Kruger National Park

Watch Out for the Policemen

When it comes to wildlife, Kruger National Park, South Africa’ showpiece park is very hard to top. It’ got all the safari favourites in abundance (although at the current rate of poaching I might need to revisit that statement in regards to rhino pretty soon – Kruger is suffering more than most parks from the curse of poaching) and they are all easily seen. I have seen huge herds of buffalo, lion that are so nonchalant about cars they almost walk into them and I once had a memorable evening game drive where a group of baby hyenas started chewing the tyres of my car (funny at first but less funny when they punctured the tyres!). This is also an ideal self-drive safari destination and there’s no shortage of cheap, good value accommodation (as well as some resplendent places in the private conservancies surrounding the reserve). All this makes Kruger an ideal first safari destination.

However, the ‘wilderness’ factor for me is almost non-existent. The numerous man-made waterholes used to attract animals didn’t bother me but when I drove around a corner going a tiny bit (honestly officer!) over the speed limit and got stopped by two policemen, chilling out in deckchairs listening to the radio, and given a speeding ticket it rather reduced the whole experience from ‘pristine African wilderness untouched by the hand of man’ to little more than a gentle Sunday afternoon drive around Longlet safari park (a famous safari park in the UK).