THE oldest of all the Kruger rest camps, Pretoriuskop, is imbued with a sense of history.
The simple huts that once accommodated visitors have benefited from the rest camp’s recent upgrading, but there is something about the camp buildings and lay-out that hark back to yesteryear. This atmosphere is enhanced by the magnificent old trees that provide visitors with welcome shade.
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The basic wattle and daub hut built in 1930 to accommodate visitors is still standing and is a reminder of a far less sophisticated era. Back then, visiting a game reserve was a far less comfortable experience that it is today.
Known as the Wolhuter hut, this little rondavel is named after Harry Wolhuter, one of Kruger’s pioneer rangers. He is renowned for many reasons, one of them being for surviving a horrific lion attack in 1903. Although wounded, he managed to escape by stabbing the lion with his hunting knife.
Pretoriuskop also boasts one of the park’s first swimming pools, an attractive, natural rock pool that is a delight on a hot day. What a luxury it must have been when it was first openede.
Best of all, though, is Pretoriuskop’s idyllic setting in one of Kruger’s most beautiful corners. Boasting the highest altitude of all the rest camps, it is situated in hilly, well-watered countryside, boasting fairly lush vegetation.
The camp is surrounded by lovely little loops roads and short drives that are such a joy to explore. They weave their way through piles of balancing boulders and huge, sun-bleached domes, giant bubbles of rock festooned with trees and bushes and fringed with long grass.
While the long grass does hamper game viewing at times, a little patience will more than likely reward the visitor with good game sightings. We almost always see elephants stepping carefully over the rocky terrain to graze on the lush vegetation and there are usually a few buffaloes around.
We were lucky to find sable there a few years ago. Mostly, though, it is wild dogs and klipspringers that we associate with Pretoriuskop. We have been lucky with sightings of both these rare creatures in the area surrounding the gracious old camp.
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In fact, after vainly searching for elusive wild dogs for many years, Pretoriuskop was the first place I ever saw them. The memory of that first close-up encounter with a pack of painted wolves, so many years ago, will stay with me for ever.
You never have enough time for everything you want to see and do when you visit Kruger and we were only able to manage a single day at Pretoriuskop. Although it is one of our very favourite camps, it is fairly close to home for us so on this trip we’d assigned more of our precious holiday time to visiting the less accessible central and northern areas.
We spent a wonderful afternoon doing our favourite little drives round the rest camp, enjoying the incredible natural beauty more than looking out for game. We found some balancing ellies tiptoeing around the rocks and were thrilled to spot the usual klipspringer. Bird life was, as always, amazing. Then, as we headed for home we found three old buffaloes lying on a rocky slope, catching the last rays of the sun.
They looked the picture of contentment. Although we didn’t see any wild dogs, we had been privileged to have two excellent encounters with different packs on the first two days of this Kruger trip, so we couldn’t really complain.
The sun was setting when we reached the camp but we had time to take a tree-hugging and bird watching walk around pretty Pretoriuskop before lighting our braai fire. Later, after supper, a shower of rain cooled the air and sent us to bed in readiness for another early start. We would be heading for Lower Sabie the next day but as it was a Saturday, we wanted to leave the park for a while to do the Hoedspruit parkrun first.
After all the game driving and arm-chair birding we’d been doing lately, we needed a bit of exercise and it is always fun to try out a new parkrun. If you have never done a parkrun but are contemplating trying it out be warned: parkrunning is addictive.
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