Walking through the Kruger National Park, from Crooks Corner in the north to Malelane in the south … this was not your typical safari.
A wildlife travel memoir
Walking Wild is not your typical safari. No game drives. No cool sundowners. And definitely no fences. Instead, it’s 605km of dust, sweat and unforgettable moments as an unlikely group of strangers sets out to walk the entire length of Kruger National Park.
Over six stages and three years – the first leg started on June 22 2019, the last ended on June 11 2022, the group walked from Crooks’ Corner in the far north to Malelane in the south, averaging 20km a day … loaded with heavy backpacks and only the wild for company.
The story is written by José Neves, an accomplished corporate executive, sportsman and father, a Nomads golfer and endurance athlete, who completed10 Ironman events, and who, when he heard about the opportunity to hike the length of the world-famous Kruger National Park, felt compelled to accept the challenge.
He tells of how the eight hikers, led by two armed guides, braved blistering heat and violent storms. He remembers how one night, after dinner, there was a rustling in the bushes … torchlight picked up a hyena indifferently wandering off. The same night, just before bed time, two lionesses strolled through the camp … some of the group, he says, slept soundly, others lay wide-awake waiting for dawn.
“At the end of day five on the first leg – I was one of the first to use the shower set up by the guides with a leafy floor mat beneath a large tree. An African fish eagle circled high above me, whistling as I looked up. I was blessed by the distinctive wail, so symbolic of Africa, as I stood free yet vulnerable, naked, and exposed, in the African wild. The eagle was too high for me to tell, but I am convinced we made eye contact.”
There was also the case of the group running from what they thought was a herd of stampeding elephants. “The disciplined hiking line broke as we raced through mopane. It was every person for themselves until we regrouped, breathless around the guides.” The sound of the stampede stopped, then started then stopped again. No elephants. Instead a military exercise by the South African National Defence Force at the Langtoon Dam, around 16 kilometres from where they were hiking. “We were not in sight of any animals, so it was safe to run. Nothing was said about us being within range of artillery fire,” he says.
José brilliantly captures the magic and the madness of life on foot in one of the world’s most iconic national parks. Of drinking from murky trickles in dry riverbeds, navigating thick riverine bush teeming with hippo, buffalo and crocodiles, and slowly learning to read the bush – from the smallest antlion to the distant roar of a lion.
It’s a story of adventure, camaraderie and deep immersion in the wild – a journey that leaves no one unchanged … a testament to resilience, discovery and the deep connection between people and nature.
And if you’ve ever dreamt of experiencing Kruger beyond the safari vehicle, this book is your ticket to the trail.
