Kruger National Park, Safaris in South Africa: Tips for Travel

Few things are more incredible than driving a car down a dusty road early in the morning and watching a lumbering giraffe emerge from the trees towering overhead. Or to see an elephant look you square in the eye, trumpet its horn, and come charging after you, only to escape by hitting the gas and zipping out of there. Or to watch lions slowly sneak up on the herds surrounding a popular water hole, choose their prey, and overtake it, exerting their positions as kings of the jungle. But all of these things can be experienced in South Africa's Kruger National Park, sometimes in one single day, almost always within a full week.

One of the things the African continent is best known for is its amazing wildlife and classic stories of adventurous safaris still make their rounds. South Africa, the country at the southern tip of Africa, is also a popular tourist destination and will be hosting World Cup 2010 this year. Anyone visiting for the World Cup or any other reason should not miss their opportunity to take their own animal viewing safari through South Africa's amazing wilderness, and there's no better place to do it than South Africa's own Kruger National Park. This article will tell you what you need to know about travelling to Kruger, staying in Kruger, and how to maximize your animal-viewing opportunities.

To start with, Kruger is one of the largest "game reserves" in the world, and definitely the largest in South Africa, it could easily take more than a day to drive from its southern end to its northern tip and its eastern and western expanses extend from South African into Mozambique. There are no caged animals or artificial environments within Kruger.

It's the real deal, a real, set-aside, expanse of African land, comprising many different eco-systems, and populated with all the herbivores and predators that are native to its environment. In colder, more temperate climates that wouldn't mean much, but in Africa, this means REAL wildlife. Elephants, giraffes and zebras (just to name a few) are EVERYWHERE, and their predators (lions, cheetahs, and leopards among the most famous) usually aren't far behind.

The great thing is that Kruger is open to all visitors from all countries and doesn't require any elaborate reservations or permits to enter and enjoy. It can be as simple as driving up to the gate, paying your daily conservation fees, and finding the accommodations of your choice. But it is a very popular place to visit, especially during South African summer holidays (December - January) and the upcoming World Cup 2010 will be no exception. So it's not a bad idea to book ahead if you want to be SURE you get the lodging you want most.

Arrival - How to Get There

There are several main ways to arrive at Kruger in South Africa. You can fly into OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa and take a private car or public transport from there. Nice rental cars are widely available. Public options include luxury buses and trains or African-style mini-bus taxis. It's about a 4-5 hour drive, depending on your method.

Or you can fly into nearby Kruger-Mpumalanga International Airport, just outside of Nelspruit, South Africa. It's about a 45 minute flight from Johannesburg. From there you can take the regular range of transport option, public and private, and you're only about 1 hour's drive from the nearest park entrance. Or you can even fly directly into Kruger Park (near Skukuza rest-camp) through private lodges or private airplane companies. Except to pay a LOT more for flying directly into Kruger though; it's mostly for the top executive classes.

If you're driving into Kruger National Park from the outside, you can choose from a large number of entrance and exit gates. Paul Kruger Gate east of Hazyview, South Africa is the largest and most popular, as it's situated very near Skukuza rest camp, also the largest and most popular place to stay within Kruger.

At any Kruger National Park gate, you simply have to pay your daily conservation fees and declare whether you're staying overnight and for how many nights. The conservation fees are a low price for South African residents and a significantly higher rate for foreigners (about $20 a day). One option would be purchasing a "Wild Card" which covers the costs of conservation fees in ALL of South Africa's national parks for an entire year. If you'll be staying in Kruger for more than a few days, or visiting other South African National Parks, then the Wild Card is actually the cheapest option. It can be purchased online ahead of time or purchased at the entrance gate.

Once inside any Kruger gate, you're in animal territory. Seriously, hyenas and lions and wild dogs and massive elephants and African buffalo and everything else are roaming around, sometimes immediately behind the gate. You have the choice to either start driving yourself around the park right away looking for animals or to go straight to your lodging accommodations to check in and settle in.

The rest camps in Kruger National Park are where guests stay and stock up on supplies, refuel petrol / gas, and eat at restaurants or shop at souvenir shops. Almost every rest camp, especially all the major ones, in Kruger National Park are fenced in with both electric wires and stronger elephant-proof cables to keep the more vicious predators and more dangerous herbivores outside, so you can sleep soundly at night and walk freely within the rest camps without worrying about getting killed or seriously injured by the local wildlife. Most of Kruger National Park's rest camps are well-maintained and offer plenty for visitors to do, whether because they're tired of driving or because the African summer's mid-day heat becomes unbearable. But many rest camps have museums and informational exhibits and all the major ones also have swimming pools.

Wildlife Viewing

While Kruger National Park's rest camps are nice and offer plenty for their guests to do, the real attraction of Kruger is everything outside the rest camps: wildlife and nature. There are only two main ways to view it: your own safaris with your own car where you set your own hours and choose your own routes, or a paid and guided tour with a Kruger Park ranger. I'll describe touring with your own vehicle first.

Anywhere inside Kruger's gates but outside the rest camps are dangerous territories. So there are several rules governing the visitors' conduct there. The one primary rule: you have to stay INSIDE your car. You shouldn't even lean outside your window, as the changing silhouette of the vehicle can confuse many of the animals and cause them to attack. Even open windows can be dangerous around some animals, particularly hyenas, but most of the time it's just fine.

On top of that, you need to keep noise from your car at a minimum, both to not disturb (or provoke) the wildlife and your fellow guests. Especially don't approach elephants too closely or suddenly, as they can be easily provoked and can just as easily crush your car with you in it, or impale it with their tusks.

There are a few areas within Kruger, mostly bridges and high look-out points, where you'll see signs notifying you of the opportunity to get outside of your car and stretch a bit and look around. It's still possible to get attacked by dangerous wild animals at these locations, so you'll have to be on your lookout, but it's generally safe enough. Just make sure to roll up your cars' windows after you get out or enterprising monkeys and baboons will want to jump in and steal whatever they can.

Kruger National Park has PLENTY of roads, most very well maintained, for choosing where you want to go and where you can hope to see the animals. Many roads are paved, but there are also plenty of back-country dirt roads. All permitted roads can be accessed by even a standard highway-made compact car, so you don't have to worry about renting a fancy off-road vehicle for enjoying all of Kruger. In times of heavy rain, some of the dirt roads can be difficult, but Kruger almost always blocks them off from public access during those times, so you can be sure that if a road is open, you can get through it with pretty much any type of vehicle.

The speed limit within Kruger National Park is kept to a minimum and heavy fines can be exacted for exceeding it. The main reason is to keep people from running over the wildlife with their vehicles. But driving slowly is also your best bet for seeing the animals along the side of the road; many of them have good enough camouflage that you'll miss them if you're not looking closely or driving by too fast.

The best roads within Kruger National Park can change from time to time, but the wildlife is usually most densely populated throughout the year in the southern part of Kruger. As for which roads to choose there, your best bet is to buy one of the cheap road maps from one of the rest camps. They're usually not more than $5 or $10 and almost always have the best routes (i.e., the ones with the most animals) marked clearly. They also usually can tell you which roads or which areas of the park to choose for which types of wildlife, so that if you want, it can help you can be choosier in your wildlife viewing.

In my opinion, driving your own vehicle (rental or otherwise) around Kruger National Park is by far the best way to go. When you drive yourself, you're also having your own adventure. You don't know what you'll see, where the roads will take you, or what kind of encounters you'll have. I've been chased by elephants multiple times, and have had many close encounters with rhinos, lions, giraffes and pretty much everything else. And it was always a surprise and almost always enjoyed exclusively by myself and the other passengers in our car. We could situate ourselves for the best viewing, the best photographs, and linger and observe for as long or as short as we wanted.

Driving yourself around Kruger is only permitted during certain hours, usually from sun up, to sun down. And being caught driving outside a rest camp after hours can lead to serious fines. Most people who drive themselves usually make two separate trips during the day, for the best weather and best wildlife viewing.

First, they leave the rest camp as soon as its gates open (which can be as early as 4:30 AM during summer months) and spend the whole morning driving around looking for animals. Then they often come back to the rest camp to nap, eat, relax, swim, etc. Then they usually leave again in the afternoon, by 3 or 4, to spend the rest of the evening hours driving around looking for wildlife. Then they're back again before their rest camp's gates close. These two times of day, being the cooler parts of the day, are both the most pleasant for being inside the car and also the times when the animals are the most active and thus the most likely to be seen.

Rental Cars

There's only one rental car option within Kruger National Park: Avis Car Rentals at Skukuza rest camp. There are four or five rental car providers at the Kruger-Mpumalanga International Airport, and only one or two in Nelspruit proper. All car rentals within South Africa operate more or less along the same guidelines and quality as car rental within America or Europe and the rates are also very similar or in some cases slightly lower. Just like anywhere else, credit card is the preferred method for renting a car. For those looking for the cheapest rates, Aroundabout Cars can sometimes provide it, but they can also sometimes link you with a less-than-satisfactory rental car provider, so use them at your own risk.

Guided Tours

Whether you rent a car or not, you can still enjoy paid guided tours within Kruger National Par. Guided tours available vary from rest camp to rest camp, but there are only two main types: drives and walks. Both are accompanied by skilled guides who can explain many things during the tour and can take you to a few parts of the park that are otherwise inaccessible on your own. Both types of tours usually last 2-3 hours each time and cost about $20 per person.

There are morning or afternoon walks, accompanied by rangers with powerful guns, that take you into the several kilometers surrounding the rest camps. These walks are on established trails and give you the chance to see a lot of the wildlife you might not see when driving around, particularly smaller animals, and your guide can teach you more about the plants and ecosystems within Kruger. But because you don't cover as much ground on foot and because you still remain a bit near to the rest camp, you're not as likely to see as many of the larger animals. And even when you do, the ranger / guide often doesn't take you near since it can be very dangerous. (Yes, people do sometimes get killed on these walks, but not often.)

The guided drives within Kruger National Park are either morning, sunset, or night drives. Morning drives are a great time for viewing wildlife, but offer nothing significantly better or different than if you were driving yourself, so I wouldn't recommend it if you have your own car with you.

However, sunset drives extend about an hour after the rest camps' gates close to individuals and night drives take place entirely after the gates are closed. This means they allow you to view an aspect of Kruger's animal activity that you can't see on your own. The night drives especially are very interesting, and each car has several spotlights for looking for nocturnal animals. Many interesting nocturnal animals can only be seen during this time. But in general there's less overall wildlife activity than during the mornings and evenings, so you're never guaranteed to see anything exciting... though when you do, the excitement is amplified due to it being at night. If it's not a rainy day, I'd recommend attempting at least one night drive during your stay at Kruger.

Accommodation - Where to Stay

As mentioned earlier, nearly all the lodging in Kruger National Park is nice and well-maintained. There's a range of accommodation types, to fit your budget and your desire. Even tent camping (or RV hookups) is available and cheap, and if you get a campsite near the rest camp's fence, you might be surprised at night by prowling hyenas or crashing elephants just on the other side.

In general the prices are very good, and even the lower-costing accommodations like bungalows and cabins are enjoyable and add to the "African experience". In my opinion, the best type of accommodation for the price is the "safari tent"... it's a bit unique and can make you feel like you're "roughing it" and really "on safari", but they're still very well furnished and maintained. Anything called a "cabin" or "bungalow" will be a traditional-style round house with a thatched roof, with or without different types of amenities inside (you choose), and they're usually still reasonably priced.

However, even though most rest camps in Kruger National Park are nice and well-maintained, some rest campsare better than others. The main rest camp in Kruger National Park, Skukuza rest camp, is the largest and therefore the most crowded. It's also one of the least well-maintained, perhaps simply because it's the busiest. It has the largest souvenir shop and grocery store and restaurants, so it's worth stopping there, but it's not the best place to stay.

In southern Kruger National Park, I'd recommend either "Lower Sabie", "Pretoriuskop", or "Berg-en-Dal / Malelane". They're all smaller and very well-maintained and also well situated for game viewing, especially in the summer months. Slightly further north, "Satara", is an excellent rest camp and very well situated for game viewing at any time of the year. They're all a ways from the main Kruger gate, but nearer other gates. However you enter Kruger, as long as you enter shortly after noon, it should give you plenty of time to arrive at these rest camps and see a lot of great wildlife along the way.

Personally, I'd recommend staying at Kruger for one week at a time, and to stay at two or more different rest camps situated a good distance from each other. This gives you the best chance at experiencing the different aspects of Kruger and the different ecosystems within it. Since your drives each day will begin and end at your rest camps, this maximizes your opportunity to see more of the park and more of the wildlife.

Although a person can just show up to Kruger National Park and enter and hope to find accommodation, it isbest to book in advance. That's the only way to be sure you get exactly the accommodation type that you like for the dates that you want. Kruger National Park's website is great for giving you info on all the various rest camps and activities within the park, and it's also easy to find availability, accommodation info, and make your bookings online.

If you book a few months in advance, you're pretty much guaranteed to find exactly what you're looking for, even in the busy summer months (December - January). The only exception will be during World Cup 2010 this year; so you'd better start looking to make your reservations now.

At the end of the day, Kruger National Park in South Africa is an unforgettable experience that'll be with you for the rest of your life. The wildlife there is abundant, active, and incredible. If you want a real African safari experience that's easy to manage for yourself and inexpensive, there's no better way to do it than Kruger National Park. So, take my advice and if you're ever in South Africa, don't miss going to Kruger!