Kruger National Park

Super safari experience

From pick up to drop back in Johannesburg we were looked after by the superb team from Wild Planet Safari. We had a mix of camping and in a bungalow and moved from North Kruger to exit via the middle of Kruger. Our guides were extremely knowledgable and entertaining and were super cooks. We were lucky to see many of the animals but unfortunately not the rhinos. We were lucky to come across a pack of wild dogs with a kill early one morning. The elephants while fascinating and lovely to watch in their family groups, did not get my sympathy (as much as they should) because I felt they cause so much damage to the vegatation. That said we have many many beautiful pictures of the animals and scenery - the different vegetation areas, the river, the sun rises and the sunsets.
Moving around in the habitat of all these wild animals - and for the most part they do not object - was a privilege. You feel as though you are in another world and this was my best holiday ever. I came home so relaxed - was it something to do with being so close to animals who are truely living at one with nature.
Thank you to everybody in South Africa who is responsible for maintaining and protecting this part of our world.

Really amazing experience

This has been my 2nd safari experience. Everything went in a woderfull way. We (couple) organized all by ourselves, booking via the official website of the park. We spent three whole days driving our car in the southern part of the Kruger. We had the chance to see a lot of animals (4 out of the 5 big, we missed the lion). We spent our nights in the camps (Lower Sabie and Skukuza): both are really nice, well organized and clean, even if we preferred the LS. We had two organized safari, one in the afternoon/night (good experience) and one by walk early in the morning (not really a interesting experience). We also had dinner into the camps (good). We were in South Africa two weeks before Christmas so we didn't find a lot of tourist and we had the opportunity to maximize our Kruger's experience.

I know it would be hard to convince new people to skip Kruger and do the smaller parks with highly skilled guides...but I might have been convinced if you had told me this.

Professional wildlife safari with a good dose of adventure

My wife and I arrived mid-morning at Skakusa Airport unaware that our travel consultant had made an error in not having us fly to Hoedspruit given our destination was Arathusa Safari Lodge, part of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve annexed to Kruger National Park.

This error made little difference to our activities for the day. We were met at Skakusa by our pre-booked driver who alerted us to the apparent error but decided that he'd turn the situation to our advantage and take us for a drive through the southern end of Kruger National Park.

We quickly encountered elephant, giraffe, impala and zebra.

Our departure from the park was through Paul Kruger Gate where we were met by a small band of vervet monkeys who kept an eye on what we were doing but perhaps looking for an opportunity for a 'grab and run' easy feed, not that we were eating anything at the time.

Leaving Paul Kruger Gate, we crossed the fast flowing Sabi River observing a couple of jousting hippopotamus then stumbling upon a cunning 2.5 metre Nile crocodile waiting patiently below the bridge for unwitting (or perhaps already drowned) prey to be swept past.

We traveled west to Hazyview in Mpumalanga province then turned north towards Acornhoek where along the way we saw the impressive rise of the Drakensberg Range. We took in the sights of busy townships and even busier local markets. Leaving Acornhoek, we traveled east along a sealed road that we thought was in worse condition than some of the dirt roads we'd be travelling and then south to Gowrie Gate and onto Arathusa Safari Lodge.

We'd just made lunch and there was a commotion on the other side of the waterhole ... a pack of a dozen or so African wild dogs had pulled down an impala so it was quickly into the 4WDs armed with cameras to witness this hectic episode. The wild dogs didn't waste any time and ripped the impala apart within minutes. It all came and went very quickly with our guides telling us that hunts of this size happen a couple of times a day as there is simply not enough in an impala to sustain a pack of this size.

And so started 3 days of evening and morning safaris. We were allocated the same driver and spotter for our time at Arathusa so it was possible to build a rapport with these guys and have a bit of fun along the way. Be warned, the early morning starts and evening safaris are quite cold this time of year so take plenty of warm clothing. The 4WDs also have woollen blankets available.

This was our first trip to South Africa and it became clear early on that certain wildlife was easier to find than others. Considerable effort was put into locating leopards and after talking with other guests and continuing our travels through Botswana and Zimbabwe, our total of 5 at Arathusa was special. Even better, two of these allowed us to get some very special pictures early one morning - a female and her well-advanced cub. Our driver was also acutely aware of where to stop the vehicle so as to get the best possible photographs.

The accommodation, food and beverages were first class and the staff were polite and made our stay very comfortable. We wanted for nothing other than perhaps better light for taking photos.

On to Hoedspruit (not Skakusa) Airport to continue our journey.

We personally liked sabi sands more. It feels wilder and less crowded with people. No concrete roads and nobody else driving around, only authorized safari drivers

Amazing experience, endless vistas, the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets, large viewings of so many different species of animals in different environments, amazing!

Kruger is enormous, and the size of the park and its openness to all kinds of vehicles makes for more potential animal sightings. It also makes for more potential traffic jams. Sightings rely on animals being close to the roads, but there is more area available to traverse. This is helpful in the case of hippo sightings; we could go right to a watering hole where there are usually hippos. Some of the more "exciting" sightings are a little frustrating if there are a bunch of cars. The landscape and natural beauty in the park is phenomenal though. The rock formations and landscape are very pretty.

Wildlife was hard to spot at times

Kruger is a must see if you are going to South Africa! Do as many game drives as possible and see how many animals you can see :)

On the particular day that we went, we didn't see much wildlife, however on other days, some Safari members mentioned they saw a lot of animals. The landscape was fairly uniform without much variation.