Kruger National Park ~ a dream destination
Written: Mar 12 '09 (Updated Mar 26 '09)
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Pros: Superb opportunity to view game in their natural environment
Cons: Leaving the park and getting back to civilisation ....
The Bottom Line: Put a visit to Kruger on your bucket list.
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| hollynz's Full Review: Kruger National Park |
Want a fantastic holiday experience .... well get yourself to Kruger National Park as soon as you can and you are guaranteed the holiday of a lifetime.
I have wanted to do this trip for as long as I can remember and it truly was an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life. The sights range from the excitement of coming across a huge pride of lion relaxing on the road and driving among them at close range to the smallest of delights like watching a dung beetle rolling his ball of dung across the road in front of us ...... just can't be beat. The animals were amazingly easy to spot and just as easy to miss, one minute you are driving along a seemingly empty road, the next minute hyena pop out from the long grass onto the road in front of you .... it is all a matter of luck really and man oh man, did we have some luck!
GETTING THERE
Now this was the hard part. Obviously you have to get to South Africa first but getting to the park itself was a long and tiring 5 hour drive from Johannesburg. South Africans drive fast and even though the speed limit is 120 KPH and the roads are fantastic, they fly past at high speeds and some things we saw made me cringe. Saw a few positively mad overtaking manouveres on blind corners that left me feeling a bit vulnerable .... we just made sure to keep well to the left when going around a corner, not that there are many corners on the drive, mainly long straight roads with well designated passing lanes. South Africans have a fantastic system for overtaking that works a treat, if you are the slower vehicle you just pull over to far left and that gives the person behind ample room to whizz past nice and safely. The other unnerving thing was seeing signs warning of High Crime Areas and Hi Jacking Hot Spots ..... ooooo Kaaaaay . We just put our foot down and made our little rental scoot along as fast as it would go.
If I were to go again, I would fly from Johannesburg to Nelspruit and drive from there, there is also a landing strip at Skukuza, right inside the park if you so desired.
As we had a noon flight into Johannesburg we had to spend the night at Nelspruit as we didn't have the time to get there before the Kruger gates were locked at 6pm.
Next day we went to the supermarket and got a few supplies before making the approx one hour drive to the Malelane Gate.
CHECKING IN
As we had made all our accomodation bookings online it was just a matter of quoting our reservation number at the entrance gate and they printed off all our info. We were handed a leaflet with our accomodation slips attatched and sent on our way. It wasn't long before we saw a herd of elephants in the distance and screeched on the brakes, out came the camera and binoculars and we sat and marvelled at the small herd of mamas and babies .... just fabulous as you can imagine. It took us quite a few hours to get to our camp as we had to stop and admire absolutely everything .... we had photos galore of impala and small antelopes that first day. As you can only drive 50 KPH and we were stopping every few kilometers to admire the impala it took us quite a few hours to arrive at the camp.
SKUKUZA
We arrived in camp around midday, found our accom and had a bite to eat and a snooze ... its very hot and tiring doing all that game spotting. Around 4pm we headed out again to drive a different route and we had fun seeing giraffe and warthogs, monkeys and elands and before we knew it, it was time to get back to camp as the gates close at 6pm. It is dark by 7pm so I guess they want everyone back in camp safely behind the shut gates before nightfall.
This restcamp is the biggest in the park but wasn't overly huge. As we visited in the summer months (March 5 - 8) I think the crowd numbers may have been quite low so it didn't appear overly busy at the camp. We stayed in the bungalows which was a small round hut with a thatched type roof. The bungalows are situated in small circles with a common kitchen with hotplates and a water boiler which is always ready with loads of boiling water whenever needed. Two single beds made up with fresh sheets and blankets inside with not much room for anything else. A separate bathroom with toilet and shower. Soaps and toilet paper were provided and towels of course. The kitchen is outside on the verandah and consisted of a small table and fridge/freezer . As we had booked the ' With Utensils ' option we had the added bonus of a kitchen sink, cooking utensils and china and cutlery. Thankfully the bungalow had air conditioning and a ceiling fan as it was very hot and muggy . The windows and doors all have insect screens to keep out unwanted bugs and the malaria carrying mosquito.
There is a good shop which is well stocked with fresh food and groceries, drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic and a good range of souvenirs.
There is a restaurant and a cafe, we had intended to visit the restaurant but we were hot and tired and not overly hungry so had some fresh fish and chips and a cold beer from the cafe for dinner. The outdoor setting was lovely with views over the Sabie river and huge shade trees ... a real African scene.
The added bonus of this camp is the internet cafe so we took the time to get in touch with the folks back home and send them some photos.
I didn't get to visit the museum .... just ran out of time as we wanted to be up early the next day for game spotting.
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Next day we were off at 6am, heading to our 2nd camp, Satara. We were cruising along at 50k scanning for wildlife when hubby slammed on the brakes, right there in the scrub by the road was a leopard, expecting him to dart off we started snappin photos wildly and then, to our surprise, he walked straight out onto the road and wandered down to a pile of dung where he proceeded to have a marvelous time rolling in it. We were mesmerised and if it hadn't been for a car comimg along and scaring him off we would have sat watching him all day given the chance.
We felt totally pleased with our morning but that was only the beginning of the sights and wonderful viewings we had in our 4 days in the park.
SATARA
We arrived at Satara park around noon, checked in and headed to our bungalow. This one wasn't as nice as the one in Skukuza,same old same old with two single beds but the bathroom was tiny and if I was any bigger I would have found it a tad uncomfortable to say the least. Alas there was no ceiling fan but the air con blew nice and cold which kept me happy. This was a 'No Utensils' option so all we had on our verandah was a table and fridge /freezer. Every bungalow has its own barbeque or Braii as the South Africans all them, just bring your wood and charcoal supplies with you or you can buy them in the camp shops.
One thing to be aware of was the raiding monkeys, we had to chase them away from a neighbours verandah when I noticed them with the fridge door open helping themselves to the contents. They scattered when we aproached and we secured the fridge by turning it towards the wall. The monkeys were sitting around eating yoghurt.
This camps shop wasn't quite as well stocked with either groceries or knick knacks but we didn't really require much. We had eaten breakfast at a rest stop on the way and just needed some bread, cheese and tomato to keep the hunger away .... too hot to eat really. The most important thing was to keep hydrated and we found a great way to do that was to freeze bottled water overnight and as the day warmed up you had lovely chilled water to drink ... a real treat in the hot car thats for sure.
GAME DRIVE
We did a Night Drive here and we were beginning to think it was a total waste of time until we were charged by a hippo which was blinded by the spot lights. Talk about exciting .... we dined on that one for quite a few hours ! The other drives offered were Morning ( too early for us ) and Sunset ( too early as we were still driving around ourselves )
While in the Satara region we saw heaps of elephant, some hyena, water buffalo, rhino, hippos and a couple of lion sightings .... one a huge pride in the early morning all over the road and a big reunuion when the cubs appeared and they all greeted each other with headrubs and tail swipes. Another fantastic moment in the park.
Not to mention the endless general game sightings of zebra, wildebeast and impala and antelopes of all shapes and sizes.
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On our last full day in the park we drove back to the gates we entered. There are so many different roads that you never have to backtrack but as we had driven over lots of bumpy dusty roads, we decided a nice run on the tarseal would be a good treat and are we glad we did. The sightings were excellent ... made us think we had wasted our time bumping along those dirt roads. As we neared our camp we came across the remains of a giraffe kill with one lone male lion and a host of vulture around. The lion was eating and getting annoyed with the vultures so it was quite a sight. The vultures resigned themselves to the fact that it was a no go and just had to sit in the trees. We tore ourselves away and headed to our camp to check for the night.
BERG EN DAL
This camp was wonderful, the setting was fabulous and the accom was the best of the three camps. The units were motel style with lots of room , a fully stocked kitchen (inside) and a very roomy bathroom. The outside area was huge but there was a troop of vervet monkeys making me feel like they would swoop on my breakfast so I didn't hang out there long. Very lovely setting for our last night, we wandered down to the cafe and had a nice meal and cold beer and wandered back in the moonlight listening to the African night.
On our last morning we drove back to the kill and were rewarded with another view of the lion feeding. We watched him till he had had his full and moved off to sleep and then we reluctantly drove to the gates. It was strange leaving the park and seeing people walking along the road, traffic racing along, shops and normality.
Kruger Park was a wonderful adventure and the excitement we got when spotting the wildlife was highly addictive, it was like driving for hours and seeing nothing out of the ordinary and then whoa ... something magical appears right in front of you that filled you up with awe. I highly recommend you go and see and feel the magic for yourself.
For all information and to make online bookings ~ www.sanparks.org
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
hollynz
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Member: Christine
Location: New Zealand
Reviews written: 144
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~ In memory of Barbara ~
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