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jeffa4444
GB
Visited:
March 2016
Reviewed: Mar 24, 2016
Email jeffa4444 | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great scenery and all the animals & birds you could wish to see.
Annick Vanderschelden
Kruger National Park is breathtaking.
The accommodations are just fine as the concept is a rest camp in a wilderness environment. There are several camps located throughout the park.
You can eat in the rest camps. A lot of visitors love to braai, especially the South Africans. Food can be bought in the shops. You can also buy your food supply outside the park which is cheaper.
Being a photographer, I travelled alone and I hired a car. If Johannesburg is your starting point in South Africa you can drive
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from there to Kruger National Park. But I took a flight to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport where I could pick up my car.I'm sure a guide might be very interesting in terms of learning aspects and so forth but as my goal was to take pictures, I preferred to do most things alone. I did a guided bush walk though which you should do also.
Finally there are always surprises. I figured out I hadn't seen a leopard and had two more days to go. But it was okay. And then suddenly the last day as a kind of goodbye present, I saw a mom leopard with two cubs. Superb.
I could go home now. But I went back...
Great Place for the Big 5
It's a huge park and your odds of seeing what you're looking for are pretty good. We spent two days here and of the big five we got all but the lions (however the leopards are rarer and we did get them) plus zebra and several varieties of impala, gazelle and monkey. We also saw tons of birds including many Lilac-breasted rollers, red, yellow and ground billed hornbills and even a purple crested turaco. The facilities are well maintained and the park is one of the most easily accessible in Africa.
Dren P
US
Visited:
August 2015
Reviewed: Feb 29, 2016
Email Dren P | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Petting a Cheetah
Kruger Park for me was an absolutely fantastic experience. First of all, many people complain that the place has asphalt roads and that at times it can be crowded - and these all valid complaints. However, Kruger Park is so vast and crude - approximately the size of Switzerland. One of the guides that was driving us around told us that even if we were to travel every road in Kruger, we would be able to see only about 3% of all Kruger National Park. Needless to say, the scenery was absolutely stunning.
As for the animals, you can find there all sorts of animals. By the end of the day, we had seen at least some 27 kinds of animals, including four of the big 5. The only animal
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that we did not see was Leopard, and that was due to them being overall shy animals. However, keep in mind that this was only during one single day.During the two nights, we slept at two different places - the names of which, unfortunately I can't remember. However, both of the places were great. One of them had animals running around within hotel area, but was slightly poshy. The meals were fantastic - especially if you are into meat and of different game. The other place where we slept was much more rudimentary, but it really made you feel the 'bush vibe'. This place was located within a game reserve, which included giraffes, elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hippos, etc. There was no fence that separated these animals from you. Only walls of the lodges. At some point we met the 'tamed' cheetah which would hang out with us. We petted the cheetah and she would purr, but moments later she went on a hunt - one of those wilde hunts you see on TV. That was quite an experience.
I cannot possibly sum up in words the experience in Kruger, but I know that it was a great experience of which I did not get enough. What I do know is that eventually, I will go back again and get to stay a little longer.
Matthew Scerri
MT
Visited:
August 2015
Reviewed: Feb 17, 2016
Email Matthew Scerri | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
One of the best value for money locations for safari I have ever come across
It all changed on the way from Skukuza airport to the camp, with the airport in Skukuza offering a fantastically easy way to access the park. Just along a single stretch of road, in less than 1 hour, we saw Lions, Elephants, and Leopards. Throughout my time spent there, it was relatively easy to find and photograph the Big 5.
What really impressed me however, was the bird sightings. The road and areas became somewhat congested when it
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came to sightings of Lions and Leopards which were easier to come across than I initially expected in the Kruger. Having said that most of the self-drive tourists didn't really seem to care about the other stuff, especially birds. One episode I will not forget was how we spent hours with a Juvenile Bateleur photographing it in spectacular light all by ourselves (just me, and my guide at the time - Etienne Oosthuizen). Based on my experience, I thoroughly recommend having a guide as you would otherwise end up missing the vast majority of wildlife you can potentially see.Having stayed in a hut in the Lower Sabie, accommodation can be best described as basic. The hut itself was adequate. Small, but clean and did the job wonderfully, but the common ablutions were often left in a pitiful state by some of the other visitors to the camp (they were, however, cleaned every day by the excellent staff). As a result, I would probably recommend people consider a room with private facilities.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and it is by far the best value-for-money safari I've ever been on (even if I was all on my own!) and it ended up being an integral part of why I'm planning to visit South Africa again - this time looking forward even more to my time in the Kruger.
Leanne Johnson
AU
Visited:
January 2016
Reviewed: Feb 12, 2016
Email Leanne Johnson | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing African Safari
We were a family of 5 from Australia travelling together and luckily ‘Hoppy’ was our personal tour guide over the next 4 days. Hoppy was up first every morning ready with coffee and biscuits for us before the early morning drive, and breakfast, and would teach us something new each day. Hoppy has been a tour guide in the Kruger for some years and this was evident as he knew all the spots of where to find the animals and would
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allow us time to stop for photos whenever we wanted. We saw all of the Big 5 on numerous occasions, except for the Leopard which eluded us, however we saw many other animals which amazed us, including two rare white rhino – Hoppy even gave us a check list to mark off the animals which was great!.We stayed at two rest camps over the four days, and they were both clean, had good facilities and were of a decent standard (aircon, fridge, shower and little balcony) – they were not 5 star but I didn’t expect that either, you are in Africa after all. The dinner at the restaurant at Skukuza camp was very impressive and the selection was endless, additionally all other camps were serviced by a ‘Mug and Bean’ which was also very good, believe me you won’t go hungry!
Thank you Wildlife Safaris for being a wonderful ambassador for tourism in South Africa, I would recommend your company and ‘Hoppy’ to everyone. We will be back some day, hopefully sooner rather than later!
Thanks – The Johnsons (Leanne, Gab, Charmaine, Charles and Bianca)
Michel Rademaker
NL
Visited:
June 2015
Reviewed: Feb 3, 2016
Email Michel Rademaker | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Kruger Still Has It!!
For 2015 we had decided to revisit South Africa and Kruger National Park was one of the reserves we wanted to explore some more and we were very curious if we would still enjoyit as much as we did in 2010 after visiting those other famous parks in the previous years as some of them are much more adventurous and/or wild than Kruger. We had booked 9 nights in 4 different camps (Lower Sabie, Satara, Shimuwini & Berg-en-Dal) and I can honoustly
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say we again had an amazing experience and still loved every minute of it!! Of course Kruger can be busy, especially when you come across a big pride of lions on the tar road between Lower Sabie & Satara but if you know where to go and count to 10 sometimes it's still one of the best reserves to see the Big 5. We had 4 leopard sightings, multiple lion sightings, we saw hyena's, wild dogs and even a pangolin!! Some sightings were hectic, those on the tar main roads mostly but we had several amazing sightings with no (with the pangolin) or only a few other people around. We also liked the fact that we could chill in the fenced camps for once as it can be very relaxed and enjoy a good meal at one of the restaurants so we didn't have to cook ourselves. That's something you can't do when your at an unfenced camp in Moremi or Chobe in Botswana or the Kgalagadi. That's awesome as well of course but like I said before, we still loved Kruger!!
Wonderful - we could not have asked for more.
What we saw was amazing - within an hour of arriving we saw a baby elephant only a few days old, the hind legs of its mother still stained from the birth. By the end of the time we had seen just about everything except Cheetah. We even saw a pack of wild dogs.
The accommodation was very comfortable, in spacious bungalows with flushing loo and full shower. Simon cooked well for us and really looked after us. Out at 4.30 each day for the morning drive in an open sided vehicle, out again at 3.
Three things became clear - you need to be with an experienced guide; you need to be in an open-sided vehicle and you need to be based inside the park. Anything else and you are short-changing
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yourselves.Bring binoculars, a good camera with a zoom lens and you will leave with a bright heart and a lifetimes of memories. We could not have asked for anything more.
garrellmillhouse
GB
Visited:
November 2015
Reviewed: Jan 21, 2016
Email garrellmillhouse | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
How lucky I am to have experienced this.
The main roads in the park and tarmac and ones we traveled are well maintained. The other roads are dirt but are good although in a small car could be tricky especially in wet weather. We were there in the rainy season but chose not to go to the park when the weather forcast was bad.
There is wildlife everywhere but you have to look for it. Driving slowly is the best bet and when you see something pull to the side of the road. The next vehicle along is likely to stop and ask what you are watching, unless it is obvious - elephant, giraffe, rhino!
Lots of people seem only to be interested in the big 5 and the larger animals but, in my opinion, you will be missing a great deal. I was pleased to have spotted a dung beetle rolling
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his dung and a tortoise. There are also lots of birds and some with amazing plumage but again you have to look for them. We did not see and lions or cheetahs when we visited which was disappointing until you consider what we did see.Watch when you see elephants - they sometimes decide that you are too close - they will let you know and then back away slowly. They are bigger than you!
Plan your route so that you can leave the park before the gates close. We did not use a guide but next time I think I would try that.
We went to Skukuza camp for breakfast - really terrific and good value.
We have booked again for November 2016.