If you were a poacher or gun-runner a hundred years ago, this would have been one of your favourite places to go. Nowadays, Crook’s Corner is still an interesting place to visit. But I am running ahead of myself.
We drive up for a short distance along the Olifants river and then continue north along the Letaba river. We see many animals and have another close encounter with elephants. There are lots of water in the veld which still attests to a good rain season before. We stop at the Letaba rest camp for coffee (we never miss the opportunity to have coffee with a nice view!). The restaurant is also on the Letaba river. The camp is home to the Letaba Elephant Hall which is an information centre for the elephants of the Kruger.
We depart but first make a stop on the bridge over the Letaba river just outside the camp. In the middle of this long bridge you are allowed to disembark from your vehicle – it is easy to spot any dangerous animals that may approach you and it makes a good viewing point directly above the river. Nothing special here today.
Then we move on to the Mopani rest camp. The mopani bush, that covers most of the veld from Olifants to north of Shingwedzi, is not my favourite and becomes kind of boring after long distances. But closer to the rivers there are exceptions. The Mopani rest camp is situated on a dam and its restaurant and some of the guest houses have a beautiful view of it. We spend a short while here. There is also a beautiful baobab tree just inside the camp entrance.
We are now on the last stretch to the Shingwedzi rest camp where we will stay for 3 nights. The last couple of kilometers to the camp gate is along the Shingwedzi river and you are bound to find elephant, leopard, hyena and the like here. We check in and are quite surprised to find that our bungalow is one of the modern ones – also with a thatch roof but with a rectangular floor outlay. Our beds have been made with a special personal touch which includes a impala lily! The camp is managed well – the large open areas between the bungalows are raked on a daily basis and our kettle, that did not work, was replaced immediately.
We wake up at 5:00 the next morning with the roar of lions. We have mixed emotions of excitement combined with awe for these fearsome animals. They must be close to the rest camp. There is no question about sleeping further and we quickly make coffee, get dressed and then fall in line at the gate, waiting for it to open at 5:30 sharp. We are third in the queue. While waiting, another driver tells us the story of the previous gate guard who was killed by a leopard in the guard house – he left the window to the outside of the camp open. Now we are really amped, as my children would say! As the gate opens we leave taking a road towards the south where we thought we heard the roars coming from. Other cars think differently and take other directions. It is the draw of the luck (unless you are an old timer and knows exactly where the pride lives and is prepared to wait until they appear from the bushes).
The road takes us far around the camp, but we find no lions (we heard later that we were going in the right direction but missed them). We cross the Shingwedzi river just behind the camp and run into a troop of baboons sitting leisurely on the river bank next to the low water bridge admiring the sunrise. Interesting how much we are alike! We return to the camp for breakfast, seeing nothing more than the usual elephants, water buck and the like (sigh, we are spoiled by a week in the Kruger). We spend some time during the day to explore the camp and facilities and chatting with the camp manager. We also take a long time to observe the wild life on the other side of the Shingwedzi river from the camp’s lookout deck.
On our last day we are going to places we have not been before. Firstly, we are driving up to the Punda Maria rest camp which is popular amongst birders. It is a very small camp with minimal, but sufficient, facilities. The closer you get to Punda Maria the more interesting the environment becomes – more big trees and less mopani. After coffee there, we depart on a back road to the Pafuri picnic site. We see impressive baobabs on the way. One thing that bothers me, is a specific site next to the road, where some or other alien plant species has started to invade the veld to the extent that even some sizable trees are fully overgrown. I am aware that SANParks and the Honorary Rangers are attending to this problem in other parts of the Kruger, resources permitting.
On the approach to the picnic site, there are majestic baobab trees perched on the hill-side and quite a number of Nyala antelopes. The picnic site is on the bank of the Luvuvhu river with ample shade and you can borrow a gas braai from the SANParks officer to make your own breakfast or other meal. He also has boiling water ready for your coffee. Today we are alone here and this makes it even more special – just us, the river flowing quietly by and some nyala feeding on the grass and then moving cautiously down the river bank to drink.
From here it is just a few kilometres through a fever tree forest to Crook’s Corner where the Luvuvhu and the Limpopo rivers join, before running through Mozambique. This is South Africa’s north-eastern most corner. A hundred years or so ago, this area was the hiding place for crooks who wanted to escape law enforcement. It was very inaccessible and if you were found, you could just flee over the invisible border line to the Zimbabwe or Mozambique sides without being followed. We spend about half an hour here with a number of other visitors who seem to be spending the day, reading books or sharing stories.
On our way back to the main road, we pass the Pafuri border gate to Mozambique. It looks like it is closed due to Covid.
It is a long drive back to Shingwedzi, but the day was really worth our while, having seen places we have only heard of before. Tonight is our last night in the Kruger (for now at least!) and a braai, with the sounds of the night life inside and outside the camp, contemplated over a glass of red wine, is an absolute must. We are só blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy this!
