Kruger
National Park
Featured
South Kruger accommodation
The Kruger National Park,
which measures a whopping two million hectares, is approximately the size
of the whole of Wales. Although there are still fences between parts of
the Kruger National Park and Mozambique and Zimbabwe, so the planned Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park is not quite yet a reality. When it is, it will
be spectacular. Actually, Kruger already is. Most of the park is situated
in the Lowveld. Restricted to broad valleys below 1 000m above sea level,
the Lowveld is what many people consider to be the 'real' Africa. In this
low-lying subtropical climate, broad-leaved trees and thorn trees co-exist
happily in relatively open woodland, interspersed with long grass - and,
of course, game. Wildlife abounds.
In the far north, it gets
hotter and the vegetation changes to mopane woodland and, right in the
northern part of the country, huge baobab trees dominate the landscape.
The rivers here tend to be
broad and slow-moving and may consist of no more than a few unconnected
pools at the end of the dry season but that's when the game congregates
around the few known water sources - so it all evens out.
You may have heard the cynical
remark that Kruger is 'too developed' with loads of town-like camps and
other infrastructure. Well, yes. The park does have a number of good accommodation
options - more than 20 SANParks camps and a few private luxury lodges as
well. That may sound like a lot - but remember that Kruger is the size
of Wales - and in all that space there is one town - the main camp, Skukuza,
is virtually a small town - about a dozen tiny hamlets with less than a
hundred families and a few out of they way camps that would probably relate
to a small farmstead. That leaves an awful lot of real wilderness.
You can do Kruger as a self-drive
or as a guided tour. Other exciting options include walking safaris, mountain
bike trails and a self-drive 4x4 trail. The nearest airport to the park
is the Kruger-Mpumalanga International Airport, just outside Nelspruit.
The southern, more popular, part of Kruger is about four hour's drive from
Johannesburg, and a little less from Pretoria. The drive to the more remote,
far less utilised, northern part, takes a few hours longer, but it's not
on the same route. You could do a great circular tour if you had ten days
or so to spare. Fly in to KMIA and enter the park in the south, drive very
slowly to the north, spending a day or two at different camps en route,
and then drive back to Johannesburg. (Or the other way round, of course.)
Strangely - and contrary
to expectations - the northern part, which is truly wild, has less animals
than the south so don't feel you're missing out if you've only got a few
days in the more busy part of the park. As well as the Kruger National
Park, the lowveld is well endowed with private nature reserves, most of
which have luxury lodges, where guests are subjected to an outrageous level
of pampering and taken on fantastic game drives and optional walks by very
knowledgeable and attentive guides. Many lodges even have attached wellness
centres where you can fill in the time between morning and evening game
drives with a massage, facial or some other indulgent treatment. |
