Kruger National Park

The Gem of South Africa

Took me two days to find the big 5 and saw a abundance of other wildlife including beautiful birds at the different hides throughout the park. Some places have amazing scenery like the Most Southern Baobab and the Fever Tree forest up in the north of the park. Weather was sunny with high temperature, had a few days of rain aswell but mostly clear sky’s. Chalets were clean and cleaned while driving for the day. Food is great in Skukuza and Lower Sabie but other camps like Satara was not the standard you would expect but still decent enough. We drove with our own vehicle and it was fruitful. Most leopards were spotted in the south of the park. I would recommend going to Kruger if your native to South Africa or from abroad, I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Really amazing experience

This has been my 2nd safari experience. Everything went in a woderfull way. We (couple) organized all by ourselves, booking via the official website of the park. We spent three whole days driving our car in the southern part of the Kruger. We had the chance to see a lot of animals (4 out of the 5 big, we missed the lion). We spent our nights in the camps (Lower Sabie and Skukuza): both are really nice, well organized and clean, even if we preferred the LS. We had two organized safari, one in the afternoon/night (good experience) and one by walk early in the morning (not really a interesting experience). We also had dinner into the camps (good). We were in South Africa two weeks before Christmas so we didn't find a lot of tourist and we had the opportunity to maximize our Kruger's experience.

Kruger was a great experience. The only thing that I was unaware of going in was there are tarred & dirt roads you have to stay on. You cannot venture off of them in your vehicle. This did not ruin the experience for me in any way but just didn't realize that going in.

A Day Well-Spent

While staying at Rukiya Safari Camp in October, 2017, we enjoyed a full day's drive in Kruger National Park on the 20th. Our guide wisely had us up and out of camp very early so that we could arrive at the gate before opening hours. If you delay too long, you may find yourself waiting in line at the gate! With no queue at all, we entered Orpen Gate at 6:30am and drove east. Traverse in Kruger is limited to the tarmac roads, so sightings are limited to what can be seen from the pavement.* That said, there is no shortage of animals within view. We enjoyed sightings of cape buffalo, impala, elephant, giraffe (including a tiny calf), kudu, zebra, wildebeest, steenbok, hippo, vervet monkeys, baboons, and all manner of birds including white-backed vultures, a brown-headed parrot, and black bellied bustards. We enjoyed short stops at clean comfort stations (with lovely views) and spent our lunch break at the very scenic N'wanetsi overlook on the Mozambican border. The previous day's visitors were unpleasantly surprised to find the on-site restaurant closed (without explanation), so we planned ahead and brought a packed lunch. We enjoyed the remainder of the day's drive and didn't leave the outer gate until 5:30pm. To view notes and photos from my visit, please see https://sway.com/iceKprWZZflXVlQB

* The on-road restriction is required because Kruger allows tourists to self-drive. Staying on roads ensures that visitors are safe and environmental damage is minimized.

Our guide kept to the paved roads, no bush vibe per say, wildlife was everywhere that was a treat.

So much wildlife to see and I was impressed that all the campsites were free and open to anybody who had payed entrance to the park. The park was naturally beautiful and felt unimposing on the animals.

Wild and "free" like animals should be

The Kruger National park s facilities was as clean as it could be, staff in shops and restaurants friendly and helpful, accommodation was clean and safe. The drive and animals as safe as they could be. Truly sad about the Rhinos being pouched and killed and that would be my only concern, they obviously need more game rangers to protect the animals

I love Kruger, the bush vibe driving through. The wildlife. The people in the camps.

Super safari experience

From pick up to drop back in Johannesburg we were looked after by the superb team from Wild Planet Safari. We had a mix of camping and in a bungalow and moved from North Kruger to exit via the middle of Kruger. Our guides were extremely knowledgable and entertaining and were super cooks. We were lucky to see many of the animals but unfortunately not the rhinos. We were lucky to come across a pack of wild dogs with a kill early one morning. The elephants while fascinating and lovely to watch in their family groups, did not get my sympathy (as much as they should) because I felt they cause so much damage to the vegatation. That said we have many many beautiful pictures of the animals and scenery - the different vegetation areas, the river, the sun rises and the sunsets.
Moving around in the habitat of all these wild animals - and for the most part they do not object - was a privilege. You feel as though you are in another world and this was my best holiday ever. I came home so relaxed - was it something to do with being so close to animals who are truely living at one with nature.
Thank you to everybody in South Africa who is responsible for maintaining and protecting this part of our world.

South Africa's game parks are not known for scenic beauty and that's not why you go. There is a lot of wildlife and although we saw herds of elephant, we did not see any predators at all. Unless the animals are close to the roads, you don't see them and being such a vast area, we did not see much variety. We only stayed in the south of the park at Berg-en-dal and the centre and north may be different.