Kruger National Park is probably the best loved, most visited game reserve in all of Africa. It is the largest conservation region in South Africa, stretching 360 km from north to south and 65 km across, and it shares boundaries with Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Mpumalanga.
It is also the flagship of South African National Parks and the second largest game reserve in all of Africa. If you have not yet seen the famous Kruger National Park, as large as another country, you simply have to put it at number one on your travel bucket list.
There are nine entrance gates and each one takes visitors into unique biomes, wildlife habitats and extraordinary habitats where a huge variety of wild animals have always existed. The Big Five (elephants, rhinos, buffalo, lions and leopards) remain a huge drawcard to visitors from Africa and overseas while many responsible travellers only want to become one with nature and walk with guides into the wilderness to see as much of the park as possible.
Accommodation within the Kruger is spread out into 21 rest camps, 2 private lodge concessions, and 15 designated private safari lodges. It therefore caters for all budgets and tastes. Choose an ultra-luxurious safari lodge where two game drives daily and sumptuous meals are part of the package, or simply book a comfy canvas safari tent and drive around in your own vehicle.
You can book night drives and morning drives with the Park, to get up close and personal with wild animals, birds and reptiles and you can eat at the many restaurants in the various rest camps. There are thousands of wildlife enthusiasts cruising the Kruger National Park at any one time, enjoying its 18 989 square kilometres of wilderness.
Some of the more popular rest camps include Lower Sabie, Punda Maria and Crocodile Bridge all tastefully created within the dense vegetation of the bushveld, with stunning views and friendly staff who are well trained to take care of you. So it should be in this first class world renowned safari destination where you can see just about every wild animal in Africa!
Kruger is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park linking Kruger with Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. It is also part of the UNESCO Kruger to Canyons Biosphere.
If you prefer getting really close to nature and wild animals then camp in the Kruger National Park. Backpackers and other travellers prefer this type of accommodation as it is less expensive and booking it is easy. Another way to really learn about the wilderness within Kruger is to go on one of the nine walking trails, some of which are overnight trails and last several days in areas hardly seen by other people. Trained guides take you along animal paths or try new routes through the dense bush as there are no set trails in the wilderness areas!
The park offers a quality infrastructure of roads, water holes, hides, picnic sites, shops and restaurants but the focus is on game watching and learning more about a disappearing habitat.
In fact, Kruger consists of six uniquely different ecosystems – baobab sandveld, Lebomboknobthorn-marulabushveld, mixed acacia thicket, combretun-silver clusterleaf, woodland on granite, and riverine forest! The four regions (far north, north, central and south) are completely unique and don’t seem to fit under the label of ‘bushveld’ for their extreme contrasts.
Kruger is almost a country on its own and a must-visit for every South African. Take only photographs, leave only footprints and respect what is left for the children.Chat to one of our consultants to arrange your bush holiday today.
