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For those who've never seen it... THE magical Kruger.

Baby, scatter my ashes here...

It is roughly half way between Pafuri picnic spot and Crooks' Corner, in the far north of Kruger, along the Luvuvhu river.

Hi, WTM
what a special place! Last year during April it was my very first time seeing the fever tree forest as well as Crooks corner!
Its really hard to describe the feeling I got riding through the forest with the wind moving through the trees...so relaxing feeling almost as like you sitting on a rocking chair going back and forth... this year during my stay at Shingwedzi I will certainly visit this place again!!
IF you don't mind... CAN my ashes also be dispose of along with yours! THEN I'll be keeping you company.....AND the others...well

WTM,

When I first visited that area I thought that if we could visualize
our thoughts of what heaven would be like, this was it !
Thank you for bringing it back to me.

We had the same .. also mid to late march .. and not as green .. but still beautiful to see.

Dear Skillie
Your SO is quite correct, it isn't the same.
Some sort of natural disaster struck the forest some years ago.
For the moment I can't remember what it was: a bush fire during a drought or a flood during the rainy season. I can remember that the forest was considered "almost destroyed".
I am actually surprised to see how good it looks on the photos.

Just remember... fire doesn't destroy... it replenishes!

The flood did give it a knock. I will post a pic when I find the time to do so, to show the flood level of 2000.

Stunning pics wtm!!
I love the fact that you have the road in them.
I can just imagine driving really slowly down that road, in no hurry to get anywhere.
For me too, Kruger is heaven on Earth.

Note the flood level sign on the second closest tree.



I've been to this forest quite a few times but in the last 6 or so years (So hopefully someone like Laine, Mikev, Pieter Steyn etc can comment on the state of it prior 2000)...
And I honestly don't see that it is diminishing.
It changes quite a lot, yes... but that's what seasons do... it makes things change constantly.

Out of all the times I've been there, the last time it had looked in pretty damn good condition.

DuQues

At what time of the year are we looking at the forest; just want to get some idea as to how dry one can expect it to be. Obviously it is "in winter" since all the deciduous trees are leafless.

Hi Guys

What we see of the Fever Tree Forest is only a small part of a larger forest which has another section north of the Luvuvhu River.
According to Google Earth there are parts of the forest at least at two points further down river along the Limpopo in Mozambique which should now fall in the new Transfrontier park.

I have been to Pafuri when the water was at least a metre deep on the floodplain drainage line on both sides of the tar road between the entrance/exit of the S63.
This drainage line can be traced as it runs between the S63.
It then enters a pan before it opens out at the Fever Tree Forest.
Ironically there was no sign of that much water further down at the forest other than a little mud.
I cannot say that I fully understand the dynamics of the area except that it is much drier, that is not good news for a fever tree.

The trees themselves are very old indicated by the fact that they have canopied [this apparently only happens in very mature Fever Trees].
I have a shot where this can clearly be seen.
I will try to get it online if I can.

Thanks mountainview,
I have read in Boer history about the fever trees and how they got their name, a wonderful story.
I didn't know they only canopied when very mature, good info.
Will Google to see the forest you talk about,
I wonder if any of the mods or admin can tell me the history and how the fever forest came to its present state. Drought? Floods? Fire?

There seems to have been a drought in the early eighties which thinned the forest down not in size but in tree density.
I have a photo of the forest c.1982 [absolutely atrocious shot, but it will give you an idea of the tree density (post later) but compare it to Arks' shot of the forest: note the amount of dead trees in the foreground - November 1984]

If anyone has a some of Peter Johnson's work there is a particular shot of the forest shot on 6x7 [a "squarish" format] during that time period or slightly before.
He says he chose to specifically capture the density using that format. It is very obvious, however I do suppose it is a pic that has copyright as it has been published.
Otherwise my pathetic pic will have to do unless anyone else has a similar pic from that period.
You will then understand what I mean.

Skillie, the magazine African Wildlife, once a excellent magazine featured this shot in it's Pafuri Edition c.1981 specifically dealing with the open cast coal mining issue in the Punda Maria-Pafuri-Wambiya sandveld region.
I unfortunately don't have a copy anymore, but it gives excellent background on the area.