Location: Crooks’ Corner, Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Where is it: It sits at the confluence of the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers, where three countries (South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe) adjoin.
When to go: The drier winter season (May-August) brings cooler temperatures and clearer vistas, centering the animals closer to the rivers and pools.
Accommodation: There is a good range of lodges and camps inside and just outside the park to select, so sit down with a park map here and work out your route.
Introduction
I loved looking at maps when younger, and some of the locations you read about in books just inspire you to travel and check them out for yourself. This trip was inspired by two names: ‘Crooks’ Corner’ and the ‘Limpopo River’. My chance to visit both places came on a return visit to the Kruger National Park with a group of South African ecological and environmental friends. They were planning to travel up to the Pafuri Area, the northern tip of the Park where the Limpopo (or Crocodile) and Luvhuvhu rivers come together.
Why we recommend Crooks’ Corner: History, Safari, Road Trip, Literature
There is an adventure in just getting there!
Any self-respecting bucketeer should consider adding a trip to South Africa to their list, and going on safari or game drives in one of its amazing collections of national parks is an easily achievable goal for the independent traveler and sighted companions. Kruger Park is the Big Daddy of these, with around two million hectares of diverse landscapes, rivers, and megafauna. When driving to the Kruger from Johannesburg or Pretoria don’t rush the 240-mile journey like many tourists, but take a couple of days over it, and follow the ‘Panorama Route’ through Mpumalanga province, stop at the various viewpoints and attractions, take in the Northern Drakensberg mountain, stay in one of the small historic towns and enter the Kruger National park via the Phabeni Gate.
Once in the Park, you can of course dash up north to Crooks’ Corner, but we suggest that you turn south first and take your time enjoying the park. We would recommend a minimum of three days to really appreciate the scale and diversity of the park and to pick up gossip on where sightings of leopards have occurred, but even five days will pass in a flash in this wonderful place as you start to spot and tick off the smaller animals and extensive birdlife. It is in the Kruger that I first glimpsed wild African hunting dogs, saw lions attack and stampede two hundred Cape buffalo, watched a honey badger happily maul the wheels of a 4×4 driven by tourists who had annoyed it, and watched a small flock of the stunning black and red Southern ground-hornbills turn over ashes after a bush fire looking for carrion.
As you approach Crooks Corner on the various dirt roads within the area, take comfort that you are probably traveling on one built by Stephanus Barnard, a renowned ivory poacher known as Bvekenya (“He who swaggers”) to help his business.
Crooks Corner – ‘The haven of scoundrels’
History
Crooks’ Corner sits at the border point where three countries (South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe) meet and became a haven for the outlaws who lived there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ‘crooks’ (usually ivory poachers, gunrunners, smugglers, etc) could escape justice from one legal jurisdiction by simply crossing over the river into another where the police could not follow. If the police from all three countries arrived simultaneously, all the criminals had to do was to climb atop the beacon that marked the border point, and became immediately un-arrestable until they climbed down, as there was no agreement between the three countries as to who owned the beacon. This ridiculous legal loophole was one of the reasons this spot was so loved by the crooks.
Read the Plaque
The plaque at Crooks Corner read ‘Crooks Corner is the natural refuge for all kinds of people who had no great wish to look into the eyes of the law and who, at any moment, might suddenly need to flee across an international border.’ and ask yourself am I tempted to make crime a new lifestyle choice?
Baobab Tree – The Upside-Down Tree
The area is also home to several examples of the iconic Baobab trees. Baobabs are probably one of Africa’s most unusual trees, easily recognized by its unique shape and enormous size, with some trees reaching a diameter of 30 meters and a height of 25 meters. The baobab tree’s thick trunk and a great root system-like tree canopy give the tree its nickname – the upside-down tree. This is especially true in the dry season when the tree has lost its leaves.
The Baobab tree is also known as the “tree of life” because of its ability to store large amounts of water in its trunk during the dry season, making it a vital resource for many animals in Africa.
Fiber from the bark is used to make rope, baskets, cloth, musical instrument strings, and waterproof hats. While stripping the bark from the lower trunk of most trees usually leads to their death, baobabs not only survive this common practice, but they regenerate new bark.
Fresh baobab leaves provide an edible vegetable like spinach which is also used medicinally to treat kidney and bladder disease, asthma, insect bites, and several other maladies. The tasty and nutritious fruits and seeds are sought after, while their pollen is mixed with water to make glue.
Along the Limpopo, it is believed that when a young boy is washed in water used to soak baobab bark, he will grow up into a big man.
The great grey-green, greasy Limpopo
“Then the Kolokolo Bird said with a mournful cry, “Go to the banks of the great, grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees, and find out.”
Do you recognize this teasing line from literature? It comes from ‘The Elephant’s Child’, one of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories’. It describes the journey of an elephant calf to answer the question of what does a crocodile have for dinner? As a boy, I loved being read these stories, their far-fetched tales feeding my imagination so much they were probably one of my first travel books! In my imagination, I had always wanted to stand on the banks of the Limpopo, first to see if it was great in depth and width. Was it grey-green in colour, and most of all was it greasy?
Unfortunately, as you can see the Limpopo dries up considerably during the winter dry months revealing a vast expanse of sand bank.
The Kolokolo bird seems to be a mythical bird that Kipling added to his story as there is no African bird by that name, although strangely it is the Arowak (Surinam) word for a Scarlet Ibis. To my mind, the Kolokolo birds are best represented by the cheeky Southern ground hornbill who will commonly scout around your campsite for seeds and treats in the Kruger.
The Largest Crocodiles
Yes, you will see plenty of large crocodiles, catching the sun as they lie out on the riverbanks of the Limpopo and Luvhuvhu rivers, often amongst pods of hippos. In the creeks and tributaries, smaller croc hide out, not wanting to become snacks for their elders apparently. These are Nile crocodiles, the largest species of croc in Africa and the second-largest species in the world just behind the saltwater crocodile. The males grow up to around 5metres (16ft) in length.
Have a Picnic but watch out above!
The Pafuri Picnic Site is on the southern bank of the Luvuvhu River, it is surrounded by tall Ana trees. The site has toilets, facilities to buy cold drinks and firewood, and braai (barbeque) facilities. The picnic site is described as ‘exuding an air of tranquillity and the tall shade trees provide welcome relief from the hot sun’, when we were there, it failed to mention the troop of Vervet Monkeys that swung across the river to raid the picnic tables. They were more amusing than dangerous but unfortunately waited their time before they raided a large nervous family party who had just spent ages laying out a lunchtime feast before they carried out their hit. The national park employee there soon resorted to a slingshot to discourage them further.
The Ana Trees
The Ana trees are a fast-growing variety and renowned for their decorative and distinctive orange to red-brown curved and twisted seed pods. The size of the pod fruit ranges from 10-35 x 2-5 cm.
The Grumpiest Elephants in South Africa
The elephants, in particular the solitary bulls, in this part of the Kruger Park, tend to be grumpier and more aggressive toward humans and have attacked cars that have annoyed them in the past. There is still a lot of ivory poaching across the Mozambique border, and many of the elephants you see up here regularly wander back and forth across that border and thus tend to be more wary and distrustful of humans.
If an elephant is just standing in the road (for example, a lone bull) it is advisable to stop a safe distance away, turn the engine off, and wait for him to make a move. Do not (even if you are in a hurry) push him or provoke him to move. Lone bulls can be a lot like many old grumpy men – push them and they will push back. As a responsible traveler, the number one rule to remember in all National Parks and reserves, the animals have the right of way – we are in their territory, not the other way around. Also, do not stop between a mother and her calf when stopping between two parts of the herd browsing by the roadside, and do not lean out of the car window or make noise, elephants are clear in their body language and will clearly indicate how they feel about your presence if aggregated.
‘Meals on Wheels‘.
We stopped to talk to one of the Park Game wardens who cycled up to us. His official kit – a uniform, an old rifle, and a bicycle. We asked him how safe the work was and his reply was that his work colleagues described themselves as ‘meals on wheels’. It was a dangerous job working in the bush, often tracking poachers who had crossed into the park as well as some large with excellent dental arrangements megafauna such as lions, elephants, hippos, crocs, and cape buffalo. A brave man.
Fever Trees
Just north of Punda Maria rest camp, a dirt road surrounded by towering baobabs and fever-tree forests leads you toward Crooks’ Corner.
The fever tree is easy to identify with its pale green trunk and branches which are covered in long white sharp thorns. It gets its name, not from its ability to ward off malaria – as is the case of the willow trees that gave rise to the tonic (salicylic acid) in your ‘gin and tonic’, but from the fact that it traditionally grows in the same swampy areas that malaria-carrying mosquitoes inhabit. European settlers noticed that people got malaria where these trees grew and took it as a warning that malaria was around.
Thulamela Ruins
Near the Luvuhu River, Pafuri lies the Thulamela Ruins. This ancient African Kingdom gives you an insight into early African Culture and life and is one of the most important archaeological sites in South Africa. A recent discovery was the burial place of an African King and Queen buried with many gold relics. This kingdom consists of a stone-walled citadel surrounded by many other smaller homes and buildings. The Fortress itself could accommodate roughly 1000 people. Guided tours of Thulamela can be arranged at the Pafuri Gate.
Visual Impairment and Safari
For me, a trip such as this was more about the atmosphere of being within the bush, taking my middle daughter on safari for the first time, the presence of friends, and the wildlife and trees along the dirt gravel roads. Standing on the banks of the Limpopo we could see women fetching water and washing clothes over the border in Zimbabwe, and they were waving and calling out to us.
Although going on safari is not as they once were, now I have become severely visually impaired, I still love opportunities to travel through the Kruger and other South African national parks for its landscapes, the excitement of sighted colleagues when their ‘bush eyes’ pick up the merest twitch of tail hanging down from the trees or an ear above the grass line. Most of all the warm African nights and sitting around a campfire after that final evening drive.
Recommendations
Accommodation
Many visitors prefer to stay within the Kruger and the SANPARKS website is the first place to look for suggestions. However, we have found the accommodation in the park to be a mixed bag and some of the descriptions don’t reflect the current level of care and maintenance. It is best to be guided by the most recent reviews.
Pafuri Border Camp
The Pafuri Border Camp lies in the northernmost part of the Kruger, near Punda Maria, near the meeting point of the Luvubu and Limpopo rivers. S63 just west of Pafuri Border Port of Entry
- Introduction
- Recommendations
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