South Africa’s Largest Game Reserve:
Kruger National Park
Written by Nikki Werner
The Context
Imagine a piece of wilderness which covers an area of close to 20 000km2 (around the size of Wales), where animals rule supreme and any humans curious enough to enter do so at their own risk. Welcome to South Africa’s largest nature reserve.
It’s so big that locals refer to it as if it were a country. You don’t ‘visit the Kruger National Park’, you simply ‘go to Kruger’. And it is locals who still make up some 80 percent of around one million visitors a year who have the privilege of crossing ‘the border’ and losing themselves in the bush.
Although Kruger is still referred to as a Big Five Game Reserve, the label is rooted in big-game hunters listing lion, leopard, black rhino, elephant and African buffalo as the most difficult African animals to hunt on foot. Looking beyond this hunting term and valuing every creature allows for a deeper appreciation of the wild.
There are several gates through which to access the park and dotted around Kruger are 12 main rest camps where it’s possible to stay overnight, or stop in for lunch and a leg-stretch when driving through the park during the day.
Of these rest camps, Skukuza, which lies on the banks of the Sabie River, is the largest. It is the administrative HQ of the Kruger National Park and, importantly, it has an airport. If Kruger might be likened to a country, Skukuza might be likened to the capital city.
Just like a country, the elevation, rainfall, geology, and vegetation vary greatly across different areas of Kruger. The landscape changes from the far northern region’s sandveld, to the central grasslands, to sourveld in the south west region. And the kinds of animals found in each depends on what they eat and where they like to be.
Cheetahs aren’t likely to perch on rocky outcrops, they prefer wide open plains. Grasses support herds of zebra, impala, and buffalo – a moveable feast for lions. And all animals need to drink, so the steady supply of water from the Sabie and Crocodile rivers in south-east Kruger is a drawcard across the board.
On the western flank of the Kruger National Park sits a cluster of private reserves that make up what is referred to as the Greater Kruger. These include names like Sabi Sands, Timbavati, and Thornybush with high-end lodgings that lean into the five-star interpretation of going on safari.
A supreme safari experience in the heart of the Sabi Sand Reserve and on the banks of the Sand River is the Lodolozi Private Reserve. The word ‘safari’ entered English language around the mid-1800s to describe ‘setting out on a journey’, though it originates with the Arabic word ‘safar’ meaning ‘journey’.
These reserves are not fenced off from the Kruger proper, so wildlife roams freely – but that doesn’t apply to people. The guests staying in these luxurious lodges have the benefit of privacy and exclusive access to the surroundings – there are no day visitors, and only guides lead excursions into the bush.
Private concessions
In addition to the privately-owned reserves bordering the park, there are privately-run lodges inside the borders of the park that are known as concessions. They also tend to have exclusive traversing rights over areas expanding out from the lodges. South African National Parks (SAN Parks) refers to these concession lodges as the ‘Golden Kudus’ within their portfolio for the level of luxury on offer, which is reinforced by the fact that two are by Singita.
Kruger by Car
Although wildlife may be seen from an opportune vantage point at an unfenced lodge or on a bush walk or backpack trail, many visitors choose to view from a vehicle. One option is with a guide, sometimes working with a tracker, in an open-topped 4x4 safari vehicle. The second is to drive yourself in whatever vehicle you own or hire.
Going out with a guide
The ‘guided tour’ is the most common experience for international visitors based at a lodge. Like visiting a new city with locals, guides often know the place like the back of their hand and have a good idea of where the animals will be. When time is limited, it’s an obvious choice to maximise the potential for sightings.
The guided option usually happens at dawn and around dusk and mostly involves driving around looking for animals. When they are permitted to go off-road, the guides are often able to get closer to the activity, which brings with it a sense of wonder and excitement.
Because they’re in constant communication with other guides, they’re likely to know where something interesting might be happening. And when working with a tracker, there’s the opportunity to witness a story unfolding in the wild in real time with live commentary.
The value lies not in ticking off a list of ‘must-sees’ but seeing the surroundings through the eyes of people with a deep knowledge of bird and animal behaviour. While a self-drive might make you feel alive in the bush, a guided drive can make the bush come to life.
Going it alone
The self-drive option is how many of the South African visitors choose to experience the park. It involves plotting a route, factoring in enough comfort breaks at rest camps along the way, packing the binoculars and the bird books and being open to what nature decides to reveal.
With a self-drive you are in control of your own destiny in more ways than one. There is flexibility in timing and whether to tackle dirt roads or stay on tarmac. As well as in taking the decision to be on the move and actively on the look out, or settle in at a bird hide or waterhole to wait and see which animals wander down for a drink.
Whereas a guide might know where animals are and take guests to see them, on a self-drive sightings are mostly a happy surprise. There are apps available to help increase chances but, in its purest form, spotting wildlife on a self-drive comes down to a combination of luck and keeping a sharp lookout.
Releasing from a Big Five checklist refocuses attention on birds and smaller fauna or, if you are seeing the same animals, how they behave in different contexts. And if there happens to be a much-hoped-for sighting after a long stretch of driving, the exhilaration is accompanied by a sense of accomplishment.
Because anyone may see anything, anywhere, at any time, this fosters camaraderie between those doing a self-drive when it comes to sharing advice and helping with sightings. In busy areas or during high season there may be many vehicles at a sighting, in which case showing courtesy is important.
Kruger is a wild park, so it goes without saying there’s no getting out of the car while on the road and windows may need to be closed at a moment’s notice. And being at the wheel can also offer some perspective on humankind’s place on the planet.
When a bull elephant decides to stand in the road indefinitely, for example, there’s no choice but to switch off the engine under the shade of a tree and wait – aware that turning around and taking an alternative route back to camp may mean not making it back before the gates close.
Size versus speed limit
Not only is Kruger vast, there’s also the matter of the speed limit: 50km/hour on tar and 40km/hour on gravel. This means traveling from north to south is a nine-hour journey or, more realistically, exploring Kruger in its entirety is a multi-day affair. Similarly, when staying in one place, it’s hard to strike out very far, so it can be preferable to pick one area of focus, book a home base and strike out from there.
Your Kruger may not be my Kruger
Given Kruger’s size, there are not only diverse ecosystems but also a broad range of experiences. Accommodation ranges from campsites in the remote Punda Maria rest camp, to original two-sleeper, thatched-roof rondavels at Pretoriuskop, to Singita’s Sweni Lodge in the south-eastern reaches – prime position for big game sightings.
And dining options span self-catered breakfast fry-ups on skottel braais (a kind of mobile gas barbecue), to eating a buffalo pie at Tshokwane picnic site, a mainstream South African restaurant chain on the banks of the Sabie River, and elegant dinners prepared by the skilled chefs from the Singita Community Culinary School.
The Urban Traveller
A young first timer who is part of the urban elite, fond of creature comforts and not all that fond of a couple of hours drive on gravel roads when connecting from airport to lodge, may prefer Kruger Shalati. For practical purposes it’s immediately accessible: fly into Skukuza and transfer to Shalati within 15 minutes.
Set on the Selati Bridge above the Sabie River, it is also architecturally striking in that it is built in and around converted train carriages – complete with pool deck suspended over the river. In the early 1900s a train track ran through the park with strategic stops so passengers could marvel at the wildlife.
Shalati now sits permanently at one of those stops. Returning from an evening drive to see the glow of the lit-up train carriages against a midnight-blue sky evokes the romance of travel in a bygone era.
The Lifelong Fan
A regular Kruger visitor and wildlife enthusiast, who believes in spending at least one week in the park and enjoys exchanging stories of sightings around a communal braai (barbecue) in the evenings, may choose overnighting at the major rest camps and self-driving to explore the area around each camp.
Their ideal itinerary might look like this: fly into Skukuza and spend a night there before heading north to Satara where there’s the option of driving east, west, north or south on day trips. Then on to Olifants, on a bank overlooking the Olifants river, where there’s not much reason to move from the viewing area. And moving on to Letaba or Shingwedzi before looping back and flying out of Skukuza.
This are a range of camps to choose from. The seasoned Krugerites may even opt for the satellite camps that are smaller and less mainstream, or bush camps. Though facilities can be fairly basic and it may require some advance planning and specialist camping equipment.
The first-timers
Very generally speaking, the south of the park is considered rich in game and a good entry-point for first timers doing a self-drive. The main Sabie River Road from Skukuza to Lower Sabie is a logical choice, especially in dry conditions when animals look for water. Though an important consideration would be how busy the park is, to avoid river-road rush hour.
By flying directly into Skukuza, it can serve as a launching pad for approaching the park as a south to north experience – the airport is a pleasure, there’s access to car hire and, importantly, it is in the park. Besides the convenience, Skukuza offers variety, as it’s possible to head off in three different directions if using the rest camp as a base.
The Nature Lover
While Skukuza is advisable for first timers, the far north is known to be less crowded and better suited to the return visitor who prefers a more tranquil experience and has a keen and very specific interest in wildlife and the natural world.
It is a paradise for twitchers seeking Afrotropical bird species and offers a lush landscape of fever tree forests and stands of baobabs. Here the focus lies with the likes of walking safaris and spotting Nyala in the riverine forests of the Luvuvhu.
In these parts there’s the Pafuri Luxury Tented Camp in the Makuleke Contract Park. This land, between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers in Greater Kruger, was returned to the Makuleke people, who took the decision to commit it to eco-tourism.
Transformation
The work on acknowledging, compensating, and including communities who were disenfranchised is ongoing and most recently the Kruger National Park launched the Mount Tshikumbu heritage site, a sacred location near the Phalaborwa gate, to honour and document the Bakgalaka people's history.