Camping in Kruger

my "tent sweet tent" for SH2015

I am not a camper. I never really did it as a child with my family. We preferred going to our cottage at the Jersey shore. I didn't go to sleep-away summer camp or even to Girl Scouts camp. The first time I actually remember camping in a pup tent occurred after we moved to Florida.

In high school and college, I did go on a few canoeing trips in central Florida where we camped in tents on the shore along the way. I liked the canoeing part and the being with my friends part, but I only tolerated the camping. And once, I even camped in a replica of a Native American teepee which we constructed in our college Anthropology class! Talk about reaping what you "sew."

inside my tent

As an adult, I've only camped as a means to an end and if it was the only way to experience something else. For instance, we camped on the bottom of the Grand Canyon when we whitewater rafted down the Colorado River. (We did stay one night in a cabin at Phantom Ranch.) And we camped in pup tents inside the lighthouse on Monomoy Island off Cape Cod - no running water or electricity on the entire island.

It's not sleeping on the ground and cooking outdoors that I mind. It's just that I do not like to be quite that vulnerable to creepy crawly critters and I simply never ever feel really clean when I camp. And most importantly, I do not consider going to the bathroom a team sport.



But I decided not to dwell on the negatives at the Lower Sabie camp site where we were staying while we excavated SH2015 Gaza Gray. Lower Sabie graces the banks of the Sabie River, one of the few perennial rivers to flow through Kruger National Park.

I chose instead to concentrate on the positives. Like the continuous sounds of lions, elephants, hyenas, jackals, bushbabies, baboons and hippos in the evenings. Or the cacophony of birdsong to wake me up at dawn and the visits by little friends such as squirrels and agamas.

And the sky! I almost didn't mind having to walk to the ablution block in the middle of the night because if I looked up, I was able to experience the most beautiful celestial show above.

the deck of the Mug & Bean ...

... overlooking the Sabie River

And the view from the deck of the Mug & Bean next to camp. It overlooked the Sabie River which was always full of hippos and elephants, birds and antelope, no matter what time of day.









But as nice as it was sleeping under the stars at Lower Sabie, I still prefer National Park Lodges with private toilets and showers. Does anyone want to buy a used sleeping bag?