The Lonely Bull Trail is a primitive backpacking trail in one of the large wilderness areas in the northern Kruger National Park.
The trail stretches over 4 days and 3 nights and we had to carry our own tents, water and food and camp rough in the bush, with two armed guides to show us the way and make sure we did not get eaten.
This was the first multi-day hike for all of us and although we did loads of research, there was an enormous and somewhat scary unknown ahead.
My biggest fears:
So with these fairly serious animal and ablution concerns, combined with my track record as a seasoned unhappy camper, why on earth did we choose to do this?
The answer is pure, raw, real family adventure – we wanted to do something truly remarkable together and we share a deep love of the African bush. What better way to experience it than with just a bag on our backs, unhindered by technology and the pressures and routine of normal life.
Oh … and its WAY cheaper than the Kruger wilderness trails that we know and love (to be honest it was the only trail we could afford) 🙂
Here we were, waiting in the Mopani Rest Camp parking lot for our rangers, our borrowed and bought backpacks brimming with everything we thought we might need to survive three nights in the wild.
After meeting our rangers, Piet and Amos, we piled into an open safari vehicle and were dropped off 45 minutes later – deep in the middle of the bush, down a narrow gravel track marked with a no entry sign. A pile of backpacks and some essential equipment – first aid kit, rifles, bullets and ‘Ogre’ (an auger for digging holes for personal business).
First up, safety briefing number 1 – walk in single file, stay silent and whistle softly if we need anything or have any questions. We lugged our heavy packs onto our backs and set off. Piet stopped a few times along the way to show us some interesting things like lion and leopard spoor, spiders and birds eggs.
An hour or so on, and our packs were starting to get really heavy. As we approached our intended site for our first night’s camp, Piet spotted some vultures and waved at us to duck down quietly. We crouched around him and looked where he was pointing. There, in the riverbed where we were supposed to set up camp were three lions eating a freshly killed buffalo. “Thank goodness!” I thought – at least they won’t still be hungry, fear no 1 sorted.
We backed up slowly from the lion kill, adrenaline coursing through our veins – how incredibly lucky to see something so awesome on foot! Piet whispered to us that we needed to make our way a bit down the riverbed and find a new spot to set up camp. And as the light was fading fast, we needed to motor it.
We headed downwind from the lions to cross the riverbed, and nearly leapt out of our skin as we disturbed two honey badgers who gave us the death stare before trotting away. We were gobsmacked – we didn’t expect to see so much game on foot, but this trip was already like being inside NatGeoWild!
Nowhere near far enough away, Piet announced that we had found our site – access to clean water, firewood and a soft sandy base with visibility both ways. We set to work with the tents and I kept thinking about how the resident lions were now reclining with full bellies and would not be interested in a bunch of skinny humans.
Suddenly a huge growl reverberated right through our chests, and in an instant, Piet grabbed and cocked his rifle, pointing in the direction of a massive male lion who had come to check us out. Piet chuckled at our six pairs of wide eyes, as the lion loped away, casually dismissing the incident as curiosity from a cat.
With the perfect intro for safety briefing number 2, we were all ears. Absolutely nothing to worry about, said Piet. As far as he is aware, no one has ever been attacked in their tents even though animals like hyena, lions and elephants were very likely to come and sniff round our tents during the night.
The rules:
After dinner, we zipped ourselves into our tiny tents and switched our torches off. The only sound we heard the whole night besides the whooping and cackling hyenas was the snoring of our two rangers in stereo. It was a very long night indeed.
Yours in Travel
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