The Kruger National Park

The Kruger National Park covers an area of over 7,330 square miles, a huge area that to give some idea of scale equals roughly the same area as Wales. On its northern border is Zimbabwe with the Gonarazhou National Park. To its east is Mozambique with the Limpopo National Park and the 3 of them cover a vast area of protected land known as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

As well as being the largest National Park in South Africa it is also one of the oldest. Originally planned in 1898, it was finally established in 1902 and slowly grew over the years as more areas were added to it. The initial problem the first warden, Major James Stevenson-Hamilton faced was getting some animals. After decades of hunting there was hardly any animals left so it a policy that must be nearly unique in the history of Game Reserves he culled all the carnivores to allow the populations of grazers to recover. The policy worked so successfully that today over 1 and a quarter million visitors go to the Park every year.

Because of its size the park contains six eco-systems, from open plains to forest, and is home to nearly 2,000 different species of plant. Amongst these, over 500 types of bird can be seen at different times of year and there are, of course, lots of different animals. The Big 5 are all present and in numbers that dwarf the stocks of other Park. Over 25,000 buffalo, 2,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, 13,000 elephants and countless grazing animals. Indeed so successful has the conservation been that the Park tried to administer contraceptives to the elephants to stop the population growing.

When you visit Kruger you have several options. You can stay at the park run rest camps, of which there are 21 scattered about the Park. With a good network of roads between them you can stay at different ones and drive between them during the day, game-viewing as you go. For more luxury you can visit the private lodges, either operated under licence on a land concession or on land adjacent to the main park. Many are small, exclusive and expensive but offer service and facilities to match many hotels in the world.