A year ago we had plans to visit our family & friends in the UK but Covid put an indefinite pause to that. We were hoping that we might be able to go this year, but as SA is still on their ‘red’ list we turned our attention to an escape to Kruger instead. We managed to pick up some cancellations and squeeze a good couple of weeks of camping bookings into the downsized school holidays starting 10th July staying at Berg en Dal, Crocodile Bridge and Satara. However, with less than 2 weeks to go and Covid cases rising in SA, along came a ‘family meeting’ on 27 June where we waited to find out from the president if we would be allowed to travel at all.
The meeting brought good news and bad news. We were still allowed to travel, but they changed the school holidays to a week earlier, and Sanparks put a block on all accommodation alterations up to 11th July until the government decided whether they had to have 50% capacity or not. Once that got cleared up and the bookings re-opened we scrambled to adjust our plans to fit in with the updated school holiday and set off just a few days later with an updated itinerary of camping at Skukuza and Satara, plus a break in the middle in one of the huts in Lower Sabie… the great escape was on!
We hit the road from PE as soon as curfew allowed at 4am, and were well on our way through the Eastern Cape when it started to come light.
Traffic was much lighter than normal along the N1 through the Free State now that Gauteng residents were no longer allowed to travel without valid reasons (although we were to see a number of very suspicious GP plated cars in Kruger
). 
Transit through Gauteng was supposed to be allowed under the latest lockdown regulations, but no-one seemed to be totally clear on how it was being policed so we were a bit nervous as we came across a number of roadblocks. Thankfully no questions were asked (perhaps that’s not a good sign
), and we made record time to our overnight stop in Middelburg. 
Monday July 5th
The next morning we were up early and through to Nelspruit for stocking up on supplies before heading into Kruger at Phabeni gate. We took the direct route along the S1 to Skukuza, and there was the usual array of game seen along the way.
Nyamundwa was all quiet except for some hippos in the distance
A rather large bull was getting a decent mud treatment
We’ve never seen all that many warthog in Kruger before, but this trip they seemed to be everywhere!
Close to Skukuza this giant was part of the welcoming committee
Thankfully the weather wasn’t too hot so setting up camp was easy enough (finding an empty site was the hard part). After a big journey it was great to relax!
![[Luv]](./images/smilies/icon_cuinlove.gif "Love"){kind=icon}
![[InLuv]](./images/smilies/icon_liebhab.gif "In Love"){kind=icon}
Roger!
