My safari to South Africa was a disaster...

Steveus wrote:

I'm considering a South African trip in a year or two. Sorry about your experience. I have two questions that might help me plan my won trip. Both questions are probably related to a third: which park(s) did you go to?

We spent a night at Dullstroom which is located halfway between Johannesburg and Kruger Park. There's a nature reserve above Dullstroom which is famous for the endangered storks and antelopes which you wouldn't find in Kruger. Dullstroom is hill land but Kruger is a mixture of landscapes.

The camp we stayed at Kruger Park were the followering:

• Satara (cat camp) - We only saw three lions and possibly two wild cats. Some of the roads were shut by the last night rain but the highlight were the pack of wild dogs. 
• Skukuza - We briefly saw a leopard and quickly saw a cheetah hunt. Other than the two lions we saw sleeping on the way to Skukuza, the pack of cheetahs were the last of the big cats we saw.
• Pretoriouskop - We were originally meant to stay at Lower Sabie camp but it was booked up so we stayed at Pretoriouskop camp instead. The food isn't that great(Whimpy) and we missed a lion sitting in the road. The area is worth visiting once with their giant rocks formation especially in the right light but I wouldn't recommend staying there.

(1) Isn't South Africa mostly malaria-free? And those parts that aren't are considered low-risk? I've had friends go without taking meds and were fine. What made you decide to take anti-malaria meds?

I guess out of precaution and my OCD. Far as I'm aware getting malaria in Kruger or any other low population areas is a low risk.

(2) I'd read that much of South Africa was under serious drought conditions a year or two ago, resulting in the park rangers going so far as to cull certain animal populations. More recently, it looks like Capetown is about to run out of water entirely. Do you know what the current conditions are, and if they affected your trip?

I can only speak for Kruger but when we arrived, it started raining before hand. When we entered at the Central West of Kruger, it had a lack of water and it looked like something from the dry season. I think this effected our lack of sightings on the way to and around the Satara camp. This is pure speculation by the way but the recent rain did close all the dirt tracks in that area. However, in the Southern part of Kruger, it's very green but I don't know it had a constant rain or only recently recieved rain.

From my understanding, the animal numbers were still recovering from the draught of 2016. The lack of rain in 2016 killed off the vegetation and this led the animals to die from starvation and not of thirst.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

I will post some of my images when I return from the doctors.