
The Wilderness Trails began in the 1980s and are conducted in a wilderness area over a period of three nights and four days. They operate from a base camp to where guests return after a morning walk for a hearty brunch prepared for you by the camp cook. Dinner too is served in the evenings after sundowners. The camp has running water and ablution facilities and while there is no electricity, charming paraffin lanterns light your way. Trailists sleep in basic but comfortable A-frame huts under duvet and blanket. Surely it doesn’t get better than this. Or does it?
In 2006, the Kruger introduced the Backpack Trails, taking guests that ultimate step closer to nature. The Olifants River Backpack Trail was the first with the Mphongolo and Lonely Bull Backpack Trails developed a short time later. Rather than feeling the restrictions of a base camp, Trailists on a Backpack Trail pack all they need for four days and three nights into a backpack and are allowed to wander the Kruger Park, led of course by a suitably qualified and experienced Field Guide. All your own food, clothing and equipment are carried and water is either scooped from a permanent water source or from a shallow well your Guide will locate and dig. Sleeping is done in a tent and ablutions are carried out in the most primitive of ways.
My search for that elusive ‘thing’ since I was a child was made clear to me a few years ago; I was seeking Wilderness, not a place or a tangible thing, but a state of existence where the body, mind and soul take pleasure from the experience. It is a return to a more primitive living, uncluttered by the trivial and a reminder that life need not be the over-complicated mess we make it. That you can carry all you need in a backpack and live very comfortably for four days is proof of this. Wilderness makes us appreciate forgotten things like silence and brings us closer to the edge of ourselves for out there, we are at the mercy of the elements – the heat of the sun and reliance on limited water – and are forced us to take a closer look at ourselves. I state this with a touch of bias, but there is arguably no other way to get closer to the Wilderness experience in a dangerous game area than a Backpack Trail in the Kruger National Park. It is a journey every person should take.
All three Backpack Trails are conducted in the northern Kruger and the Phalaborwa Gate is the most convenient port of entry into the Park for all three. Bushveld Terrace therefore cannot be overlooked as both the preparatory springboard before as well as the oasis for reflection and introspection after a Trail. Booking details for the Backpack Trails can be found on the SANParks website. Then get in touch with us and we’ll cap off the rest.
Please feel free to drop me a line at da**@bu*************.za for more information.
