What does one say about a race run in a world famous game park? This is a very special event. The story opens with a traditional and mighty lion’s roar. This signals the start of an adventure, a journey into ancient Africa. Silently, patiently the bush waits for your return, like warthogs you come back to this place to quench your thirst at the end. 

The first a short four kilometre loop through the Skukuza staff village, past the golf course and over the wall at Lake Panic. Here hippos greet you from their cool waters. On the road the temperature soars. Now a run past the nursery before heading into the great African bush. The second much longer loop takes you into a narrative of wild tales; right into the beating heart of Africa. There are short, fairly sharp hills and dales to contend with as you negotiate drifts through the pristine bush. But here in this place there are long stretches that go into untamed places reserved for the privileged few. Past the capture bomas where African treasures of the bush await transfer to parks further afield. It is along the exclusion zone fence, next to the Sabie River, that you may hear the challenging bark of a leopard in the long grass. A story of fear? No. Armed rangers are not far away in the shade of the Acacia trees.

There is the grinding four kilometre furrow on the dirt road past the Lake Panic bird hide. Pity the trapped tourists in their game drive vehicles as you, with freedom in your feet, follow the main tar road from the Paul Kruger Gate back to the staff village. Seek the heart of the buffalo within as you climb out of the valley of the N'waswitshaka River. The last chapter in this wilderness tale comes to a close as you make your way home, back towards the festivities of the cricket oval.

The bush is alive with buzzing; the Purple-crested Turacos and crowds cheer you home. Breathe deeply; you have been part of a great and timeless conversation. Kruger, what a story! In Kruger things seem so much simpler. The ancient African philosophy teaches us that on each African dawn an impala wakes. This it knows; it must run faster than the fastest lion or be hunted. Every morning the lion wakes to the same morn in Africa. Lion knows it must outrun the slowest impala or starve to death. Lion or impala, in Africa it matters not, for in Africa when the sun comes up, you had better be running. (With grateful thanks to Pat Baransky.)

No other race in the country offers you game viewing on this scale as an added bonus.