I am spending three weeks hunting and visiting friends in South Africa at the end of July. We will hunt in the Limpopo Province and were thinking about a side trip in the middle of the hunt to Kruger Natl. Park for a couple days. Anyone have any experience or advice on visiting the park? We would be going with our PH and friends and have our own vehicle and were looking at staying in a lodge or camp.

Thanks
Rob

I would think your PH would make reservations at anywhere you will be staying.

Be sure to see the museum and its display of ivory at Skukusa and sign up for a nighttime game drive.

Bill Quimby

Actually, the elephant museum is at Letaba Camp. It is a must see! Of the camps, I'd suggest you stay at Satara Camp, and reserve the Stanley Guest House for your overnight stay. It is splendid and has a lighted waterhole just behind the house. It can sleep up to 9 guests, so plenty of privacy for your family, and also your PH and his family. A night-time game drive is well worth doing.

I stand corrected. It is Letaba.

Bill Quimby

We spent 9 days camped in Kruger the first part of Nov. DLS is 100% on with his recommendation! We stayed there, Stanley House was 3-4 chalets away from ours. It would be perfect for a bigger group. You generally have to book 11 months in advance. They fill up fast!!

Go rustic. There used to be a place called Pafuri River Camp near Crooks Corner. It will feel less like a zoo and there will be less traffic up there.

All area's are washed away north of Swingwedzi (Swingwedzi included) with the recent floods...

The nite time game drive is a must do.

We did a short stay at Jock Safari Lodge after flying in to Nelspruit from JoBerg.

I heartily endorse a side trip to Kruger to see the animals. Awesome!

Did this last year,let your PH do the bookings. Some thing need to be booked well in advance, and they will know the ropes

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
Go rustic. There used to be a place called Pafuri River Camp near Crooks Corner. It will feel less like a zoo and there will be less traffic up there.

Dead right!

The big camps such as Skukuza are now so big you're sometimes woken up by joggers etc but the smaller bush camps still have the privacy, intimacy and peace that's so essential to full enjoyment of the bush!

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Dead right!

The big camps such as Skukuza are now so big you're sometimes woken up by joggers....

Joggers.....aka....live bait!

I was there for a week last year. Enjoyed ever minute and saw a lot of game.

My advives:
Start to reserve your camps early. Good camps are booked fast.
Get yourself a nice car and drive the gravel roads, as most tourist traffic is on the main roads.
The north of the park is much quiter then then the south.
Avoid to sleep in the big/main camps if you can.

We (my family) are doing basically the same during last 2 weeks of July with Charl and Infinito. Charl set it all up for us and the iten looks great...

Kruger Park traffic jam. This ain't Yellowstone Park!

My daughter, standing next to Mafunyane's skull at the Letaba Elephant Museum.

I stayed in a friends lodge year before last and it was very nice. We did drove around day and night Enjoying the animals and plant life. One night at the braai a hyena strolled into camp and hung out on the patio for a few minutes. You will truly enjoy Kruger.

i take it you were staying in a lodge outside the park. every lodge/camp i stayed in in Kruger( 5 of them) required you to be inside the locked gate at sundown. all the hyenas were outside the fence and the only driving at night was in the back of a large truck on an organized night game drive.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
i take it you were staying in a lodge outside the park. every lodge/camp i stayed in in Kruger( 5 of them) required you to be inside the locked gate at sundown. all the hyenas were outside the fence and the only driving at night was in the back of a large truck on an organized night game drive.

The lodges he's referring to are probably those that adjoin the KNP but are not fenced off and are connected to it by private roads etc but not considered part of the actual park itself.

You can incidentally also get a special permit that allows an ordinary/private vehicle to travel the park roads at night. I got one some years ago when the KNP stuffed my bookings up and we arrived at a camp at the top end of the park just on sunset and found they'd stuffed up and didn't have any rooms for us and we had to go back to where we'd come from at the other end of the park.

I insisted we had a meal before we left so only left that camp around 2100 or 2200 & then had about a 4 or 5 hour drive back down the park.

That journey was truly wonderful. The park becomes a totally different experience at that time of night!

If you have your rifle(s) with you, Rob, check with your PH about Kruger rules. Seem to recall that you may not bring firearms in and may have to leave them at your PH's place.

Regards, Tim

Rob,

Your PH can phone the Skukuza office regarding the rules, i had some clients that when through the KNP on their way to Zimbabwe with their rifles. You can either store your rifle in the camp safe you going to stay over or they will seal it in your gun case and can store it in your chalet.

skukuza number: +2713 735 4265 or +2782 802 1204

Update:
We will be staying at the Mopani Rest Camp. Our rifles will be stored at the hunting camp in thier safe. Looking forward to seeing the park.

I took my guns thru the Park year before last. We stayed at Pinda Marie camp it is a small camp but nice. I was going thru to Moz. and forded the Limpopo River that was cool oh yea got stuck each way.

A final report on our visit. It was an amazing three days in the parl. Our Chalet was very clean and comfortable, all amenities are available at the rest camps. We did do a night drive but saw almost nothing. I would recommend it to anyone visiting SA to take time to visit Kruger.