South Africa - Self-Organized Safari in Kruger National Park

The first thing anybody thinks about when they imagine travelling to Africa is safari. And for a fanatic animal lover like me, this was an activity that had been sitting high on my bucket list since I started dreaming of seeing the world. I held back on this trip for a while, though, because of preconceived notions that going on safari is super expensive and takes tons of vacation time. It wasn’t until my friend, Mehartaaj, shared a write up from his former boss about his trip to Kruger National Park that I began to really conceive that this trip could be doable for me at my age and with my budget.

There are so many ways to do safari in Africa – on the more expensive end you can do a vintage 1920's explorer-style experience (I wish!), or you could stay in all-inclusive luxury lodges with all the conveniences of modern 5-star hotels and private game drives. Or, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum you can do self-drive safaris through a national park and primitive tent camping or "bush hides" within the rest camps. What we did was somewhere in the middle, but leaning more towards the budget-friendly side. We decided to self-drive ourselves through Kruger National Park, stopping each night to stay in a nice bungalow or house at different rest camps. While at the rest camps we would book guided game drives and walks to maximize our chances of seeing all the wildlife we were looking for.

So why Kruger National Park in South Africa as opposed to maybe the Serengeti in Tanzania or Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya or the Okavango River Delta in Botswana?

All of these national parks are iconic for their own reasons, but Kruger is arguably the best introductory venture into safari – it's accessible, clean, and well-organized. In fact, it is widely known to be the most accessible and best equipped of all of Africa's great parks. It is also known to be the best place in Africa for self-drive safaris due it its excellent signposting, great road maintenance, and convenient restaurants and gas stations.

Kruger is also famous for its diversity of habitats (16 macro eco-zones have been recognized here) that can be found in the 300 kilometers of wilderness that lie between the Limpopo and the Crocodile rivers. Kruger was established as a game reserve in 1898, and is now home to a vast number of species, including 500 types of birds and more than 100 types of reptiles. It is also known for its huge diversity of trees and flowers, as well as most well-known for its big game (estimated 1,600 lions in Kruger!). Furthermore, 225 archeological sites have been recorded in Kruger, and you can even see ancient bushman rock paintings here.

Kruger consistently lands itself on every single top 5+ African national parks list, and for good reason.

Our experience in Kruger further supported this ranking - our encounters with animals in Kruger were prolific from the very start, just how we hoped it would be. Our introduction to the park set the tone of our entire trip.

Just seconds into pulling through Malelane Gate, our entry point to Kruger we turned on the "Circle of Life" from the Lion King soundtrack, and I started videoing our entry into the park. Not 30 seconds later a huge herd of elephants met us at the road and crossed in front of us. This was our first Kruger encounter and it personally struck me to the core. It was an iconic moment I will never forget - seeing real wild life in it's natural habitat was so different from seeing it in a zoo or a contained habitat. I felt so small and I felt immense respect for all the other forms of life I get to share this earth with.

Our entrance into Kruger National Park

Kruger was undoubtedly the best first introduction to African safari.

Trip Type

This trip was a bucket list trip – we wanted to see the Big 5 and more and we wanted to experience Africa, a continent that has deep history and isn’t very easily accessible for most.

This trip was always planned to be a group trip – initially it was a “big” group of 5 (3 other coworkers and my husband). One of our coworkers ended up not being able to make the trip, so that brought us down to a “small” group. I believe the difference between small and large groups on safari in Kruger is the difference between 4 people and 5+, but I will get to that more when I talk about accommodations.

The entire trip was a total of 10 days, 4 of which were spent in Kruger.

As mentioned above, we opted to be a little more budget-friendly and forgo the luxury safari experiences, but all of the places we ended up staying were still very posh, in my opinion. We also did get to experience elements of luxury at the Qatar business class lounge in transit through Doha, and also the Priority Pass premium lounges in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Frankfurt. And we were fortunate enough to get business class seats both travelling within Africa and on our return home.

The time zone difference for us was +7 hours, and it took a total of 36 hours of transit to get from DFW to South Africa and 31 hours total transit to return to DFW.

Trip Timeline

Friday 15:30 – Leave work and head to the airport

Friday 18:00 – Flight to Doha on Qatar

Saturday 18:00 – Arrive in Doha

Saturday 19:00 – Clear customs, get bags, Uber to the Corniche

Saturday PM – Corniche, skyline cruise, Souq Waqif for dinner

Saturday 23:00 – Return to airport

Sunday 02:00 – Flight from Doha to Cape Town on Qatar

Sunday 12:30 – Arrive in Cape Town, clear customs, pick up bags and rental car

Sunday 14:00 – Cape Town – Table Mountain

Sunday 20:00 – Cape Town – Victoria & Alfred Waterfront Mall

Monday All Day – Cape Town – Boulder’s Beach, Cape of Good Hope, Houton Bay, Long Street

Tuesday 06:00 – Flight to Johannesburg on British Airways

Tuesday 08:30 – Pick up bags and rental van, head to grocery store for supplies

Tuesday 11:00 – Drive to Kruger first entry gate, Malelane

Tuesday 15:00 – Arrive at first rest camp, Berg-en-Dal

Tuesday 16:30 – First sunset game drive at Berg-en-Dal

Wednesday 05:15 – Sunrise drive at Berg-en-Dal

Wednesday 09:00 – Tea at Berg-en-Dal with the monkeys

Wednesday 10:00 – Berg-en-Dal perimeter walk

Wednesday 11:00 – Head to Skukuza

Wednesday 15:00 – Arrive at Skukuza

Wednesday 16:15 – Sunset drive at Skukuza

Thursday 06:30 – Leave Skukuza – do the famous “leopard road” from Skukuza to Lower Sabie

Thursday 11:00 – Brunch at Lower Sabie

Thursday 13:00 – Leave Lower Sabie for Satara

Thursday 15:30 – Arrive at Satara

Thursday 16:15 – Sunset drive at Satara

Friday 06:00 – Breakfast game viewing on our porch at Satara

Friday 07:00 – Quick self-drive in search of leopard

Friday 08:00 – Leave Satara for Letaba

Friday 12:30 – Lunch at Letaba

Friday 14:00 – Head to Oliphants

Friday 15:00 – Arrive at Oliphants

Friday 16:15 – Sunset drive at Oliphants

Saturday 05:15 – Sunrise drive at Oliphants

Saturday 08:15 – Breakfast at Oliphants

Saturday 09:00 – River walk at Oliphants

Saturday 11:30 – Head to Johannesburg

Saturday 15:00 – Blyde Canyon

Saturday 17:00 – Dinner at Nando’s on the way to Johannesburg

Saturday 22:00 – Arrive in Johannesburg, second dinner with Gad

Sunday 09:00 – Breakfast at Tasha’s in Sandton Mall

Sunday 11:30 – Apartheid Museum

Sunday 14:00 – Soweto – Visit Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu houses & lunch

Sunday 13:30 – Maboneng Precinct – visit market and have a rooftop farewell drink overlooking the city

Sunday 15:00 – Arrive at Johannesburg airport

Sunday 19:00 – Flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt on Lufthansa

Monday 05:30 – Arrive in Frankfurt

Monday 11:00 – Flight from Frankfurt to Dallas on American Airlines

Monday 14:00 – Arrive home in DFW

SAFETY

Honestly, when we were inside the National Park I felt completely safe, 100% of the time. The concerns you should have in the cities of South Africa (like carjacking, robbery and rape - see Johannesburg post) don’t really exist here – at least from what we experienced during our time in the park. The park is more or less sheltered from these kinds of crimes.

Kruger provides a hotline if you do encounter any kind of crime, and the same hotline can be used to report poaching, which is a huge deal in Kruger, so much so that they will not report sightings of rhinoceros in order to protect them from poachers.

The park is run by the government national parks agency, SAN Parks (South Africa National Parks). 

When you first arrive at any of the park entry/exit gates you have to register your car with SAN Parks, and you have to provide documentation of your identity in person (IE: show passports for each individual traveler to SAN Park rangers). You also have to show proof of rest camp accommodation reservations within the park and provide the dates that you intend to stay in the park. Furthermore, you have to pay a conversation fee to enter the park, however, it is included in your accommodation fees if you are staying in the rest camps like we did. I think all of these precautions are mostly for securing the safety of you and also of the wildlife in the park.

There are really just two major safety concerns involved with safari in Africa:

1. Diseases 
2. Wild Animals

Diseases

Kruger National Park is in a malaria zone, and at the time that we went they were reporting malaria cases on the rise. This is completely manageable though, with anti-malarial medications. Depending on what region of the world you are going to (and the prevalent kind of mosquito there and version of the malaria they carry), your primary care doctor can prescribe you the right kind of anti-malarial. Antimalarials must be taken before your trip, during your trip, and for a little while after your trip. Some antimalarials you take daily, while others you only need to take once a week. With the daily antimalarials you don’t need as much lead time of taking them before your trip – only 4 to 5 days in advance of arriving in a malaria zone and then after arriving home. With the weekly pills you have to take them 2 to 3 weeks in advance of your trip, and 4 weeks after arriving home.

I was the first of our group to start looking into anti-malarials and I went to my primary care doctor who charged me for the office visit ($30 co-pay) and then prescribed me Mefloquine (Lariam), which was the weekly antimalarial. I had the prescription filled at my local pharmacy for $10 for 5 pills (the pharmacy is only allowed to fill the prescription in increments of 5 pills each, every 2 weeks). Zach was also prescribed Mefloquine at the VA and was mailed 5 pills of them. Hannah and Mehartaaj went later to the health clinic at work and the clinic prescribed them Atovaquone/Proguanil (Malarone), which were daily antimalarials, which were free (thank you work and insurance). So all total I needed 7 anti-malarial pills for this trip, and it only cost me around $50, including the doctor’s office visit.

Many people that have been on anti-malarials will tell you that they can cause some very weird dreams and in extreme cases even some sleep walking. One of our friends from work was on her honeymoon in Kenya, and the anti-malarials caused her to sleep walk outside her luxury tent, in the middle of the African bush! Luckily the cool morning air woke her up and made her realize what had happened and return to safety. Personally Zach and I experienced some crazy dreams, but none that kept us from getting adequate rest and none that we could remember (unfortunately lol).

They also recommend that you recieve travel vaccinations for travel to Africa. Recommended vaccines will vary based on what part of the world you are travelling to, and even down to what region of a country you are travelling to. For the regions we were visiting on this trip – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Kruger – the vaccinations we required at bare minimum were diphtheria/tetanus (TDAP), Hepatitis A and Typhoid.

Most of these diseases can be contracted via contaminated food or water, which is much more of a risk in second/third world countries, like those in Africa. Typhoid and Hepatitis A are contracted in this way. Tetanus follows these same lines and is a disease that is contracted through contamination via cuts or wounds.

Tetanus and Hepatitis A are given via a shot, but you have two options with typhoid: (1) via a shot or (2) via a live virus in a pill that you take orally. The shot is effective for 2 years and the oral vaccination is effective for 5 years. I decided to go with the oral vaccination because I knew I would be travelling to other typhoid-risk areas for the next few years, and wanted to get the most bang for my buck. The oral vaccination is known to be a little more brutal on your body than the shot, because it is a live virus. I felt more of the side effects and experienced extreme tiredness, a chest flush, and a low grade fever on each of the days that I took the pill. You have to be extremely vigilant about how you take the pill, as you can see in these pictures below:

It is also recommended that you get a Rabies vaccine if you know you will be in close proximity to animals, though we did not get that.

We initially planned to try to standby travel through Brazil on our way to South Africa, and South Africa has a requirement that if you are arriving from a Yellow Fever affected country you must show internationally-accepted proof of vaccination with a "Yellow Card".

Unfortunately, Brazil is a Yellow Fever country, and that vaccination is not cheap for us in the United States because as of the time of me writing this it is not FDA approved yet, so the only Yellow Fever vaccine you can find is part of an “experimental trial”, on loan from the EU. Therefore the availability of this vaccine is super limited, and we had to drive all the way out to a Kroger in Frisco, TX to get it. In order to get the vaccine we had to sign a ton of waivers and then we had to stay after the shot for 20 minutes to be monitored for any reactions. Not all insurances will cover this vaccine, so if your insurance doesn’t cover it then it will cost you $160. Luckily our insurance covered it at 100%.

The rest of the vaccines we got from either the Dallas Health and Public Services travel immunization clinic or our work clinic. The Dallas Health and Public Services is a great last-minute option, but it will cost you. Since we were late to the vaccination game, this was the first place I went because their travel immunizations clinic only accepts walk-ins, so I knew I could get there early and be seen. There was no one in the clinic when I arrived around 2 pm and I signed my paperwork and was taken straight back to a room, given shots, and was out of there in less than 20 minutes total. However, the downside of this clinic is that they do not accept insurance, so you will be paying out-of-pocket, which will cost you between $275 and $350, depending on how many vaccinations you get. They charge you a one-time administration fee per patient of $25, plus the cost of the vaccinations you select. My husband received Hepatitis A, TDAP, and Typhoid shot from this clinic and it cost a total of $275.

My other two friends, Mehartaaj and Hannah, went to our work clinic, and our work clinic was free for all these vaccinations. They also experienced no waits and were in and out very quickly. I wish I had thought of this option before I went to the Dallas Health and Public Services!

In summary, it seems like a lot you have to do to protect your health, but I think it's worth it! Better safe than sorry, in my opinion (spoiler alert: we were all safe).

Wild Animals

Some people have concerns about the safety of being around wild animals. I think everyone should always exercise healthy respect around animals - both tame and wild. This means understanding that they all have primitive instincts to protect themselves, and it means adjusting your behavior around them to minimize making them feel threatened. That is, you move slowly around them, you maintain a healthy distance, you keep your volume down, and you assume an inviting and non-threatening position.

Some of the wild animals within the park will come very close to you! The animals in Kruger have become somewhat adjusted to the presence of human life close to them and sharing their habitats. The wild animals we experienced were not really phased by cars at all, as long as they were not moving very fast or in a threatening matter (IE: right at them).

One couple we met on our drives in Berg-en-Dal told us a crazy story about one of their prior times in Kruger. They were from Durban, South Africa, and therefore they come to Kruger for holiday fairly often since it is relatively close (~10 hour drive). On one trip a few years ago they were stopped, waiting on the road for a large bull elephant in musth to cross. Elephants in musth are very dangerous! This is because their bodies are surging with reproductive hormones that cause them to become very territorial and aggressive. A car on the other side of the road got impatient with waiting for the elephant to pass, so they sped up and cut him off. The elephant became enraged, and took it out on the first car in his path, our new friends' patiently waiting car. The elephant's tusks pierced the hood of the car and disconnected many cords, which caused the car to die. Luckily everyone in the car was unharmed, and when the elephant finally moved on bystanders came around to help reconnect wires so that the car could limp back to the rest camp, and later be towed home.

So the moral of that story is to exercise a healthy distance in your car, and to not speed in the park. You should also pay attention to animal body language to understand if they are in an aggressive mood or feeling threatened. Agitated animals will face you directly as a warning, and may throw or shake their heads, make noises, and still the rest of their bodies to remain on full alert.

On our sunset drive in Satara our guide was very bullish with pulling the truck up directly into a pack of elephants, and their body language told us that they were feeling threatened by these actions. They rotated their bodies to face us directly and pointed to us with their tusks. They also started snorting and taking steps backwards.

 A male elephant warning our guide to keep his distance.

A mama elephant warning us to stay away from her baby.

It goes with common sense to say that you shouldn't hang out of the truck or flail about or make quick movements, and you should maintain as quiet as possible to stay safe and so that you don't scare away the animals!

Let me tell you, nothing was more annoying then when people on the truck started freaking out about an animal and spooked the animal away.

It was a real moment-buster when we were on sunset drive in Satara and we came upon all the lionnesses of the famous Southern Pride, a mega lion pride of 25+ lions in Kruger, and their cubs walking along the road, and then several people in our truck started hanging out of the truck to take better pictures with their phones as the lions were walking right next to the truck. Our guide had to yell at them to stay in the truck, and it was super frantic and distracting from the moment.

But overall, from a safety perspective, you shouldn't really worry about the animals too much. Their natural instinct is to stay away from humans, and if you exercise common sense and a healthy respect for them you will be just fine.

ACTIVITIES

Self-Drive Safari

The gang on self safari

To be honest, most of the big animals we saw in Kruger we would have seen if we had never done any game drives and had just done self-drive safari. The only real advantage to doing the game drives was that we could be out in the bush during dark hours and we could have off-road vehicle capabilities to go down routes that would be more damaging to your standard rental car.

 My turn at the wheel on our self-drive safari.

Hannah enjoying her breakfast Chai with a zebra.

You can self-drive all throughout Kruger, on both paved roads and dirt roads. Most major roads are paved. Off-shoots are intended to take you out a little more into the bush and those are not paved. Almost every road that a game drive would take you on you can access yourself on a self-drive. All the routes are very well-marked. At all of the rest camps they have small convenience stores/gift shops where they sell maps of the park, and they also post a large map with route markers at each camp’s reception office. These posted route maps also double as sightings boards, where you can see all the recent sightings of the most popular animals from yesterday and today so that you can use that information to plan your route based on what you want to see.

 The sightings board shows all the routes, all the way throughout the entire park.

Mostly the sightings are noted only for the areas immediately surrounding the camp, as those are the areas commonly traversed by drives hosted by the camp.

The camp sightings board shows the specific route numbers and also provides GPS coordinates, as well as notes overlook places where you can get out of your car (the car/person icon).  Side note: this picture is of the route I lost my phone on, S89...more on that later... 

AA Squad at a scenic overlook of the Oliphants River in the bush.

Furthermore, all the routes within the park are found in Google Maps, so if you download Kruger offline Google Maps you will be good to go.

Every rest camp has gas stations, and some even have car washes!

 Us filling up at the Satara Rest Camp gas station.

A car wash station at Satara Rest Camp.

Within the park there is always a rest camp within at least an hour’s drive (at ~40 kmph), so you are never too far from gasoline.

As mentioned earlier, if you are self-driving you must be off the roads of the park and safely in a rest camp before they close their gates. This is usually around sundown, but the actual time changes depending on the time of year (summer is later due to longer daylight hours and winter visa versa). The hours are posted at the front gate, and also at reception.

 A sign reminding you of the hours as you leave the camp on your drive.

The sign posted at reception.

If you don’t make it to a camp in time you can call the camp after-hours number posted on the gate, and they can special open the gate for you but you will be fined pretty heftily.

While self-driving be prepared to drive a maximum of 50 kmph (30 mph), and most of the time you will probably drive well under that because of the density of animals around you.

Max speed limit of 50 kmph, mostly because of these guys^.

Road crossings by elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests and impala are super common, and sometimes they can be hanging out very close to the road and you don’t see them in the thick bush, so it’s best to just drive slow and be careful.

Giraffe crossing

Baboon parade

The last thing you want to do is piss off a wild animal, especially an African elephant!

The only other thing I will say about self-driving is be prepared to drive on the "wrong" side of the road! All the cars in South Africa are right-side drive and the traffic drives on the left-hand side of the road. This takes some getting used to, but in Kruger it is no problem because the traffic is sparse, there are no lanes on the road, and there really aren't complicated stop lights or turn lanes.

However, if you are driving from Johannesburg to Kruger be prepared to have the most stressful drive experience of your life! The speed limits are super high, the roads are narrow and windy two-lane highways and there are hitchhikers from the townships and villages lining most of the major roads. I had significant worries about the oncoming traffic that was coming so fast and sometimes drifting into our lane, and also about running into hitchhikers that would get super close to the car.

The other thing about driving from Johannesburg to Kruger was that you end up driving through some known-to-be dangerous townships and villages, and sometimes your international cell service will go out in these areas. South Africa is known for car jacking (see Johannesburg post), so just keep this in mind when you are driving through these areas, never leave your car completely unattended or with just one person in it, and don't stop at stop signs or stop lights in the townships at night.

When you are driving from Johannesburg to Kruger never get below a quarter of a tank of gas because sometimes the gas stations are spaced further apart on the route than you would expect. If you go to the bigger chain gas stations with attached restaurants, etc. you should be safe and you should also get cleaner bathrooms (lol).

1 Stop is a big, safe and clean gas station chain.

Guided Game Drives

Zach viewing a male giraffe from the safari truck on sunrise game drive

Guided game drives are led by SAN park “rangers”, and you will find three types of game drives: sunset drives, night drives, and sunrise drives. We only ever booked sunset and sunrise drives, and both of those gave us more than enough time in the dark hours to see nocturnal wildlife and wildlife that hunts at night. On the sunset drive you will spend two out of the three hours in the dark and on the sunrise drive you will spend one out of the three in the dark.

Sunset at Skukuza on sunset game drive

Honestly, the dark hours are the most boring because it is so much more difficult to see wildlife unless they are right on top of you. Many of the super cool wildlife we saw on this trip were very far away, such that we would not have seen them at all if it were nighttime. It is also harder to spot wild animals because there are less people on the road at night (due to the curfew), so you don’t find the car pile ups that usually indicate that something good is out.

The most cool thing about night drives is that I think they make it easier to find cats because during the daytime the cats camouflage very well, and at night when you have the flashlights you can spot them more easily from the light that reflects off their eyes.

Pride of lions we saw because we noticed the reflection of the eye caused by our flashlights - pictured

Most cats are also more active at night when it is cooler and they go out to hunt. Furthermore, if you are a bird person you also get to see some pretty cool owls at night.

Other than that the wildlife is pretty sparse at night because the prey tends to try to hide more from predators, which means they aren’t going to be out in the open.

Overall I was pretty disappointed in our guides on these night drives. We had one or two absolutely amazing ones, but we also had some complete duds that were falling asleep at the wheel and not even looking for animals. Some were pretty terrible about driving and positioning the vehicle – constantly moving it right when you were going to take a picture or not allowing you enough time at a sighting.

On our first sunset drive in Berg-en-Dal our guide was awesome because he was connected via radio and cell phone with the other guides, sharing what was being found in the area. This is how we saw our first lion sighting – one of the other guides alerted our guide to the sighting and directed us right to it. You will notice that most guides will at least slow down for an oncoming safari truck so that they can talk to each other about what they are finding (usually in their native tongue, Zulu, so that tourists don’t freak out too much about the info). In some parks they will even send out a super small truck with just two guides in it to search ahead of the larger safari trucks in places where they know certain kinds of animals frequent, so that they can radio the large truck drivers to help them make their drives more attraction-filled. This kind of teamwork is sporadic – at some camps and with some drivers it is more common, but with others they don’t even try.

The other disappointing thing about the guided drives was that some of the guides seemed very burnt out and not very friendly or outgoing. Some would hardly provide you any additional commentary about the animals, plants or land, and they wouldn’t even engage with the passengers.

Although we did have a couple of guides who were outstanding. Notably, on our last sunset drive at Oliphants our guide was so incredibly knowledgeable! And he stopped at smaller things that none of the other guides before him had stopped at. He taught us all about the Baobab tree, the African tree of life, and also about the damage that porcupines are doing to some of the indigenous African trees.

A lone Baobab tree that caught our guide's attention on our Oliphants sunset drive

He even left the vehicle to show us some of the porcupine damage on a tree and retrieve us some porcupine quills as evidence.

Hannah holding the porcupine quills retrieved for us by our guide.

The best part was when he stopped us out in the middle of the bush and turned off all the lights so that we could see the stars and the Milky Way. Then he taught us about some of the constellations and how they are different in the Southern Hemisphere. This was so cool and very memorable.

If you’re booking game drives through the rest camps be prepared to have more people on these drives. The SAN Park safari trucks accommodate 23 people, and most of the people we experienced on the trucks were pretty touristy (aka. loud, ignorant, dramatic and annoying) and only cared about seeing the Big 5.

Loading up on the SAN parks game drive truck for our very first game drive (at Berg-en-dal)

We ended up developing a system for our drives whereby Zach and Mehartaaj would rush to the back of the truck to secure the seating with the lights so they could operate them properly and Hannah and I would rush to the very front so that we would have the best views for pictures – to the side of the truck and also through the front windshield with driver’s eye view – and also be able to hear what the guide was saying.

Make sure to show up to your drive at least 15 minutes in advance! For one so that you can check-in with the guides who will collect your individual signed waivers for each drive, and two, so that you can be the first in line for prime seats on the truck.

The waivers you have to sign for each drive or activity.

During the time of year that we went (early May), the sunset drives started at 4:30 pm and the morning drives started at 5:30 am. Night drives usually start around 8:30 pm, after the sunset drives return to camp. Each drive last a minimum of 3 hours, and usually the guides are pretty nice about going over if you see something good.

These game drives are super affordable, running at about $22 USD per person. Also, don’t forget that tips are customary – we tipped about 200R on each drive – 50R ($4 USD) per person.

Game drive, walk & other activities pricing from SAN Parks website

Bush Walks

Bush walks are another option that the rest camps provide. These are where a small safari truck drives a smaller group of people into a spot in the bush, and then you get out and walk for a while, with an armed guide at your line’s head and foot.

 Mehartaaj boarding our small safari truck for our river walk at Oliphants.

Armed guides on our river walk.

These walks are typically only offered in the morning, and they usually start about 30 minutes earlier than the sunrise drive (around 5 am during the time of year that we went).

We did not partake in any bush walk because we had heard that you see much less animals on these because you cover less ground. Though, I'm not sure this is really true because the morning walks seemed to be the only activity that was booked solid at every camp, so you would figure there must be some pretty cool stuff seen on those to be that popular.

I would assume that on the walks you would have to keep more of a healthy distance from the animals that you do find because you do not have the protection or size intimidation of the truck. It’s just little old you out there against some of the most territorial and aggressive animals in the world!

Some camps, like Oliphants, will offer river walks, which we did partake in. These are super cool because they happen around late morning to midday, so you get to see all the prey make their way to the river for eating and drinking during the heat of the day while their predators rest. You also get to see more variety of animal life down by the river than would be out in the middle of the bush – for example, hippos, crocodiles and many different species of birds.

River walk at Oliphants

I was very glad we got to do the river walk, as it was a unique experience. We almost had to turn back our river walk early because there was a Cape Buffalo in our path that did not want to move and was considering us as a potential threat.

Our guide confronting the Cape Buffalo on our Oliphants river walk

We had to just stay together in a close line, and the guide threw sticks in his direction to spook him away. This worked and we could continue our walk to the hippo hole, a large pool where there were tons of hippos congregated.

The hippo hole at Oliphants - discovered on our river walk

Hippos are one of the most intriguing animals to me, so it was really cool to be able to get so close to them in their natural habitat.

THE MAIN ATTRACTION - ANIMALS

The Big 5

Anybody that knows about going on safari will likely also know about the Big 5.  The term "Big Five" was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult and dangerous animals in Africa to hunt on foot.  Later the term was adopted by safari operators for marketing purposes.

Elephant

The very first of the Big 5 we saw in Kruger was the elephant.  Then we saw elephants everywhere thereafter.  

One of our favorite elephant interactions was when we were staying at Satara rest camp in the Stanley Private Guest House.  Our backyard was the perimeter fence and then we had a watering hole beyond that.  We could view the game around the watering hole from our porch or from a viewing bench near the perimeter fence.  As soon as we came into the backyard and looked out there was this big male elephant making his way to our watering hole.  Then he proceeded to drink and cool himself off, putting on a show for us.  

We later saw the same bull elephant on our Satara evening game drive.

Elephants can be seen near water a lot because they can overheat very easily and use the water to cool down.

Elephants are really neat animals - they form very tight family bonds and stick together in a matriarchal herd.

The male elephants leave the herd around 12 to 15 years of age and will be solitary roamers.  

Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past.  This is becoming more of an issue as humans continue to develop land that the elephants have historical lived off of.  Elephants will return to these places and destroy villages in search of water.  

Elephants are emotionally intelligent as well - they display signs of grief, joy, anger and play.

Recent discoveries have shown that elephants can communicate over long distances by producing a sub-sonic rumble that can travel over the ground faster than sound through air. Other elephants receive the messages through the sensitive skin on their feet and trunks. It is believed that this is how potential mates and social groups communicate.

Elephants have one of the longest gestation periods of any animal - 22 months!  That's almost 2 whole years of being pregnant, yikes!

They can live up to 70 years of age.  They can weigh up to 15,000 lbs, and stand up to 14 ft tall (males, females generally smaller).  They have poor digestion, so they are constantly eating - roaming and eating. They can eat 300 to 400 lbs of food per day!

To me elephants were one of the most interesting animals we met in Kruger.  

Rhinoceros

The rhinoceros has been on the brink of extinction for years, as they are popular targets for poachers who are in search of the ivory from their horns.  This ivory is used in traditional medicine within Asia, but mostly used as a symbol of wealth.  Up until just recently rhinos were a major conservation success story, but there has been a recent surge in poaching for their horns, particularly in South Africa. 

The white rhino is the kind of rhino that you would most likely see within Kruger.  It is believed that the white rhino's name was derived from the Afrikaans (Dutch) word "weit", which actually means "wide" and was named so in reference to their wide square mouths.

Square mouth of the white rhino.

White rhinos are the second largest land mammal, after the elephant.

The majority (98.8%) of white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

The other kind or rhino you may see, but they are quite rare, is the black rhino.  Black rhinos are the smaller of the two African rhino species, and they have hooked lip rather than a wide square one.  This is because they are browsers (rather than grazers like the white rhino), so they use the hook to feed on leaves from bushes and trees.  They aren't necessarily black - they can range from brown to gray in coloring.  The black rhino is considered critically endangered.

On the game sightings board you will notice a note that specifically says they will not mark rhino sightings due to the danger of poaching.

We were honestly surprised at how many rhinos we saw because we knew they were endangered and generally hard to find, and we also knew that Kruger had some high-profile poaching incidents in the weeks preceding our visit.  We saw tons of rhino at Berg-en-dal and Skukuza, the two furthest south rest camps that we stayed at.  After that we didn't see any rhinos anywhere else.

Rhinos are similar to elephants in that their skin makes them highly sensitive to the heat, so they can be found resting in the shade during the day or wading in shallow pools.  They are not particularly aggressive, unlike others in the Big Five.

Lion

The lion was actually our second Big Five sighting in the park, and we saw our first lions just a couple of hours after we entered the park.  We were on our sunset drive in Berg-en-dal and our guide passed another guide and got news that a pair of mating lions were lying down, resting nearby the road.  Our guide immediately flipped a U and took us to where they were.  The sun was just setting beyond the horizon so we could see them fairly well before it turned to dark.  The lions had just finished mating and were resting.  The female was lying on her back with her belly exposed and feet up in the air and the male was peacefully lying near some puddles a little ways away, just staring at us.  

He was exhausted - just wiped from his activities!  He was yawning quite a bit.

He was also quite thin from mating so much - when the male lion is mating he does not eat until the mating is complete, which is when the female is no longer in oestrus.  Consequently, they can loose quite a bit of weight and look very frail.

Within a few minutes the two got tired of all the attention from the road and slowly meandered off.

We ran into them again later into our night drive when it was quite dark - they were trying to start up Round 2.

On our drive from Berg-en-dal to Skukuza the next morning we came upon a lioness under the shade of a tree, feasting on a kudu.  She was pretty close to the road, but we only noticed her because of the pile up of cars looking on.  She was well-hidden in the bush, but when we finally could see her we noticed her panting in the heat, with blood on her lips.

Our next major lion sighting occurred at Satara rest camp on our sunset drive.  Towards the end of the drive, in the pitch black, Zach's flashlight caught a flashback of a pair of eyes.  It was a female lioness leading several other lionesses and cubs towards the road, towards us.  Our guide park the truck and waited for them to arrive.  This was the closest lion encounter we had on the whole trip and it was amazing!  

The lionesses took led the group and their cubs straight into the street, walking alongside our truck!

Then the lions just decided to sit in the road for a while and hang out with us.

After all our oo-ing and aww-ing they got bored and continued on, across the road.

We again had another lion sighting that we only noticed because of the pile up of cars on the road when we were driving from Satara to Oliphants.  It was around midday and there were several lionesses laying down on some rock formations behind some trees, just napping.  They were also a little difficult to see from the road, but we thought we could count around 6 of them, with no cubs.

One of the lionesses relaxing on the side of the road on our way to Oliphants.

Then on our Oliphants sunset drive we believe we ran in to the same lionesses, but this time reunited with their whole pride - this pride had to be the famous Southern Pride that I mentioned earlier.  There were 15+ adult lions that we counted before we lost track.  Our guide on the drive received notice from a passing-by guide that there were lions behind a bush past the Oliphants River Bridge.  So our guide headed that way, and it ended up being the same place we saw the lionesses earlier.  When we first came upon these lions they were still napping.

Then as we stuck around for a little some new lions walked over to the napping lionesses and they all began to awaken and rise.  We looked on as they stood up and headed out to go on a hunt, trailing one after the other through the bush.

Kruger is widely known for its prevalence of large lion populations, and it did not disappoint.

Cape Buffalo

Surprisingly buffalo are reported to kill more hunters in Africa than any other animal.  This is because they are very aggressive and unpredictable, and are known to ambush and trample or gore with their horns.  They are sometimes colloquially known as "The Black Death".

Buffaloes like to live in swamps and grasslands, so you're most likely to find these guys near water, perhaps in a ravine or grazing alongside a river.  On our way to our river walk starting point we came across a huge herd of them.

The Cape Buffalo is susceptible to many diseases that can remain dormant in a population.  However, when other animals feed on the buffalo they can contract the disease and subsequently die.  One of the most common diseases that can be contracted from Cape Buffalo is tuberculosis.

African buffaloes are notable for their apparent altruism. Females appear to exhibit a kind of "voting behavior". During resting time, the females stand up, shuffle around, and sit back down again. They sit in the direction they think they should move. After some time shuffling, the females travel in the direction that most in the group decide; this decision is communal and not based on hierarchy or dominance.

Buffaloes engage in mobbing behavior when fighting off predators. They have been recorded killing lions and chasing them off, surrounding them, after the lions have killed a member of their group.  They are much more dangerous in herds than they are solitary as they have fairly strong social bonds and act together to accomplish the group's decision.  There is a very famous Youtube video called "The Battle at Kruger" that shows a herd of Cape Buffaloes successfully defending one of its young from first a lion attack and then a crocodile attack.

We saw quite a few Cape Buffaloes here and there throughout our trip.  The first we saw was on our sunrise game drive at Berg-en-dal.  Then the best one we saw was along the Sabie river when we were driving the H4-1 road from Skukuza to Lower Sabie.

Cape buffalo at the Sabie River.

Leopard

We tried so d*mn hard to see a leopard.  We did everything you could to find one - we were up every single day looking for them during their prime prowling hours (dusk, all night, and dawn), and on every single self-drive to the different rest camps we were feverishly scanning the landscape and all the trees for any sign of them, and we even re-routed our planned drives between camps to maximize leopard sightings.

Originally we had planned to drive straight from Skukuza to Satara, which would have taken us about 3 hours driving at the scanning-for-animals speed (2 hours at the actual speed limit).  But by Day 3 inside Kruger, the leopard was the only animal of the Big 5 that we had yet to see.  Therefore, by Day 3 we were on a focused hunt for leopard.  We did some extensive research trying to figure out where our best chance of seeing leopards in Kruger would be, and on one of the Kruger park websites we saw an article about the 10 best self-drives to do in Kruger, based on what you could see on those drives.  The second drive mentioned in the article had a giant picture of a leopard and it mentioned the camp we were currently at, Skukuza, so it caught our attention.  Reading on it described how the road between Skukuza and Lower Sabie, the H4-1, allegedly has more leopards per square kilometre than anywhere else in South Africa (this part was even bolded!).  It was like the gods had sent us a message, and just in the nick of time!  So we decided to left extra early in the morning on our 3rd day in order to drive this road to Lower Sabie.

As a side note, when planning this trip we originally wanted to stay at Lower Sabie for at least one night, as it is one of the most popular camps.  It is a bigger camp, and it is right on the Sabie River, which is a huge river, so there is a huge diversity of wildlife spotted in and around this camp.  Since this area around the Sabie is known to be so rich in wildlife there are a lot of private game reserves and luxury lodges stationed near here.

However, by the time we went to book our accommodations in Kruger it was only 3 weeks prior to the dates we wanted to visit the park.  This was because we had been watching the weather in Cape Town and waiting to decide if we would make a visit there before Kruger or after Kruger or not at all.  So because we had waited so long to book our overnight accommodations in Kruger there was no availability at a lot of the camps for our originally planned dates and our originally planned route.  Luckily the beauty of standby travel is that you can easily switch things up at the last minute.  So instead of starting our trip in Kruger and then going to Cape Town we decided to do Cape Town first and then Kruger later.  We also decided that instead of entering Kruger through Phaloborwa Gate and then heading down towards the southern-most gate of Kruger, we would do the opposite and work our way up from the southern-most entrance.  Going this direction provided much better accommodation availability, though we were still unable to secure some of the most popular camps, like Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie, due to their popularity making them full.

Our leopard-revised route through Kruger

Once we decided to switch up our route and head to Lower Sabie in mad search of leopards, we calculated that it would add about 2 to 3 hours of driving time from one camp to the next, but we reasoned it would be totally worth it if we could just see a leopard.  

Our eyes were so fatigued from straining them to look through all the trees on the side of the road.  Leopards love to hang out in trees, and they even will pull large carcasses of their prey up into the trees to feast.  But we saw nothing in the trees or at the base of them!

I would almost argue that leopards have some of the best camouflage in the bush because the splotchy shadows created by the tree branches and leaves caused multiple false alarms, thinking we saw the spots of a leopard.

False alarm leopard in a ravine where leopards are known to frequent - shadows are so deceiving!

As the drive went on we became increasingly desperate to see one.  In the end we had no luck on the leopard road, but we did enjoy having breakfast with the hippos and crocs at Lower Sabie.

The rest of the trip we continued to try to find a leopard, but were just getting so tired and disheartened that we stopped trying so hard and just let it be, and we never ended up seeing a leopard.

My Nana and Pop Pop, however, had much better luck when they were in Kruger last year around the same time of year.  They actually had fantastic luck!  It had just rained the night before and on one of their morning drives they saw a leopard that was walking amongst the trees, remarking all of them because when it rains their scent gets washed off all the trees.  My Nana captured a picture of this one leopard male in the act!

Nana's Kruger leopard re-marking trees after a rain

On another occasion they saw a leopard in the day, napping in a tree, and captured some beautiful photos there as well (with their iPhones, so you know they were able to get super close to it!).

Nana's leopard chillin' on a tree

Nana's leopard on the prowl

We were a bit bummed we tried so hard to see one, but I guess that just means that we have to go back!

The Super 7

The Super 7 includes all of the Big 5, plus:

African Wild Dog

The African Wild Dog was one of my favorite finds on this trip.  I loved their sweet faces and huge ears and the dichotomy of how sweet and cuddly they look, but how fierce and vicious they are in reality.  I also really loved their coloring and how they expressive they were, wagging their tails with excitement and playfulness, like domestic dogs.

The African Wild Dog is considered endangered, and therefore is incredibly hard to find.  It is mostly disease that wipes out their packs, as they feed on prey that commonly contracts tuberculosis.  It is considered very lucky to see an African wild dog, and average pack size in Kruger is 4 to 5 adults.  

We must have been incredibly lucky because we ran into a pack of 10 to 15 on our sunrise drive in Berg-en-dal.  They ran alongside our truck and then laid down in the middle of the road to stare at us.
Then they starting playing with each other, chewing sticks and resting on each other.  They played it up for us for a good 15 minutes before they trotted off into the bush.  It was a cool experience.

Lucky African dog run-in

The African wild dog produces more pups than any other canid, with litters of around 6 to 16 pups, and because of this breeding is only limited to the dominant female.  

Once pups are a little older the mother feeds them regurgitated food.  At full maturity African wild dogs are very fast eaters - they can consume a whole gazelle in 15 minutes.  Sometimes adults will eat regurgitated food as well.

The only real predator to the African Wild Dog is the lion, as they share the same food source and the lion is known to kill the dog over competition for prey.  Interestingly, hyenas will follow wild dog packs in order to scavenge on the remainder of their prey.  Sometimes they will try to join in on a wild dog pack kill, but they are generally submissive to the wild dogs.

Wild dogs are highly social and always exist in packs, as well as hunt in packs.  Because of this they are extremely successful hunters.

Cheetah

The cheetah is the world’s fastest land animal.  It can reach speeds of 70 mph and accelerate from 0 to 52 mph in just 3 seconds, which means that the cheetah can out-perform a sports car! It is the most specialized member of the cat family, and unlike other cats, the cheetah has a leaner body, longer legs, and has been referred to as the "greyhound of the cats".

It is not an aggressive animal, more commonly using flight versus fight. With its weak jaws and small teeth (the price it paid for speed) it cannot fight larger predators to protect its kill or young.

Cheetahs are active mainly during the day, which is when they hunt.  Both times that we saw cheetahs it was during the day.  The first cheetah siting we had was on our drive from Lower Sabie to Satara.T  We came upon a large pile up of cars and far out in the distance we could make out two cheetahs resting in the shade of a bush together.  Cheetahs can be solitary or social, but these two looked to be a mating pair, just hanging out with each other.

The second cheetah siting we had was on our way from Satara to Oliphants.  We again noticed a pile up of cars, and a driver passing by let on that there was a cheetah.  We were able to see the cheetah stalking through the tall grass in search of prey.

There are only about 400 cheetahs in Kruger National Park, so seeing them is also super rare.

The Ugly 5

The Ugly 5 is a twist on the Big 5.  These are the five most surprisingly hideous animals in the bush.

Vulture

We all know vultures are ugly.  As with most scavenging birds, they have creepy bald heads so that they can keep cleaner when feeding.  Although they mostly scavenge on carcasses, they sometimes will kill wounded or sick animals.

The ones we saw in Kruger were shockingly large!  It must be because of the availability of tons of carrion.

We first saw two vultures by a small watering hole on our way from Berg-en-dal to Skukuza, and then we saw a bunch more when we stumbled upon a group on the side of the road between Satara and Oliphants, feasting on a wildebeest carcass.

They really are unattractive creatures.

Warthog (Pumba!)

The first time we saw one of these guys was shortly before seeing the vultures on our little off-road drive on our way from Berg-en-dal to Skukuza.  We decided to stray from the main paved road and do one of the small off-road trails, and on that trail we saw a little family of these guys headed towards the watering hole.  They are so funny when they run - they stick their tails straight in the air.

They definitely are a lot uglier in real life than they make Pumba look in the Lion King, and also a lot more skittish.  Just the smallest movement or noise scares these guys off, which made it super difficult to get good pictures of them.

The babies are pretty cute, though.

Baby Pumba

Wildebeest (aka. Mufasa's Murderer)

Even though these guys murdered Mufusa, I still ended up liking them!  Probably because they reminded me so much of a horse - their body looks and moves similar to a horse, and especially their tails, but then they have the head of a cow.

Back end of a horse, front of a cow

It's super weird.  Even more weird is the noise they make - it is a blend of a moo and an oink.  I can kind of understand why they have a spot in the Ugly 5, but at the same time I was kind of partial to them and I also thought the striations in their coat were actually pretty.

We didn't start seeing Wildebeest until we had almost made it to Skukuza and the topography started to turn to more grassland.  We saw the most wildebeest at Satara - from our backyard porch we could see (and hear) multiple herds of them, and from Satara to Oliphants we ran into many herds by the side of the road and crossing the streets.  They also had tons of young with them, which are the prime prey for lions and hyenas, so it made sense that we also saw way more those predators in these areas as well.

In East Africa the blue wildebeest is the most common of the big game species, and they sometimes mix in with herds of zebras to help with a heightened sense of awareness of predators.

Marabou Stork

When we were on our way back to Satara camp from our evening game drive we saw one of those characteristically African, huge, branchy dead trees, and at the top of the tree was a giant Marabou Stork, just perched there staring at us.  

I would venture to say that this creature is the ugliest of the Ugly 5.  His skin looked like it was molting and his eyes and nose were super unflattering.  I felt so sad for the guy!

The Marabou Stork is actually a fascinating animal - it is a massive bird, with wingspans that can reach up to 12 ft, which makes it the largest wing spread of any living bird.  It is a scavenger, and can be found around the roads looking for roadkill and human garbage.  They are also know to be rather ill-tempered.

Hyena

These guys were way more grotesque in person than I thought they would be!  When you google pictures of them they can look pretty cute sometimes, but the ones we saw in Kruger were not-so-cute.  They are slouchy, and walk with a hunched posture, so their gait is quite creepy.  The ones we saw also had scarred up faces, missing hair in some places and were generally pretty ragged.

The first one we saw was on our sunset drive at Skukuza.  It was very interesting to me because the hyena was just laying down in the grass, not 15 feet from an impala grazing.  And then another 30 feet over was an entire impala herd.  We actually saw several of these cases where predator and prey were peacefully coexisting in the bush, and this was pretty surprising.

The second hyena we saw was known to be the resident hyena of our backyard at our private cottage in Satara.  We first saw him walking around in the bush on the side of the road by our cottage, and then when we were driving off towards Oliphants he crossed the road in front of us.

Spotted hyenas, like the ones we saw in Kruger, mostly kill their prey while striped hyenas are mostly scavengers.  Hyenas are known to be very aggressive over their food and they will actually drive off larger predators like lions.  Nana and Pop Pop witnessed a leopard and hyena fighting with each other over an impala carcass during their time in Kruger.

Nana & Pop Pop's video 

The spotted hyena is actually very social, whereas other hyenas are generally not, though they will gather in congregations around a kill.  In some African cultures hyenas are viewed as frightening and worthy of contempt; they are thought to influence people's spirits, rob graves, and steal livestock and children.  Some cultures associate them with witchcraft, using their body parts in traditional African medicine.

My Favorites

These animals were some of my personal favorites. 

Giraffe

The giraffe is the tallest living terrestrial animal, and the largest ruminant.  And boy, have you checked out those eyelashes?!  I wish mine were that gorgeous!

I love them because of their stature and coloring.

The giraffes seemed to be the more skittish animals we met in the park - they were super alert and attentive to human movement and they were quick to startle and move away.

We ended up seeing giraffes pretty much everywhere we went, but we saw the most in Berg-en-dal and on our way from Letaba to Oliphants.  These places were the places with a lot more taller trees and bushes that maybe the giraffes liked to hide in, or at least eat.

Sometimes we would see giraffes in herds, and sometimes they were just solitary, grazing on the side of the road.  Usually the solitary ones are known to be pungent-smelling old males, which can no longer attract females.

Giraffes are actually the most common prey for the big cats in Kruger National Park.  Lions are their most common predator, although crocodiles can also be a threat when they are bending down to drink.

Zebra

Of course I loved the zebras because they remind me so much of horses/mules/donkeys.  Their stripes are also stunningly bold & gorgeous.  These stripe patterns are unique to each individual, similar to how our fingerprints are unique.  Interestingly enough the stripes provided some of the best camouflage in the bush (second only to the leopard, of course).  It is theorized that the vertical striping may help the zebra hide in the grass by disrupting its outline. In addition, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to an apparent gray. It has been suggested that when moving, the stripes may confuse observers, such as mammalian predators and biting insects, by two visual illusions: the wagon-wheel effect, where the perceived motion is inverted, and the barberpole illusion, where the perceived motion is in a wrong direction.  I could agree with these theories because there were times where we wouldn't realize they were right there staring at us until we were on top of them when they were standing still and could we could see their outline better.

The other thing I love about zebras is the noise they make - they use loud, piercing bark calls to communicate potential dangers to each other, which sounds super cool, especially on a pitch black night in the African bush.

On our long drive from Lower Sabie to Satara we saw some really beautiful zebras resting together in the grasslands.  There was a group of them huddled together just scratching on each other and watching us.  It was so neat to see their bold patterns all together in a group.

They were posing for us big time!  It was awesome.

Most of the zebras we saw were further south.  As soon as we got more north towards Satara and above we saw markedly less of them.

Hippo

Hippos were another favorite animal of mine because they remind me of my chunky pitbull, KK.

They are gray-ish and have wide faces, little ears, no hair and stout bodies - just like KK!

Hippos prefer to spend most of their day in water - to stay cool and to feed on reeds.  Most of the hippo's life events occur in water - to include reproduction and birth.  But in the evenings they emerge to graze on grass on land.  We had our first close-up encounter with a hippo by surprise on our Satara sunset drive.  We were not expecting to see a hippo so far from water!  We had this giant hippo grazing in the grass, just feet from us.  It stopped to stare at us for a while to consider if we were a threat or not.  

Hippos are known for being very territorial and aggressive, but only in water; on land they are not territorial.  They are well known to be one of the most dangerous animals in the world because of this behavior coupled with their unpredictability.

Hippos like to live in groups called "pods" of up to 30 individuals.  We saw one of these large pods when we had breakfast at Lower Sabie.  They were all laying out together, including some crocodiles!  Crocs and hippos are known to feud sometimes,  mostly because grown crocs will sometimes try to feed on hippo calves.  But the group we saw at Lower Sabie was surrounded by crocs, all peacefully coexisting, even though some of the crocs were as long as the entire length of the hippo!

There were quite a few hippos in this huge watering hole that was very near to Lower Sabie (pictured at the beginning of this post).  The watering hole appeared to be pretty deep, but we could see some bubbles from the hippos and occasionally we would see some resurface for air.  

We got the closest to the hippos when we visited the hippo hole on our Oliphants River Walk.  They were so curious about us - they all entered the water and turned to face us, assessing if they should be worried about us encroaching on their territory.  We got to sit on the nearby rocks and observe them for a while - apparently we bored this one...

Crocodile

As mentioned a little above, I was truly impressed with the size of the crocodiles in Kruger.  Even from afar we could tell that theses guys were huge - not to be messed with. 

The species of crocodile found in South Africa is known as the Nile Crocodile.  This species is large and aggressive, with a very broad snout (increasingly broad with age).  The Nile Crocodile is a very dark color and continues to darken as the animal matures. 

Nile crocodiles are opportunistic apex predators; they are capable of taking almost any animal within their range and they are generalists, taking a variety of prey.  Mostly they are ambush predators that can wait for hours, days, and even weeks for the suitable moment to attack. They are very agile and wait for the opportunity for prey to come well within attack range. Even swift prey are not immune to attack.

Because of this well-known fact about crocs,  was very surprised to see some occassions where crocs would be laying down right next to a potential food source, in peaceful coexistence.

I guess that when these animals aren't hungry it's okay to hang out together, but as soon as they are hungry anybody is fair game.

Nile crocodiles are relatively social crocodiles - they share basking spots and large food sources, with hierarchy being determined by size.  We saw lots of crocodiles basking together at Lower Sabie and along the banks of the Sabie River.

And I almost ran over a baby crocodile with the car when we were at the giant watering hole near Lower Sabie.  This guy was just out there basking on the side of the car viewing area and I didn't even see him - I was too distracted by all the wildlife everywhere at the watering hole and his coloring kind of made him blend in with the mud and grass.

Kudu

To me the Kudu was the most gorgeous of all the animals we saw in Africa - mostly for its patterning, colors, curly antlers and "mane".

Most of the Kudu we saw were solitary males, though we did see some females (less impressive due to them not having the same curly antlers).

The kudu antlers make up the characteristic South African National Parks logo (pictured in post above).

Kudu is commonly hunted as a trophy because of its unique antlers, and also harvested for meat.  Kudu meat is very popular and makes great steaks - we can confirm (see food section below).

Most Invasive

These guys are EVERYWHERE, and sometimes very annoying.

Impala

The Impala is a grazer during rains that switches to browse during the dry season, so the Impala outcompetes pure grazers and browsers within its habitats, leaving to high population densities, with herds between 50 and 100.  

This is ever true in Kruger.  The first time we saw an impala it was about 5 minutes into the park, and we were so excited to take pictures and we were ooo-ing and aww-ing at his antlers.  

Then as we made our way to Berg-en-dal we saw an impala about every 30 seconds thereafter, and we quickly got over it.  

On all our drives the drivers would not even stop for impala because of how common they were.  

On the drive to Kruger from Johannesburg we even saw people keeping impala in their backyards like we would keep cattle.  They are commonly used as "venison" in South Africa.

Impalas are renown jumpers, which was actually pretty cool to witness.  

Though I did not like watching a little one bite the dust on the slippery road (so sad!).

Baboons

Baboons are known to be the little rascals of Kruger.  Before this trip we had heard many a story of baboon raucous from Mehartaaj's old boss's experience in Kruger.  Apparently baboons let themselves into his car while they were in Kruger!  In all the rest camps there are signs up, warning about bothersome baboons and also Vervet monkeys.  

Throughout our trip we would run into large troops of baboons on our drives.  Troops range in size from 7 to 200, and generally troops avoid one another but often have to share sleeping trees or cliffs and water holes.  The baboons were such characters.

One particular encounter scared the living daylights out of me.  We were watching a baboon "wife" groom her giant baboon "husband", with her little baby messing around nearby.  

We were so close to them, and I was hanging out of the open car window taking pictures and all of the sudden the husband yelled out "OW!"  I jumped like 3 feet in my seat.  It was hilarious.

Vervet Monkey

We saw most of our Vervet Monkeys at Berg-en-dal rest camp.  There were tons of them there - they lived in the trees by the restaurant and the river.  In the morning after our sunrise drive we had Chai with them, and then watched them play in the trees for a little with our new friends from Durban.

The only other Vervet Monkey we saw was on our way from Skukuza to Lower Sabie.  He was on the side of the road near the baboons just munching away. 

Our Other Interesting Finds

Banded Mongoose

Diurnal, territorial, and highly sociable, Banded Mongooses live in packs of up to 40 animals.  They are often seen foraging busily in open grassland and around lodge and camp garbage dumps.  

This is how we found our pack of Banded Mongoose.  They were with a troop of baboons, eating things off the ground underneath a large tree.  

We saw these guys on our drive from Skukuza to Lower Sabie, and there were tons of them! (Easy 50). At first we thought they were Aardvarks because they forage in with the same mannerisms, and their bands made them look like they had scales from afar.

White-Tailed Mongoose

The White-Tailed Mongoose is a solitary, nocturnal insect-eater of the open grasslands, which explains why we found it at night, rummaging through the grass on our sunset drive at Berg-en-dal.

It is unable to outrun most predators, so it relies instead on a noxious chemical spray for defense; it erects and flares its conspicuous tail hairs as a warning.  Luckily we didn't witness this.

Honey Badger

The Honey Badger is more formally known as the Ratel.  It is badger-like, but more mobile, with longer legs, and wide, flat feet armed with bear-like, curved claws.  It has coarse jet-black fur, with contrasting white or gray mantle from crown to tip of short, tapered tail.  This warning coloration of this fearless and powerful small animal is more than justified.  The Ratel has great strength and formidable jaws and claws, and its loose skin is nearly impenetrable.  

It is unable to outrun larger carnivores, but as a last resort it will also eject a stinking fluid from its anal sacs, like the White-tailed Mongoose.

It can trot long distances, as far as 22 miles in a night.  This guy that we saw on our way from Skukuza to Lower Sabie was haulin'.  He would not pause for a split second for me to take a solid picture.  And boy was he covering ground!

  

It is a digger, ranking second only to the Aardvark and Giant Pangolin.

It is an opportunistic omnivore, but its favorite foods are bee larvae and honey, hence its nickname, the Honey Badger.

Genet

Genets are active, semi-arboreal (living in trees), solitary predators that eat fruit, nectar, and insects, as well as small vertebrates.  It is nocturnal, and prefers to be most active during the early part of the night, which explains why we spotted one towards the end of our Satara sunrise drive, around 8:30 pm.

Genets are one of Africa's smallest cats, and the particular kind we saw, the Large-spotted Genet, tends to inhabit areas that are nearby people.  Our Durban friends from Berg-en-dal rest camp had one visit their front porch when they returned to their cabin after our sunset drive.

Jackal

When we woke up at Satara Rest Camp in our fancy private guest house, Zach went out to monitor the perimeter of our backyard to see what kind of wild life he could see from our porch.  He was able to see a jackal, running through herds of impala, elephant and wildebeests, but he couldn't get a steady picture of it.  I was too tired to care and was "sleeping in" (until 6:30 am) inside.  

Luckily we spotted another jackal on our last sunrise drive at Oliphants, because the coloring on these guys is pretty cool.  

The jackals we saw were Side-Striped Jackals.  They generally feed on everything from insects to the young of large antelopes, which explains what this guys was doing at our camp in Satara, weaving through the herds of impala and wildebeests (probably looking for some babies to snack on).  The second jackal we saw was also hanging out not far from a herd of wildebeest that crossed the road in front of our safari truck.

Spring Hare

Spring Hares are super cool!  They are like mini kangaroos, but they are actually rodents and not marsupials.  Spring hares have reduced forelegs, and paws ending in long, sharp, curved claws.  They have elongated powerful hindlegs and long ears and a long tail. 

Spring hares are strictly nocturnal, which explains why we could only see them on our drives in the night.  We saw one once on our Skukuza sunset drive, and the one I was able to photograph was seen on our Oliphants night drive.

When spring hares are panicked they hop on their handles up to several yards per bound, using their long tails as a balancing organ, whipping it up or down or from side to side, depending on speed and surface features.  They dig burrow systems with numerous escape holes and entrances, and take hide in there during the day.

Here was the one at Oliphants, startled, bounding away from our safari truck

Nyala

Nyalas look really similar to Kudus at first glance, but they are a much smaller breed of antelope, and their coat is a bit darker.  They also don't develop the super curly antlers like kudu do.  They also typically have more white dots on their face and also develop yellowish legs.

Nyalas are very shy, so you don't tend to see very many of them, as they prefer to stay away from open spaces and they are incredibly cautious.  We saw this shy Nyala on our Oliphants sunrise drive.

Waterbuck

The Waterbuck is a large shaggy antelope, with a long body and rather short, sturdy legs.  The most marked thing about a waterbuck is their white rump ring, which is a "follow me" sign for the rest of the herd.  Our guide on our Berg-en-dal sunrise drive called these guys the "toilet bowl deer" because of this rump ring.

Waterbucks are excellent swimmers, so when they are swimming through deep water, their white rump rings are recognizable to the herd, and that is how they keep together.  Waterbucks do not tolerate dehydration in hot weather, therefore you can always find them close to water sources.

Tortoise

Why did the turtle cross the road?  Sorry, just had to...

Cool Birds

I wasn't much of a bird person before going on this trip, but we kind of turned into bird watchers.

A car we were behind.

It's hard not to in Africa, as Africa is home to more than 2.500 bird species!  These birds range from colorful to scary to just plain weird.  It's fascinating.

Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill (aka. Zazu!)

Yes, this is Zazu from the Lion King!  He is a pretty cool looking guy in real life.  We saw these hornbills everywhere.

Lilac-breasted Roller

The Lilac-breasted Roller was by far my favorite bird that we saw the whole trip.  I loved its colors and its long tail with trailing tail feathers.  

They were fairly rare to find, but when we did see them in flight it was a treat.

Greater Blue-Eared Starling (aka. "Hannah's Starling")

We called this starling "Hannah's Starling" the whole trip because it was her favorite - she liked the deep blue and turquoise colors.

This bird hops, rather than runs, on the ground, and in the dry season if flocks by the hundreds.  It was just beginning to be dry season when we visited Kruger, so these guys were all over the place.

Tawny Eagle

The Tawny Eagle is Africa's common brown eagle, which can be found in dead trees, at watersides, or circling in the sky.  It is a powerful killing machine - it takes live mongooses, hares, baby gazelles, rodents, high-flying flamingos, lizards, snakes, and more.  It is also known to be a compulsive thief, and snatches prey from larger eagles and storks.  

I spotted our first one when we were scanning hard for leopards on our drive from Satara to Letaba.  In my opinion they are the prettiest of the raptors - I love their coloring, especially the juveniles which are a more cream color like the first one we saw on our drive.

Then on the same drive, a couple hours later, we noticed some commotion on the side of the road, and realized it was a storm of vultures feeding on a dead wildebeest.  This guy swooped in out of nowhere and tried to challenge all the vultures, fighting over the food source.  He escaped with a little morsel.

Bateleur

The Bateleur is known as the world's most attractive raptor, and he is also prone to spectacular aerial displays in courtship.  He likes to build or rescues a large stick nest hidden in the canopy of a tall tree.  

Its canting, side-to-side motion in flight gave this bird its name, which is the French term for a tightrope walker who uses a balancing pole.

It perches in trees and on the ground, and is often seen at water holes drinking and preening.  We saw this guy on our way from Lower Sabie to Skukuza.

African Fish Eagle

We saw the African Fish Eagle on our desperate quest for leopards following the Sabie River on our way from Skukuza to Lower Sabie.  It was GIANT!  It's coloration is similar to the American Bald Eagle.  We watched it fly from tree to tree along the river bank before we continued on with our leopard search.

 Verreaux's Eagle-Owl

We saw one of these guys on almost every single one of our sunset drives as soon as it was dark.  A light sleeper, Verreaux's Eagle-Owl will drop on any prey that wanders below its daytime perching branch.  It feeds at night on small mammals and also takes many birds, as well as snakes, lizards, toads, fish and insects.

We saw one perched in the early morning on our drive from Skukuza to Lower Sabie.  

Another time we saw one was on our sunset drive from Satara.  This guy dropped to the road in front of our truck to grab a large insect.

Spotted Eagle-Owl

The Spotted Eagle-Owl is a similar species to the Verreaux's Eagle-Owl.  It is just known to have yellow eyes and longer "ears".  This was the very first owl we saw on our trip and it was on our first game drive in Berg-en-dal.  That owl was just perched in a tree, contently staring at us. 

Southern Ground Hornbill

The Southern Ground Hornbill is the largest species of hornbill.  It is also arguably the most hideous as well.  

I can't be too mean to them though, because those that live in South Africa are considered endangered, as there are only about 1,500 individuals living in the whole country.  There are signs posted on the bulletin boards at the rest camps asking for pictures of them and locations for tracking purposes.

Helmeted Guineafowl

We stumbled upon these Helmeted Guineafowl when we were trying to drive the H4-1 from Skukuza to Lower Sabie, which is the road with the most concentration of leopard sightings in the whole park.  It was early morning since we knew we wanted to get a jump on our leopard hunt, and these guys were also waking up with the sun.

At night these birds roost in groups in the trees, and at dawn they fly down to walk towards water.  We found them making their way towards the river.

RECHARGE

I was so pleasantly surprised with all the places we stayed at in Kruger.  I honestly had no idea what to expect by way of accommodations.  

When you research accommodations in Kruger it is a little unclear about what you get with the different types of accommodations - probably because there aren't really pictures or detailed descriptions of the amentities.  From looking at the two main websites that were recommended to us by Mehartaaj's former boss (https://www.sanparks.org/ and www.krugerpark.co.za)  I could derive that there were increasing levels of "comfort" you could experience in a wide variety of accommodations, but those increasing levels of comfort also corresponded with increasing levels of prices.  And from just looking at those two sites I could not tell what was actually park-sponsored or park-run vs. privately run.

So here's what I have concluded after experiencing Kruger for myself - there are really two different ways you can do accommodations within/near Kruger: (1) Private Game Reserves (2) Park-Sponsored Rest Camps.  

Private Game Reserves

The private game reserves are the most expensive.  These are not park-run, and most operate more like all-inclusives.  These private game reserves exist on the edges of Kruger National Park - they are basically like a private extension of Kruger, and the same animals roam across the border of Kruger and the private game reserves.  These private reserves have very posh accommodations and will wait on you hand and foot for the most part.  The game drives you take here are much smaller and intimate - most of the time just your private group.  You also have more flexibility with what you do on the drives and bush walks, which can be a lot nicer than with the set drives hosted by SAN Parks.  The guides also tend to be more attentive and engaging, at least according to my Nana and Pop Pop who had an amazing experience at the Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve.

There are usually multiple lodges within the Private Game Reserves, but all of them cater to the more luxury travel experience.  Most of these lodges you cannot book outright online, but rather you will have to initiate an inquiry online and then correspond with a booking agent to tailor your experience and stay.  You can see all the private game reserve lodges around Kruger at the www.krugerpark.co.za website.

For these private game reserves you need to book well in advance.  My best guess is that because this is more of a luxury travel experience people tend to plan and book these types of trips and experiences way further out from their intended stay because it is something they have saved for or aspired to for a very long time.

When we first started looking into lodging for our trip to Kruger it was only 3 weeks prior to when we wanted to stay, and we inquired at multiple game reserves just to get an idea of what was available and the pricing.  We didn't fully understand at the time how accommodations operated in Kruger and we thought that we could maybe afford to do at least one night in a luxury all-inclusive type of experience.  There was no availability whatsoever and we had sent multiple emails to many different private game reserves.

So instead we started looking into the options that were park-run - which you can find at the www.sanparks.org website.  We discovered that these options were significantly more affordable, and you can even book them very easily online.

SAN Parks

All SAN Parks rest camps are contained within an electrified fence perimeter to keep as many dangerous wild animals out as possible, though you can still have some small visitors like monkeys.  But basically the rest camps are very secure and very safe.

Perimeter fence and cattle grid to keep large animals out of Berg-en-Dal rest camp

We used the online availability tool to check availability at the government-run SAN Parks camps within Kruger National Park.  We were able to search availability for the right amount of people, for the dates we wanted, and then we used the online booking tool to confirm right then and there (using our credit card to pay).  

The way it works is that your accommodation selection has a base rate set for a base number of people.  For example, most of the bungalows we booked were large enough to accommodate 6+, but charged a base rate for 4 people.  For each additional person above the base rate you would have to pay a per-person add on amount.

This was really convenient because when our fifth person could no longer make the trip we were actually refunded his per-person added amount.

The base rate pricing depended on the type of accommodation, and SAN Parks offers multiple types of accommodations.

Overnight Hides

An overnight hide is the cheapest sleeping accommodation that SAN Parks offers.  There aren't many of these around.  They are basically a primitive pop up rest camps in the middle of the bush.  This accommodation type is well suited for adventurous guests who are looking for a close to nature, self-catered bushveld experience.

Only the very perimeter of the facility is fenced and guests are advised to exercise caution at all times. Guest vehicles may be pulled into the lapa at the hide during the night for safety purposes, and guests are advised not leave the enclosure at night.

Overnight hides are only available for guests from half an hour prior to gate closing times to a half hour after gate open times.  The hide must be reserved in its entirety, regardless of the number of guests staying, though there is a required minimum of 2 guests and a maximum of 9.

At the overnight hide there are sleeping units that are contained in wooden structures that are locked to the inside wall of the hide by day.  At night these structures fold down to construct a light bed base.  Mattresses can be found in the cupboard at the hide, and if required, bedding is available at park reception (at the entry gates) upon payment of a deposit.  Each bedding bag consists of a duvet, pillow, duvet cover, sheet, mattress protector, pillowcase and mosquito net.

The living area has braai (barbeque) facilities. There is no electricity except for one light, that operates for about 5 hours, and this light is only provided by request.  Otherwise you would need to bring your own lighting.

Furthermore, no cooking utensils such as cutlery, crockery or any other cooking equipment is provided.  The hide is fully self-catering and guests are advised to bring their own food, wood and water.

An environmental toilet is available for the overnight guests in a separate area on the hide perimeter.

Obviously this option wasn't going to work for us because we didn't have our own equipment to drag along with us.

Self Camping

SAN Parks offers self camping in the form of RV camping or tent camping at all of the rest camps.  This is a popular option with locals - people from other parts of South Africa will road trip to camp here and go on safari for vacation.  This option is super affordable, and I think it would have been a really fun option if we had rented an RV and drove to Kruger for safari.  

There are community cooking facilities and bathroom/showering facilities for self camping guests.

Bungalows or Cottages

The bungalows and cottages are the most popular options provided by SAN Parks.  This is because of their convenience for locals and international travelers alike. 

Most of the bungalows and cottages provide cooking utensils and equipment, as well as a refrigerator for food storage.  Some bungalows and cottages even have private cooking facilities located inside or just outside, while others have community cooking facilities.

All of the bungalows have full bathroom and shower facilities, as well as fully outfitted beds.  Towels and bar soap are provided.  To get into all the accommodations within the rest camp you are given a key that you just have to return to reception or to the key drop on your way out.

At Berg-en-Dal we stayed in a large family bungalow that could accommodate 6.  It was a brick mini-house with a spacious outdoor patio with braai facilities.  There was one room with a double bed and another room with two twin beds and then another two twin beds in the living room, along with a couch and a refrigerator.  The kitchen had hot plates, a microwave, a sink, and a pantry.  All the cooking equipment you could need was provided.  All equipment is inventoried and some of it had the really cool SAN Parks logo on it.

Hot plate, microwave & water boiler

Berg-en-Dal was perhaps my favorite rest camp during our time in Kruger.  This is because it was spacious and had everything we could possibly need.  It really was a place where I could have gotten super settled in and comfortable, and I kind of wish I could have stayed a few days longer there, using it as a "base camp" per say.

Our Berg-en-Dal Bungalow Tour

Berg-en-Dal had the nicest overall accommodations in my opinion.  The camp had a super nice main area where reception and the grocery store were, and in this main area there was an outdoor movie theater where they would show a different movie every night.  

Also, the restaurant was right on the water of a small river/creek, with giant trees towering over it and the trees were full of vervet monkeys that were so entertaining to watch and have morning tea with.

Berg-en-Dal is also the only rest camp that offers a self-guided perimeter walk, which is a small hiking trail along the perimeter fence of the camp.  

Along the walk there are placards pointing out trees and shrubbery and giving you more information about them.  While we didn't see much on this walk it was still super nice to take some time to walk around since most of safari-ing involves sitting down.

Furthermore, Berg-en-Dal offers an amazing pool.

I was so sad I didn't get to try it out - it was was a super hot day and the pool was so inviting, but we were on a time crunch and had to get moving to our next rest camp.

Berg-en-Dal also offered full laundry facilities, which would have been perfect for staying there more long-term.

Lastly, I thought that the game viewing in and around Berg-en-Dal was superb.  There was such variety of game in such density and we easily saw most of the Big 5.  Berg-en-Dal is known for leopards, so I think that if we had stayed at that rest camp a few more days we might have seen one.

The only other time we stayed at a cottage or bungalow was at Oliphants.  Here we had a traditional thatched roof cottage.  The cottage that Zach and I stayed in had 2 twin beds and a small bathroom facility with shower, and a small refrigerator.  It did not have cooking facilities, but the cottage that Mehartaaj and Hannah stayed in had outdoor cooking facilities, including a small braai area and a full kitchen sink.  It also had a caged-in area for the trash can to protect it from the animals.  Their cottage accommodated 3 twin beds and a little larger bathroom/shower.  

Tour of Hannah & Mehartaaj's bungalow at Oliphants

Tour of Zach and my bungalow at Oliphants

The best part about these cottages was that they were perimeter cottages and had a wonderful view over the Oliphants River, with expansive mountains and horizon in the distance.  There has been a super bad drought this year so the river was practically all dried up, and there were hardly any visible animals down there, but it was still so peaceful and relaxing to sit on Hannah & Mehartaaj's porch and look out while enjoying a glass of South African wine.

Oliphants facilities were quite scenic.  Oliphants is located on the top of a mountain so you get some different views from this rest camp.  The restaurant was on a deck on the side of the mountain, which provided a great lookout, but the only downside of the deck was that it was a very popular hanging out place for bats, so it smelled like bat guano. 

Oliphants had a pool as well, though it was significantly smaller than the ones at our other rest camps, and had less of an ambience.

Private Lodges or Houses

Almost every Kruger rest camp offers a private lodge or house.  These private houses and lodges are designed for large parties of 6+, and because they are full-sized houses there aren't very many of them at each guest camp (usually 1 or 2).  These houses are super huge and nicely furnished - albeit the furniture and decor dates back to the late 70's, but is is still super well-cared for.

My second favorite rest camp was Satara, and that was almost entirely because of the private guest house we stayed in.  It was called the Stanley Guest House, and it had its own private drive, front yard, and backyard, and the backyard backed up to the perimeter of the rest camp.  So in our backyard was the perimeter fence and on the other side of it was a man-made watering hole for animals in the bush.  There were TONS of animals out there in our backyard near the watering hole, including our elephant friend and the tons of herds of impala and wildebeest. 

The house itself was the most luxurious of the places we stayed.  There was a full kitchen with a range and oven and everything, and there was a huge grand room with a large formal dining table and fireplaces and a large seating area with leather chairs.  Then on each side of the house there were bedroom wings with 9 twin beds total.  Obviously we didn't need the The best part of the house though might have been the full porch on the back, looking out over the bush.

Our porch & backyard at Stanley Guest House in Satara Rest Camp

Tour of the Stanley Guest House at Satara Rest Camp

It was an amazing set up at that house - also a great place to stay long-term.  There was a guest book and it was very fun to read everyone's comments about their stay and why they were there and what they saw from the back porch.

The other rest camp we stayed in a private house at was Skukuza.  Skukuza is the biggest rest camp in all of Kruger - it is the central hub of operations.  It is where the emergency medical is and all the offices that run SAN Parks.  It also has its own small airport.  This is where many people fly from Johannesburg to in order to come on safari and access the private lodges and park.  It even has a bank and a post office, among many other things like laundry, group gathering facilities, etc.  Furthermore, it has multiple pools!

The bank at Skukuza - complete with tellers & ATMs

Skukuza was a really awesome camp by way of amenities, it was just a little big and busy for my taste - I preferred the smaller and more intimate Berg-en-Dal.  Also, we did not get to take advantage of the amenities because we hardly spent any time at Skukuza aside from sleeping.  We were super late to arrive and super early to leave the next morning in search of leopards.

I did really enjoy their restaurant after our sunset game drive - it was much fancier than the restaurants at all the other rest camps - it was a proper steakhouse and it was definitely the best restaurant we went to out of all the rest camps.  It had a beautiful patio on the river with big trees and the tables were much fancier, with linens and nice umbrellas.  It was such pleasant evening to sit out and enjoy a G&T with steak - couldn't have asked for better weather and a better environment.

One thing I wish we would have done at Skukuza if we had more time was do a bush braai.  This is where they drive you out to the middle of the bush and you get out of the safari truck and barbeque and then hang out around a bonfire.  We missed it by just one day!  They only have the bush braais on certain days, so make sure to call the camp offices to confirm when they will have it, or book it far in advance online.

Camps clearly mark the meeting points for game drives, walks and bush braais

Our house at Skukuza was also very large and accommodating.  It had a nice front porch that we enjoyed our PB&J sandwiches on.  It also had a main room with a futon and some chairs, and a small inside dining room.  It had a completely full kitchen, and then it had two full wings of beds and a bath on each side of the house.  The one bathroom was the best one we had all trip - it was a handicapped bathroom so it was super huge and it had a bench and 2 removable shower heads and everything. 

Tour of our guest house at Skukuza rest camp

In summary, the houses were the best places we stayed by far.  They were more private and more luxurious and they had every kind of amenity you could need for a long stay in Kruger.  The only thing is that they are more expensive because they are meant to accommodate bigger groups.  If you have a big group this is the way to go.  If you don't have a big group it would be more economical to do a bungalow or cottage.

GET IN MY BELLY

The only places to eat within the park are the restaurants at the rest camps, or else you can purchase groceries at the rest camps and make your own food.  We were not sure what the food facilities would be like - we didn't know if every rest camp would have a restaurant (not every one does - EX: Crocodile Bridge) or if the grocery stores would be very complete or have a good range of products, and we knew we wouldn't have the time to cook actual meals for ourselves, especially if it meant we would have to purchase spices and seasonings and drag them along with us.  

So what we did was in Johannesburg we went to a grocery store before we started making our way to Kruger.  We picked up only snack items and foods that would not easily spoil.  This was good because it gave us something to munch on during our long drives in the van, and it also gave us something to grab really quickly before game drives just to settle our hunger long enough until we could get off the game drive and head to the restaurant.  We purchased things like Cheerios, long-life milk, bananas, clementines, breakfast muffins, and appropriately-themed snacking chips... 

We also bought a ton of water and some other drinks and 2 bottles of wine.  It helped us to buy some paper cups for sharing liter bottles of water, and also napkins for the car.  What we didn't realize that we didn't need to buy was paper plates and bowls because all the rest camps provided those in our accommodations.

Oh, and don't be weirded out if you find that most grocery stores are located deep inside malls.  As discussed in my Johannesburg post, malls are the central place for anything you may need in South Africa, and so it's only natural that the grocery store should be there, too.

Hannah & Mehartaaj in the mall grocery store

All our non-spoiling goods for Kruger

Most meals we had in Kruger were at the restaurants, but the ones we made ourselves were one lunch at Skukuza where we had PB&J sandwiches and white wine (not a good combo, btw...makes the wine taste sour!) and one breakfast on our porch at Satara where we had Cheerios with bananas.

All of the restaurants except for the one at Skukuza and Lower Sabie had the same menu.

The same menu across all the camps - designed like a newsletter.

So by the end of the trip we were really tired of the menu.  

We had breakfast at the restaurant twice during the 5 days we were inside the park.  The first time was at Lower Sabie after driving the H4-1 attempting to find leopards.  At Lower Sabie they had an M&B restaurant, which is a South African coffee chain, and they had an excellent menu that was different than all the other menus - it had tons of great breakfast combos, including a very wide variety of breakfast sandwiches.

It also had an amazing iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk that both Hannah and I enjoyed while watching the hippos and crocs from the patio.

Lower Sabie was a very nice rest camp - akin to Skukuza by way of amenities and it was a larger-sized rest camp as well.  The restaurant patio was great for dining and even better for viewing river wildlife.  From our breakfast spot we could see tons of hippos and crocodiles interacting.

Hannah and I enjoying our iced coffees on the Lower Sabie patio

Walking into Lower Sabie rest camp for breakfast

The second time we did breakfast was at Letaba on our last quest to find leopards.  There had been some leopard sightings on the road between Oliphants and Letaba, and it was a fairly short drive so we decided to try it out.  Even though we didn't see any leopards it was a good drive because it enabled us to have a leisurely breakfast at Letaba, which also had a nice patio lookout over the river.

Letaba patio

We enjoyed breakfast sandwiches on Roosterkoek, a South African braai favorite.  

Roosterkoek (pronounced "Rooster-Cook") is simply dough that is grilled on a BBQ and used either as buns for the meat, or eaten on its own.  It was really tasty with melted cheese, egg, and bacon between 2 slices of it.  It is dense and hearty, and hard on the outside and soft and doughy on the inside.

One of the culinary items I looked forward to every day was the Chai teas.  Every single morning I would have one and it would make my day!  They were so great.  We were all obsessed.  

The two most popular morning drinks in South Africa (besides Ethiopian coffee) were Chai tea and Rooibos tea.  

Rooibos tea is an herbal beverage, with medicinal properties, that is acquired from the Aspalathus linearis bush plant found in South Africa. According to the South African Rooibos Council, rooibos is not a true tea, but an herb. The fermented tea is red in color.

The health benefits of red rooibos tea are abundant. Its medicinal attributes have been confirmed by The US Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., which has affirmed that red rooibos tea is capable of reducing cancer, heart disease, premature aging, and other serious conditions.  It is also believed to cure headaches, insomnia, asthma, eczema, bone weakness, hypertension, and allergies. This tea is caffeine free and low in tannins. Drinking rooibos tea can also ease severe stomach cramps, as well as bring relief from asthma and other related conditions. It is also known to boost the immune system.

Because of all these benefits it is very popular, and it also has a nice light taste to it that is easy to drink sweetened or unsweetened.

Although I loved the teas - both healthy (Rooibos) and unhealthy (Chai) - the best drink for after a long game drive was a "Sundowner", more commonly known as a Gin & Tonic.  They call G&T's "Sundowners" in the bush because they are the most popular drink after a sunset game drive.

This is because historically the quinine in the tonic was used to treat and prevent malaria carried by mosquitos that were endemic to South Asia and Africa.  The quinine was added to the drink as a prophylactic against malaria, and it was so bitter that British officials stationed in early 19th century India and other tropical posts began mixing the powder with soda and sugar, creating a basic version of the tonic water we know and love today. The mixed drink gin and tonic also originated in British colonial India, when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin to make it even more enjoyable.

I drank sooooo much tonic on this trip.  First of all, I love tonic, so it was no trouble to get it down, but secondly I figured I could justify it because it was keeping me safe from malaria.  And you know what?  I didn't get a single mosquito bite.

By and far my favorite meal in Kruger was the Madagascar Peppercorn steak that I had at Skukuza. 

It was a beef filet mignon steak, smothered in this creamy sauce made of green peppercorns from Madagascar.  It was the first recipe I tried to imitate when I got home because that sauce was so good.  It isn't the same if made with any other peppercorns than green ones though, because the green ones have a mild flavor whereas any other peppercorn carries a very strong flavor.  

During that same meal Hannah and Zach ordered kudu steak, which I surprisingly thought was good when I tried a teensy bit of Zach's (Hannah's was wayyyy too rare for my taste).

The kudu steak did not taste very gamey at all and it really tasted more similar to a filet mignon than any other meat.  I am not very adventurous when it comes to game meats, so that's saying a lot!

The only other thing that is notable to say about the food within Kruger is that it was really difficult to find vegetarian options for Mehartaaj.  There were really only two dishes that were vegetarian, so unfortunately he ended up having to eat the same thing over and over again - croissant for breakfast and vegetarian babotie for dinner.

Babotie is a well-known South African dish consisting of spiced minced meat baked with an egg-based topping.  In the vegetarian version it was spiced lentils.

Vegetarian babotie at the Kruger restaurants

Early recipes incorporated ginger, marjoram and lemon rind, but nowadays most recipes use curry powder.  Some recipes also call for chopped onions to be added to the mixture. Traditionally, bobotie incorporates dried fruit like raisins. It is often garnished with walnuts, chutney and bananas.

It is not spicy, but it incorporates a variety of flavors that add lots of complexity. For example, the dried fruit (usually apricots and raisins) contrasts the curry flavoring, and the the baked egg topping complements the milk-soaked bread, which adds moisture to the dish.  The texture of the dish is also SUPER complex - with elements of fluffy baked (egg), chewy (dried fruit), crunchy (walnuts), and soft (banana).  There is a lot going on here, guys!  It's not a dish for everyone, but I really liked it - the meat version I had at Mama Africa in Cape Town more so than the vegetarian version in Kruger, but it was still good.

All-in-all the menus at the rest camp restaurants were pretty bland, but you can't complain too much if you're getting a large, hot meal when you're out in the middle of the bush.

WHAT TO BRING

There is a lot of extra stuff that you need to bring on safari in Kruger that you wouldn't normally bring on any other trip.  For example:

1. Anti-Malarials - As I mentioned earlier, Kruger is a malaria zone, so you need to make sure you take your prescription anti-malarials with you and take them regularly.  Malaria is treatable and we met some South African natives that said they don't take anti-malarials during their visits to the park because if they contract malaria they know there is a good treatment for it and most South African doctors know to expect that as a regular diagnosis option.  I mean, it's always up to you, but I personally would rather be safe than miserable.

2. Mosquito deterrents - Continuing on with the malaria-prevention theme here...But seriously I recommend that you take a DEET spray with you (for your clothes) and also a spray that is safe for skin.  The best skin-safe mosquito spray I have ever used was Sawyer Picaridin.  I must have the sweetest tasting blood ever because mosquitoes normally love me, but when I wear the Sawyer products not a single one touched me.  For this trip I purchased the Sawyer DEET spray and also the Picaridin spray in travel size from Amazon.  For 5 days we only used one bottle of each for all 4 people.  I also purchased the Sawyer Picaridin lotion in small travel packs, and used a couple of those.  I think I actually preferred the lotion because I felt it gave better coverage.  It was also not smelly or oily.  The DEET spray was definitely oily and leaked, so I would recommend keeping these sprays in their own bag.  The other thing that I bought that we loved were mosquito repellent bracelets.  The pack that I bought came with mini packs inside that had 4 bracelets in the pack - it was like they were made for our group.  So we would open one pack before each game drive and each of us would wear a bracelet on our wrist.  Then we would put our old bracelet from the previous game drive on the opposite ankle, as the package instructs.  

3. Long-sleeved shirts and long pants, with socks and close-toed shoes - To prevent against mosquito bites and also to protect your skins from anything else that might be in the African bush as you are on bush walks.  Zach and I hit up the Columbia outlet before we went on this trip because they were having awesome deals on their lightweight button-up sun shield long-sleeve shirts.  These things have vents to keep you cool, and they have UV protection from the sun.  It was awesome.  I never felt really hot, and they were enough coverage from the bugs, and they kept me warm when I layered them on the early morning sunrise drives.  The only downside of bringing long-sleeved shirts and pants is that is makes it harder to pack light as they make your luggage more bulky.  I was still able to get away with just a 65L backpacking backpack and a small backpack for a 10 day trip.

The entirety of my luggage for this trip

4. Safari Hat! - I wanted to bring this more as a classic fashion statement at first, but then it quickly became my favorite functional accessory.  I couldn't believe how good it was at keeping the heat from the sun off me and the brightness out of my eyes.  I even wore it most of the time inside the van because of how awesomely functional it was! 

Hannah and I in our safari hats

5. Buff - This is a neck wrap that can stretched to be pulled over your head or nose - it is super good at keeping the dust from the game drive trucks out of your nose.  It is also good at keeping your neck and face warm on the chilly early morning game drives.  Nana and Pop Pop tipped us off to these and sent us some, and I was really glad I had one.  Especially on those morning drives. 

6. Camera Equipment - This is essential, of course.  But then again, I love to take pictures, so I find it really fun to capture moments in time, or life in its utmost state of beauty.  Others may not, but if you do I highly recommend that you bring a real camera with a zoom (as good as you can afford).  Phone cameras just won't suffice for a trip like this.  I know my Nana and Pop Pop got some great photos on a phone, but they also were on private game drives and they were able to get much closer to the animals than we were.  You probably don't need to pay thousands of dollars for the super crazy zoom lenses unless you aspire to submit your photos to National Geographic.  I shot most of my animal photos with a Nikon D3400 30 mm lens.  This did the trick for me, I think.  We were even able to use it to see animals we couldn't see super well with the naked eye.  The toughest thing about shooting in the bush was all the twigs and leaves that would distract any camera's auto-focus settings, and also the stabilization of the camera to prevent shake when zoomed in pretty far.  So just know those are challenges and study your camera a little to figure out the best way to work with it to prevent this.

FINANCIALS

The currency in South Africa is the South African Rand, which at the beginning of our trip was 0.08 of a US dollar.  

Everyone deals in rands.  The US dollar won’t get you very far here.

It is essential to have cash on you in South Africa.  This is because there are very many occasions where you will have to tip the people that provide services to you like the gas attendants and wait staff.  Usually a 10 rand note will do when it comes to tipping gas attendants, and you can expect to tip wait staff about 10%.

Other than that credit cards are accepted at all the rest camp grocery/souvenir stores and restaurants, and all the credit card point of sale machines accept US credit cards.  The only places that will not accept US credit cards are toll booths on the highway and also national park entrances (like for Blyde Canyon) – they only accept South African credit cards.  Therefore you will want to have enough cash to be prepared for those tolls (unless your rental has a toll tag, which most should).

As I mentioned before, going on safari is not cheap, but it's also probably not as expensive as you think it would be.  If you do it our way here is how the financials break down for you...

For just our expenses on this trip specific to Kruger:

	For Group (4)	D&Z	PP
Kruger Accommodations & Game Drives/Walks (4 nts, 5 dys)	$2,145.42		$536.36
Kruger Rental Car (6 dys)	$245.67		$61.42
Gas (6 dys)	$131.76		$32.94
Food & Drink	$482.73	$31.72	$136.54
Souvenirs		$64.23	$32.12
Tips for Safari Guides	$133.06		$33.27
Animal Guide Book	$42.00		$42.00
Blyde Canyon Entry Fee	$8.14		$2.04
Total Per Person	$876.67
PPPD	$175.33

For our entire 10 day trip:

	For Group (4)	D&Z	PP
Vaccinations - Hep A/B, TDAP, Yellow Fever & Typhoid		$495.00	$247.50
Malaria Meds		$32.26	$16.13
Flights - DFW-DOH-CPT-JNB-FRA-DFW		$959.78	$479.89
Transportation to/from DFW	$16.21
Apartment in Cape Town (2 nts)	$260.53		$65.13
Kruger Accommodations & Game Drives/Walks (4 nts, 5 dys)	$2,145.42		$536.36
Ubers	$20.46		$5.12
Cape Town Rental Car (2 dys)	$67.87		$16.97
Kruger Rental Car (6 dys)	$245.67		$61.42
Gas (8 dys)	$158.24		$39.56
Food & Drink	$719.39	$113.38	$236.54
Souvenirs		$69.73	$34.87
Doha Boat Tour	$32.97		$8.24
Table Mountain Tickets	$90.17		$22.54
Boulders Beach (Penguins)	$24.74		$6.19
Chapman Peak Toll - Scenic Cape Town Drive	$4.47		$1.12
Cape of Good Hope Entry	$47.37		$11.84
Tips for Safari Guides	$133.06		$33.27
Animal Guide Book	$42.00		$42.00
Blyde Canyon Entry Fee	$8.14		$2.04
JNB Living Room Entry Fee (for 5 ppl)	$32.55		$6.51
Apartheid Museum (for 5 ppl)	$38.65		$7.73
Total Per Person	$1,880.94
PPPD	$188.09

Overall financially this whole 10-day trip ranks surprisingly reasonable in comparison to many of my other travel destinations.  It is actually cheaper than Amsterdam, Australia and Hawaii, and when you think about all that you're getting for that it's pretty impressive.

OVERALL RATING

Attractions = 10

How can you beat the things you see on safari in real wildlife?  The way real wild life behaves in their natural habitats is unlike anything you can see in a zoo or on television.  And just the beauty of the African bush is incredible.

Cost = 7

It is still not a "cheap" trip by any stretch of the imagination - for 10 days you can expect to spend somewhere around $2,000 per person all-in.  But it also isn't the most expensive destination I've been, and when you look at the kind of bucket list things you get to do for that kind of money it's actually pretty impressive.

Logistics = 10

Everything within Kruger National Park is so well planned out - from the reception procedures, to the routes within the park and the signage, to the restaurants, grocery stores, and cooking supplies at the gas, to the gas stations within the camps.  Someone has thought of everything you could possibly need and it is there, and it is well-marked and well-maintained.

Lodging = 10

The accommodations we experienced in Kruger were way beyond my expectation.  I thought that for the prices we paid in comparison to what I knew the prices were at private game reserves surely we would have some very rudimentary camping facilities.  However, that couldn't have been further from the truth.  I really enjoyed every single place we stayed and could have easily spent a week at each one very comfortably and happily.

Food & Drink = 3

This was a ranked a little below average because of the lack of diversity in menu across the camps.  The only meal that really stood out to me while we were in Kruger was the night at the fancy steak house at Skukuza.  Otherwise the food was fairly bland and unremarkable.  Towards the end of the trip we were starting to get tired of eating the same couple of things.  The other thing we experienced was that sometimes the camps would be low on supplies so the thing you wanted to order they could not provide, and you would need to make another choice.  This happened to us twice - once at Satara and once at Oliphants.

Overall = 8.4

This is definitely a legitimate bucket list destination.  I totally believe it was worth all the time and effort to plan and worth all the exhaustion of getting there.

On this trip I fell in love with Africa and the natural beauty of it, which can be seen in such a variety of landscapes from the beaches to the mountains to the bush to the canyons (for example, the awe-striking Blyde River Canyon that we experienced on our way back to Johannesburg).

Ultimately I was left wanting more of Africa, and not feeling satisfied at all.  Since this trip I've often wondered if I had taken another week and slowed down the trip if I would feel more satisfied with what we saw, but I almost just think there is too much to see in just one trip.  Which is why I need to come back - to prove out this theory for myself.  After all, I truly believe that this was just the tip of the iceberg of what Africa has to offer.

Sunset on evening game drive at Satara rest camp