The South African Soil SurveY (SASSY) was established to uncover the fungal diversity present in soils across South Africa's more than 100 provincial and national parks. During its most recent trip, soils were collected in the Kruger National Park, South Africa’s biggest national park that spans nearly 2 million hectares and is home to a diverse array of flora and fauna.

The field trip took place between 19–24 January, led by Nicole van Vuuren, Kerryn Fourie and Taygen Fuchs. The trip started off near Skukuza and headed north to Pafuri over the course of the five days. Collections were made at 21 sites, representing the different vegetation landscapes across the park. During the trip, the team was fortunate enough to have close encounters with the park's wildlife including elephants, hyenas and lions.

The team is now making fungal isolations from these soils, which will be identified using morphology and DNA sequence data. Furthermore, we will characterise the fungal communities using a PacBio metabarcoding approach.

The team would like to thank Francois Wolfhaardt, an honorary ranger, for his assistance and guidance during our trip.