Two - one of a kind - Mphongolo Back-pack Trails (Part 1)

Walking out into the wilderness along the Bububu River around Ponda Hills.

Being in West Africa has meant taking a break from doing back-pack trails in Kruger. I never thought this would be hard, but when you have been walking around Kruger for close to eight years its difficult to adjust to a life away from it all. So with my name down of the schedule for two trails I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to get back to what I know best.

For the first trail I chose one of my favourite areas within the park, The Ponda Hills. This place offers scenery not matched easily elsewhere, along with a real feel for wilderness being in the heart of Kruger. after briefing my guest we headed out to see what lay before us baring only our footprints in the soil as we walked.

Although having walked this area countless times before it is different each time I walked to the hills, this time was no exception. The floods in January had changed the area slightly, now with  a lot more water around and some scaring from the high water level, game seemed scarce. It was the right time of the year to catch the change in colour of the Mopane trees. The Mopane trees start to go their golden brown colours making it difficult to find game yet bringing out the most enriched golden colours one can see.

The drying pan where we camped the first night

Our first stop was a small breeding herd alongside the Bububu, we watch until they heard us moving around and moved off rapidly. We then headed on towards our campsite. We decided to camp next to a pan that had already started to dry up. After setting up camp we headed down to the Bububu to look for cleaner water, we heard a breeding herd of elephants feeding and making a noise further downstream so we went onto investigate and we watched a herd of around 20 elephants feeding in the alluvial bank, we watched them as they got closer and we felt we had over stayed our welcome and moved back to find some water for the night. Without a cloud in sight, we looked up to the heavens on a new moon night to see the vast array of stars, to later look to the fire for warmth.

That night was uneventful, we had one young bull elephant investigate the camp and walk around it. This was told in the morning by his tracks he had left behind. We went on our way planning to summit the Hill. With overcast chilly weather it was perfect for a day of climbing. we past a giraffe carcass which had probably been killed by lions, with no lions in the area though we carried on. We reached the hilltop and sat looking out over the horizon into Kruger, a vast area where wild animals roam undeterred by human influence.  A few giraffe heads sticking out and impala could be seen from the summit. We disturbed a Scops-owl roosting in a tree and had a great sighting of it where it landed in the another tree after it was flushed out. In the descent we stubbled across a African Rock Python ready to strike whoever put their foot in front of its face. We stopped to admire it before leaving it hiding in the grass as still as we found it.

Time had come and we made our way back stopping by a permanent waterhole which meant nothing after the flood caused water to sit abundantly in the Bububu stream. We went back to camp, backed up and heading up to a secret spot over looking the valley as the next nights two camp-spot. We got to the top in time to watch the sun disappear and so we hurried to set up camp and sat quietly on top of the hill and then settled in for a quiet evening. 

Breeding herd drinking before moving off into the mopaneveld

The next morning with a cup of coffee on the rocks I listened for any possibilities of life. A leopard down in the valley could be heard making his rounds, the faint call of hyeana were also breaking the silence, a breeding herd of elephant could be heard faintly. With excitement in the day we prepared for a trip down into the valley looking for signs of life. We came across yet another heard of elephant down at the waterhole and seeing they were going to move towards the hills we crossed the river on a dry river bed and sat on the other side watching them coming down to drink before they moved on away from the river. This all unknowing to them. We headed on down the river stumbled onto a young bull heading upstream, this was all great fun as we watched him tail it into the mopane undergrowth. Not intentional but we were too loud and clumsy as a group to sneak off to the side to watch him pass. We rested in the canopy of riverine bush and had our breakfast. With the cathedral of trees over our heads, one does not want to leave. Yet we had a date with the sunset and so headed on to our sun-downer. We made it and sitting on top of the hill over looking the golden mopaneveld one can't help but get that feeling you sitting on top of gold.  Maybe even this is how the rumours spread of gold being found in these parts. We were not alone, from the top we saw elephants, giraffe, impala and right next to us a Dassie would pop its head out to have a look at us.

Sunset over the Ponda Hills, "Silence is Golden".

Our day ended and evening settled in, with no fire to keep us warm, we listen for night calls. Hyeana in the distance and the stars peeping out of the disappearing cloud cover, even with new moon we could see each others faces. With only a single light on the horizon we were surrounded by the beauty of starlight. early the next morning we woke to the coughing of a leopard walking at the base of the hill and the dassies giving there alarm call as our alarm clock. We rose and reflected on the trip as we packed our tents up for a slow walk out. Arriving at the trailer we scared off and herd of wildebeest and transition to seeing what a vehicle looked like or a road for that matter. We headed back to Shingwedzi, for some it was back to the rat race of life, for me it was back into the wilderness for the next trail...

Having a morning cup of Tea over looking Ponda Hills

Early morning light looking for animals down in the valley and listen out for calls coming from the surrounds.