Information on Kruger National Park, one of the biggest and best reservations for wildlife in the world.
The Kruger National Park is the brightest jewel in South Africa's treasure chest.
It is a sanctuary for Africa's wildlife and botanical treasure and the Park attracts millions of tourists each year as they arrive in their droves to see animals roam freely in their natural habitat. The original name for this park was the Sabie Game Reserve - it was proclaimed a sanctuary on 26 March 1898 by the then president of South Africa, Paul Kruger. It was the first known sanctuary created exclusively for wild life and even today the Kruger National Park (renamed after the president Paul Kruger) remains a blue print of what wild life sanctuaries should be like.
The Kruger National Park is situated in the North Eastern region of South Africa, most of the Park lies within Mpumalanga, one of South Africa's nine provinces. The 1 948 528 hectares that the park occupies, is caught within the Limpopo river in the north and the Crocodile River in the south.
The park is home to 147 species of mammal, 33 amphibian, 50 fish species, 115 species of reptiles, 230 species of butterfly, over 500 bird species, 200 species of trees and many different types of botanical wonders
Camps with modern amenities have been built for tourists who wish to spend more than one day in the park.
The best known camp is Skukuza, which even boasts an open-air cinema, a museum and a wildlife library. The word "skukuza" means "he who sweeps clean" and the word is used to remember the parks first warden, James Stevenson-Hamilton.
Some of the other parks are the Berg-en-dal, Letaba, Lower Sabie, Olifants and Satara. There are over 20 camps ranging from the luxurious to the more spartan which offers huts for 2 to 5 people with only a cold water basin for washing.
Besides these camps, there are also wilderness trail camps for those brave enough to explore the park on foot. The importance of enjoying your stay in any of the camps is to live simply - take casual clothes along and leave the suits and high heels behind. Always wear hats, sunglasses and a good sun block to ward off the harsh African sun - even in winter.
Tourists normally have to cook their own meals, unless they've managed to book into one of the more upmarket camps. You can take along your own provisions or buy from the shop which sells all types of groceries both perishable and non-perishable, soft drinks, alcohol, film for cameras, books, magazines and of course, curios.
For the first time visitor to South Africa and the Kruger National Park, contact the Park at least 6 months in advance to secure a booking at one of the more modern camps (Berg-en-Dal or Skukuza for example).
A huge network of tarred and gravelled roads links all the camps. Yet, in spite of the intrusion of these man-made elements, the park still appears, and is, untouched - tourists are reminded constantly that they are the intruders, not the wildlife.
You either arrive in your own car, rented car or pre-arrange with a sightseeing tour with one of the camps - the general rule is to stick to the rules of the road. Do not travel faster than 40 km/hour, stop if animals are crossing the road, do not get out of your car to get a "close-up" picture of the wild life, unless accompanied by an experienced tour guide.
The climate is subtropical with summer highs of about 43 degrees Celsius. The summer season also heralds in the rainy season - one of the worst rainy seasons occurred in late summer 2000 when floods all but ravaged the park, destroying plant life and mutilating the roads for sightseeing. Not many animals perished in the floods and conservationists are optimistic about a rapid recovery rate.
Winters are dry, warn but chilly at nights.
The season plays an important part in determining where to find certain wildlife. During the dry winter season, the river beds are generally dry and the animals gather around whatever water can be found, making it easier to find more species of wildlife; whereas in the season of botanical beauty and plenty, Summer, although the weather is more pleasant, it can be more difficult to see all the wildlife.
The "Big Five" will be on any tourists animal sighting list - the Big Five represents elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros. Probably the most difficult of the Big Five to spot is the leopard, which primarily prefers to hunt at night.
The fastest land animal, the Cheetah, is easily sighted as they hunt during the day as well - although there are not a large number of Cheetahs in the Kruger National Park. The Cheetah has to rely on its speed to catch prey, and the park does not have large open stretches of land - these many bushes hinder the speed of up to 75km/h that the Cheetah can reach.
The game most readily found are buck, especially the Impala, giraffe, zebra, elephants, lions, buffalo and hippopotamus.
Contact numbers and addresses:
For reservations:
The Chief Director
National Parks Board
Reservations
PO Box 787
Pretoria
0001
South Africa
Telephone numbers: (South Africa dialing code) 012-343 1991
