daKav

I apologize in advance for yet another Kruger thread.

I plan to fly into JNB (reach around noon) and start driving to KNP the next morning. I prefer driving because after Kruger I plan to spend a fews driving to Swaziland and Lesotho before heading back to JNB. After reading several threads, I decide to stick to Swaziland and Lesotho, instead of heading to CPT.

I haven't been able to fully wrap my head around 'how to get around KNP'. Here are the questions I do not have clarity on:

1. There seems to be accommodation inside KNP and outside. Is that correct? Which is preferable? I realize it *might* be late to get a 'good' accommodation for around Thanksgiving, but, I am willing to rough it out.

2. This is the biggest question I have - Should I do the self drive safari (I'll be solo) or can I choose to go on a paid day safari (I'd prefer this)?

3. I came across some safaris from JNB, which I do not want to do. I wanna choose something local around KNP since I'll need a car to head onto the other 2 countries.

4. In one of the threads, a poster mentioned about Kruger sticky(?). I wasn't able to track it down. If I could get to that threads, it'd be great too.

Thanks,
daKav

Skatering

1) Yes, there are camps operated by Sanparks inside Kruger and lodges on the boundaries outside.

2) As a solo traveller, I did a safari with a tour guide (with jeep and other people) and a self-drive. The self-drive really wasn't fun for me. You can arrange a guide through Sanparks, if you stay in a camp, or privately if outside. See my other posts for recommendations if you'd like them.

johan rebel

Accommodation is best categorized as follows:

1. SANParks rest camps (within Kruger by definition).

2. Hotels etc. outside the KNP but within reasonable driving of the park gates that cater to day drive visitors.

3. Private lodges within Kruger (exclusive concessions)

4. Private lodges in private nature reserves.

There are obvious advantages to staying in Kruger. For starters, you game drive begins as soon as you leave the camp. No need to line up at the entrance gate, line up to buy an entry permit (cumbersome and bureaucratic), etc. Furthermore, camp gates open an hour earlier in November than park entry gates do, so you get a headstart. Thanksgiving, by the way, is not a public holiday in South Africa. Most locals have probably never heard of it, and it is certainly not going to affect accommodation availability.

Most visitors staying at SANParks rest camps self-drive, but the rest camps offer morning, evening and night drives, as well as walks and mountain biking (Olifants). No day drives, but those are not a good idea in November anyway.

Hotels outside the park are, in my opinion a fallback option of last resort, if there is really no accommodation to be had inside the KNP. Having to drive in and out of the park for every game drive is just not a good idea. In addition you will always enter and exit through the same gate, which constrains your game drive options.

The hotels offer guided game drives, mostly full-day. They do not exactly come cheap, even though lunch is usually for your own expense.

Private game lodges offer a fully inclusive product, they will not only find the animals for you, but also feed you and tuck you in at night.

The private lodges operating within the Kruger are bound hands and feet by SANParks rules and regulations. These are good for the environment, but make game spotting and viewing harder. Private lodges on private land are less constrained, and can easier break whatever rules there may be without suffering any consequences. Not so good for the environment, but you are likely to see more animals really up close.

No, don't do a safari from JNB. There are no advantages I can think of.

The sticky is presumably the game viewing tips and tricks one. If you opt for a self-drive safari, I strongly recommend that you read it. Spotting game is far from easy, and really challenging for a novice. If you are driving solo you really need to come prepared, mount your head on a swivel and concentrate. It's not always easy. Heck, I've been doing this regularly for a quarter of a century, so I figure I have a bit of experience, yet I still struggle at times.

Johan

daKav

Thanks, you two!

I spent a large part of yesterday reading through Africa forum (bulk of it were Johan's posts) and it was very informative.

Regarding Thanksgiving, yes, I noticed accommodation are available on SANparks website for the days I am there. Also, me planning to be there during weekdays helped I am guessing.

There are plenty of game drives open (on SANparks website) on the days I am planning to be there. I'll research on that a little more and book them.

Once again, thank you very much for answering my specific questions (which I am guessing was already answered in some other threads )

johan rebel

Specific questions are a lot easier to anwer than general or vague ones.

Keep 'm coming.

Johan

vholic

daKav, I'm wondering which accommodation you eventually booked?

I'm deciding on a last minute trip to Kruger, also during Thanksgiving week.

Johan, if you're reading this, I'd appreciate your input.

Trip length 5 days in Kruger (might extend to 6 days). I'll be picked up by the tour operator in the morning after one night stay in Johannesburg.

Option 1
All stays in Kruger - this seems to be what's recommended by Johan to maximize game drive time.
The tour operator recommended Skukuza bungalow. Thoughts?

Option 2
2 nights in Kruger, 2 nights in Sabi Sand at Arathusa.

Option 3
All stays with Viva Safaris - Tremisana and Marc's Treehouse.
I like their itinerary and read the reviews at TripAdvisor.


Not sure if this has any effect on accomodation choice, but I'd like to visit Maholoholo Rehab Center.

Thanks in advance.

konagirl2

Each of your options are quite different, but the devil is in the detail really. If all of these options are being arranged through a tour operator and are all guided, they will be best placed to inform you of your best choice based on both cost and what you want out of your visit. Do you really want to see big cats / predators / the Big 5? If you really want to see rhino, or wild dogs, or leopard, you need to specify that because there can be better areas for each. Or are you happy to have a relaxing stay in the bush with varied game also visiting other bits of the surrounding area, perhaps with a lie-in one or two mornings? If your sole aim is to see as much wildlife as possible, in as natural a setting and ecosystem as possible in SA, then option 1 or 2 is more likely to give you that. (There is plenty of discussion here and elsewhere in the internet about the benefits of staying on a concession versus within the NP, about the 'management' of Kruger and its neighbouring concessions, as well as Johan's excellent guide on how best to spot animals - which if nothing else emphasises you need to be on the roads at dawn to have the best chance of predator sightings.)

If you go for option 1, I would request they split your time between two camps and preferably include Lower Sabie. The view from the restaurant deck is great and the restaurant prices are reasonable. Skukuza is a much bigger and busier camp, though it offers lots of options for game drive routes.

johan rebel

That sums it up nicely.

From Skukuza you can indeed head out in all directions, but as it is the park HQ and largest camp you also get a lot of traffic. Lower Sabie is not that much smaller, and can also get quite busy, but there are plenty of roads to choose from.

It might make sense to pick two camps at some distance from each other, so that you get to see more of Kruger's amazing diversity.

Remember that there is a drought on, hugging the major perennial rivers on game drives might be a good idea, or else roads with pumped waterholes within viewing distance.

Johan

vholic

konagirl2 and johan, thank you!

Happy

I will give my 2 cents after spending 5 days in Kruger the 2nd week of Sept. Our first night and last night were at Protea just outside Kruger Gate. The middle 4 nights were inside Kruger at the rest camps booked back in Dec 2015, 3 of them were at perimeter. There was absolutely NO line at Kruger gate when we entered the park the next morning after a night at Protea. We had reservation for stay inside the Park and the agent processed the entry permit based on that. Took about 10 to 15 min primarily because the system was down and she had to call and then hand-wrote everything. We went to Lower Sabie for lunch and bought our Wild Card there. We did wait a bit there but then we had to wait for the lunch anyway. Very slow service at Mugg Beans at every camp. Dont know why.

1) Kruger is currently affected by a severe drought since late last year. Hopefully it gets some rain recently. During our visit there was very little green. I dont know if the prolong drought affecting the dirt road or not but most dirt roads were in very poor condition as in the form of washboard - very very bumpy unless your vehicle had wide tires. Even the game drive safari jeeps dont go to the dirt roads from our observation.
In any case all our worthy sightings were on the paved roads.

2) Keep your expectation low as you would spend a lot of time driving around but often only spot the animals occasionally, when it comes to lions, rhinos and leopards (the most illusive one). You will see way too many Impalas and Elephants that you start getting annoyed when you see yet another group of elephants blocking your way on the road...
All of our sightings were long past dawn as we are not morning people. No way we would/could get up at the crack of dawn to do game drive. But better sightings were on overcast days and after 5pm on way back to rest camp.
Also pay attention to the birds - there are lots of interesting birds in Kruger, both on the ground and on the tree branch. The big birds (a few varieties) were rather comical.
I would spend 40 rands to buy the Kruger guide/map from the camp office - it is quite informational.

3) As for the Rest Camps - we stayed at Satara, Lebata and Lower Sabie. I would give the highest mark to Lebata for the environment and the setting. The river bed had animal visiting both morning and evening and it had a few residents of deer family inside the camp. Satara is also very good as all the sighting of lions and the one and the only sighting of leopard were on the paved roads not too far from Satara. Our first sighting of white rhino was almost by the road side at dusk when we were rushing to go to the camp before gate close. Lower Sabie is kind of disappointing to us. Despite its reputation we did not see any of the Big 5 near Lower Sabie except the elephant. The restaurant by the river was nice but service was excruciatingly slow, plus no sighting of any animal both on the first day we dropped by for lunch and on the last day we stayed there.
Skukuza has good wifi near the Cattle Barron restaurant which is a MUCH BETTER restaurant than the Mugg and Beans in the other rest camps in terms of Food Quality.

4) We drove down to Crocodile Bridge camp and back hoping to see more Rhinos but did not see any. Yet, at the waterhole just outside camp we saw the biggest herd of Cape Buffalo shared the water with a herd of elephants, a herd of wildebeest and a few Zebras. The next day we drove down to Melelane and saw white rhinos on the way down, then saw our only black rhinos on the way up - 2 behind the bush not too far from the paved road.
The annoying part of going down to these 2 camps are there is no paved road across so you are driving the same distance down and up. We thought about to leave the park at Crocodile and then return the park at Melelane - but the paperwork entailed even with the Wild Card killed the idea because you need to get a permit to leave and get a permit to re-enter, despite the Wild Card. It is quite time consuming to have the paper done at the camp office.

5) Finally on our way out via Skukuza towards Kruger Gate we saw a pack of the Wild Dogs - that supposedly was rare as the stat said there were only 400 Wild Dogs in South Africa. A group of cars congregated not far from outside Skukuza allegedly looking for leopard so we stopped to check - that saved us because there was set up to catch speeding less than 100 meters away. We saw there were cars being caught. This was the only spot we saw enforcement of speed during 5 days inside park.

One last thing, DONT FORGET THE MALARIA PREVENTION MED! Your family doctor can prescribe the prescription. We took Malarone which now has generic version. Each prevention med has different method of taking it, as well as different possible side effect. Malarone has the least side effects for most people. We took 2 test pills 10 days before we leave home and did not feel any side effect. So we had the full prescription with us. The Kruger portion of trip not started until 10 days after we left home. Malarone requires you to start the med 1 to 2 days before going into the affected area, then take it every day inside the area, followed by 7 days after leaving the area. There are older drugs that have different mechanism.

vholic

Happy, thanks for the insights!

johan rebel

Not that uncommon, unfortunately. If you are really unlucky you end up in a long line of customers.

Par for the course. Beats me too.

First half of September is the very end of the dry season, so there would have been very little green even in a normal year. Some shrubs are evergreen (e.g. Magic Guarri), as are various tree species. The latter occur mostly along rivers and major drainage lines, the former often in patches.

This is pretty common, and depends on several factors.

• The underlying geology. Roads on granitic soils (roughly the western half of the KNP) are more susceptible.
  
  
• The volume of traffic, and how fast vehicles are driving. Roads with many speeding vehicles are the worst.
  
  
• How recently the road was graded.
  
  
• The weather.

There is no intrinsic reason why tar roads should be better for sightings than gravel ones. Some factors affecting the number of sightings are:

• Whether the road was designed specifically as a game viewing road, or mainly/partly to connect two or more points. Tar roads are more likely to have been designed with the latter in mind. The S1 Doispane is a good example.
  
  
• The volume of traffic. More eyes at shorter intervals = more sightings, all else being equal (it rarely is).

Not everyone can or will, but leaving camp at the earliest opportunity dramatically increases your chances of predator sightings, especially active ones (as opposed to staring at the left ear of a lion fast asleep behind a bush).

Most animals, predators included, are more active at cooler times of day, such as dawn.

A number of the older/smaller camps stand out by virtue of their location, by having retained their former charm, or both. These include Letaba, Shingwedzi, Punda Maria, Tamboti and Crocodile Bridge. The others are pretty meh.

At the risk of being pedantic, the only deer in Africa are the Barbary Deer of the Atlas Mountains. The antelope in Letaba camp are bushbuck. Never corner a male. Their horns are short but sharp, they have been known to kill people.

Luck plays a roll, but here is where experience and knowledge (both of wildlife and the area) are crucial. There is no reason why sightings around Lower Sabie should not be good. Picking the right roads can make all the difference, as does timing. I know I'm belaboring the point, but an early start is almost always a very good idea.

Service par for the course, as elsewhere.

If you are referring to animal sightings from the restaurant deck, then bear in mind that rivers are long and linear. They do not focus and concentrate animals like pools, wallows, and pumped waterholes do. Animals can and do drink at any suitable point along the river. The main criteria are ease of access and egress, good visibility and shallow water. Drinking animals are at risk of being pounced upon by crocodiles in the water and a host of predators lying in wait amongst the vegetation on shore, so they will try to avoid deep and murky waters, and well-vegetated shorelines. In other words, the river at Lower Sabie is just not a sensible thirsty animal’s first choice.

One of two restaurants in Kruger with a solid reputation. The other is up at Mopani.

Congratulations, seeing even a single one in Kruger is quite an achievement. That was already the case before the current poaching epidemic, which hasn’t exactly increased your chances.

I strongly recommend the gravel roads, even if they do not make for as comfortable driving as tar roads do. Heck, Kruger is a national park and a wildlife area, it is amazing that there are any tar roads at all. Purist would argue that there shouldn’t be any, but given the number of visitors to Kruger they are an unavoidable necessity.

With all roads, whether tar or gravel, the tricky part is picking the right one, at the right time.

Between Crocodile Bridge and Malelane one should take the river road. It is one of the better roads in Kruger, and one of the prettiest too (OK, maybe not that pretty in the middle of a drought), and excellent for predators. Heading east along it one morning I got spotted hyaena, black-backed jackal, lion, wild dogs, cheetah and leopard, in that order.

And a spot well known to all staff and regulars as well. Kruger urgently needs more enforcement, and not only on the same few roads.

I disagree. No need whatsoever for malaria meds in Kruger, especially not in the dry season, or during a drought.

Johan

og

To the OP, ensure your rental car is "legal" for entry to the places you want. We just spoke with a guy who was detained at the Lesotho border because his windscreen disc was out of date. It was the rental agency that hadn't kept it up to date. And I note that my current rental contract says "no cross border driving" ( or similar ).

2RETIREDTRAVELERS

Thanks Johan- great comments,criticism and advice... good learning opportunities for our next (third) visit to Kruger 8/2017

Happy

Not going to comment on what you wrote, apparently you have a relentless passion about Kruger - good for you but just remember, not everyone has the same devotion on that. To many, us including, I have to admit, it is a nice NP to visit at least once, but not some place we would return again and again even though we have a trip back to South Africa booked in 2017 - our 3rd trip - we dont plan to return to Kruger, instead we would like to check out East Cape and Swaziland instead.

Also we actually enjoy Mountain Zebra NP visited last year more than Kruger. To each their own.

But I have to take note on your advice against taking Malaria prevention - that is a very irresponsible advice. While the med may not be 100% effective, it increase the likelihood that one is not affected.
I read a news article in local paper before our visit, that there were actually cases on Malaria despite Kruger was experiencing severe drought.

Wearing protective clothing, long sleeves, long pants, socks to protect the ankle, especially at dawn and at dusk, use sprays, and take the med. We do not want to take a chance. It is absolutely NOT worth it if one ignore the precautions and then contract the disease. Again, to each their own. But tell people NOT to take precaution is down right irresponsible.

The more sensible advice should be, evaluate one's own health conditions, and the willingness to take unnecessary risk, then decide whether one should take Malaria prevention med, instead of telling people that is not necessary. Sorry to challenge your authority but I feel it strongly that you are WRONG on this, and it is not a light matter as in the recreational activities of animal sighting. It can be life and death should one contract the disease and one's body is not strong enough to win.