Your own private zoo!
Written: Apr 17 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great outdoors, free animals (and lots of 'em!), beautiful scenery, easy to explore, excellent infrastructure.
Cons: None at all!
The Bottom Line: One of the most amazing places in Africa. Despite the rather high influx of tourists, this place has remained unspoilt.
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| Raf_K's Full Review: Kruger National Park |
Do you like animals and the great outdoors? No? Well, even if you don't you should definitely try the Kruger National Park in South Africa. It's really a fantastic site and a place everyone truly must visit at least once in a lifetime.
The first thing you should know if you've never been to South Africa, is that Kruger is nothing like you imagine. It's none of the extremes: no jungle treks with porters and armed rangers to protect you from a leopard that might jump on you from a tree at any time. Nor is it an over-sized zoo where 10 tour buses gather around a poor single lion while tons of tourists frantically snap away. The former might be true if you're in a safari in Uganda or Congo; as for the latter, it's more reminiscent of a trip to a Disneyland Safari, or perhaps an excursion to Kenyan Masai-Mara reserve.
No, Kruger is all about exploring the nature at your own pace and as you want it. The most important thing is to have your own car; this will allow you to skip what you don't want to see and concentrate on your favorite sights/animals. How would you like being stuck in a tour full of bird lovers when you're keen on seeing big cats? Pretty frustrating, wouldn't it be? Furthermore, being on a tour means having a bigger vehicle and thus not being able to "mingle" with the scenery. It will also allow you to stop at any point where you find something interesting and be able to enjoy the moment on your own.
The number of visitors at any one time in the park is limited, and that despite it's huge size (I'd say it's about half the size of Florida). That amounts to an incredibly quiet atmosphere; depending on where you are you may drive for a couple of hours without crossing a single other car! That means that if you happen to stumble upon a family of lions, you'll be able to observe them quietly for a long time on your own. Of course, as time goes by, there can be an accumulation of vehicles around an "interesting" animal, but the scene is usually quiet since everyone just cuts the engines and the animals don't suffer any harassment from the visitors.
There are many different regions in the park, and you can get a pretty cheap book about the park which deals with each part of it, explaining what kind of soil is to be found in each area, and therefore which kinds of plants will grow where, what animals will eat these plants, and what other animals will eat those animals. As a general rule, the southern portion of the park contains lush vegetation, thus more animals. Here you'll find giraffes, lots of impalas as well as big predators such as lions, cheetah, leopards and so on. The northern section is a little more arid and desolate, but you'll be able to spot ostriches, coyotes and hyenas.
The southern section of the park is more developped. Here you'll find most of the bigger restcamps: Skukuza and Pretoriuskop. All of the restcamps have gas stations, restaurants and little convenience stres, where apart from the main necessities, you can find all sorts of souvenirs, guidebooks to identify fauna and flora, as well as binoculars and so on. At night, they usually show films about the animals as well as slideshows of the local fauna and flora.
Accommodation is divided in two categories. You can either stay at the restcamps, or at "bushlodges". The former caters for every kind of visitor,whilst the latter has exclusively luxurious accommodation. The restcamps have classic camping grounds, but they also have "safari tents" which is a big tent with a bed, a closet and electricity. These tents share toilets with the camping ground. I stayed one night on these, but I wouldn't recommend because by the end of the day it's so hot inside you can almost suffocate! Going upwards, there are rondavels and chalets. Rondavels are little round huts, which are more spacious. They can have private or shared toilets. Chalets have everything, including a kitchen and a private BBQ place! I highly recommend these since they're not so expensive and it's awesome to cook your own BBQ of ostrich or impala or kudu! Plus, it's delicious! It's better to book accommodation in advance because it can get pretty full; it would be quite frustrating to go all the way to South Africa and being turned down at Kruger because you don't have a booking!
All the roads are well signposted. There are paved and unpaved roads. You're more likely to find animals by driving on unpaved roads since there's less traffic. There are strict speed limits to respect, 50 kph on paved and 30 kph on unpaved roads. Besides, you wouldn't want to drive much faster then that otherwise you might miss many sightings. Each restcamp has a map of the park with lots of pins in different colors. Each one represents a different animal; so if you see something exotic, like a cheetah, you can put the corresponding pin on the map so fellow visitors can know more or less where to locate the animals. This is very helpful for "hunting" animals.
Access to the park is fairly easy; it's a 4-hour drive from Johannesburg, but there are also direct (and expensive) flights. The best time to spot animals is during the dry season, from April to October. During the wet season on the other hand, you'll find amazingly lush vegetation, but also oppressing heat; that's not a problem since most restcamps have swimming pools!
I'd recommend a minimum stay of at least 3 nights, with each night in a different camp, so you can really get an overall impression of the park. There's no maximum time limit: those who really enjoy nature and have the time can stay here for 3 weeks, if they want.
Kruger Park is a definite must for visitors to South Africa, along with Cape Town. Setting foot on South Africa and not visiting the Kruger Park is failing to see one of the most awesome wonders of Africa!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
Raf_K
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Rafael K
Location: London, UK
Reviews written: 101
Trusted by: 49 members
About Me:
Back after a long work-inflicted absence.
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