Shujbhar

I am trying to decide between staying in Balule and staying in a Sabi resort. Sabi is clearly more expensive for similar quality, but is it true that the animal sightings are much better & almost guaranteed in Sabi as compared to Balule? I read somewhere that the Southern part of the Kruger park has more animals than elsewhere. This is our first safari trip, and only for 2-3 days, flying in from Johannesburg after an international flight, so we definitely want to see lions and leopards! Would love any comments from participants with 1st hand experience on this?

cary999

Balule new to me. Is this it in Kruger NP?
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/camps/balule/

If so, then no off road vehicles permitted in Kruger. Off roading is required for optimal finding and viewing of wildlife. Period, end of story. Private reserves like Sabi Sand permit off road game drives (driven/guided by camp rangers).

I have been in Kruger NP three times and in Sabi Sand reserve five times. Kruger is wonderful - but for seeing the big five up close, personal and and often, Sabi Sand wins easily over Kruger. For example, in around 15 total days in Kruger I have seen one leopard. In Sabi Sand I expect to see leopard every day and probably every game drive and likely more than one leopard.

regards - tom

Safari_Craig

In my experience which includes 29 trips to South Africa, the Sabi Sands is the best general big five and mammal viewing ecosystem in Southern Africa. Keep in mind you can only see 2% of the land when you are in the Kruger National Park as this is the percentage of land within sight of the road network (that you can't leave). I am not knocking the Kruger and I have been self-driving there since I was literally an infant but if you have 2-3 days and you have a checklist of animals to see, the Sabi Sands will be the most likely place to leave you satisfied. Choose a place on the Sabi or Sand River (Singita, Londolozi, MalaMala, Kirkmans, Lion Sands, etc). I visited the Sabi Sands once in my life without seeing the Big Five in a three day period. At MalaMala and Lion Sands, with only once exception, I have seen the big five every day. Oddly enough it was buffalo that eluded us that one time.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

ShayTay

I'll be staying at Mohlabetsi in Balule in October. Balule is a private game area near Hoedspruit. From their recent Facebook postings, they've been having some great sightings. In Sabi Sands, Elephant Plains is one of the least expensive campsthere. Kirkman's is good, too, but a bit more expensive... not as much as some of the others Craig mentions. I've been on drives in Mala Mala where the ranger was reduced to pointing out a mouse... nothing else showed itself. Of course, there were "Big 5" drives, too. Basically, "it is what it is." Enjoy whatever you see and the experience of being in the bush.

KathBC

Yeah but Sharon it was an <b>African<b> mouse!

pixelpower

Tom, Balule reserve sits west of Klaserie reserve, and goes all the way to the R40 in the west, and to the Olifants Rivier in the north

Well, actually Parsons block and Grietjie block are now considered Balule as well. So you could say the boundary in the north is now almost the R40 as well (R40 to Phalaborwa).

Here's a screen shot I just took from my Google Earth;

http://www.pixelpower.be/Fodors/Balule.jpg

Balule is in red.

@Shujbhar,

The reserve isn't bad, if you stay a bit away from the borders (R40 -> animals stay away from civilization, if they're smart enough), and if you stay near the river (higher animal densities there, obviously).

But it is no Sabi Sands, for sure. To name but one thing; it's quite a bit away from Kruger. Klaserie sits in between. Now, animals know no borders of course. But still; the closer to Kruger the better sightings seem to be.

Another issue would be the inability to off-road. The situation in Balule is far from what is happening in Sabi Sands. In the latter, lodges share their plots and even allow off-roading on each other's properties. But in Balule, traversing rights are not that well established. There are even lodges (on small 21Ha building plots) that have no rights to drive on others plots anywhere, off road or on road. So they stick to these "loops" where everyone can drive. Those are the cheapest, not by coincidence.

Now, that does not mean you are obliged to spend big bucks in Sabi Sands. Equally good game viewing, with equally well-established traversing rights, but at a far lower price, can be had in Timbavati reserve and Klaserie reserve (at least the east part).

Best regards,

Jochen

Shujbhar

Jochen/Pixelpower, thanks...actually I found your other threads extremely useful too! On Timbavati, I saw a comment somewhere that game viewing has been reduced significantly by some new damming on the river that has changed the movement patterns of animals - would you know if that is true?
Rgds.

cary999

Can you provide web link about damming of river?? New one on me.

regards - tom

christabir

Manyeleti is between SS and Timbavati. Anyone been? I would think the game viewing should be good?

cary999

Jochen - nice map, thanks.
Do you know of one like this that also has the camp locations?

regards - tom

Leopardress

Hi there - Sabi Sand definately comes out on top in terms of seeing animals and been able to off road (but only for 'priority game ' - big five and also wild dog & cheetah). The northern Sabi Sand Lodges like Elephant Plains, Arathursa and Nkhoro are much cheaper.

Personally I prefer the Timbivati - lodges are not necessarily cheaper but you have less vehicles per sighting and the game viewing is great. Motswari would give you the best deal although if you able to stretch the budget then Tanda Tula is lovely.

Good luck with your planning. Regards Anthea

Shujbhar

Tom, here is the link from another review site regarding damming of river...dont know how true though!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...onal_Park.html

cary999

Thanks for link to about damming - but what it says is "they heard from somebody who heard...". So really no credible source(s).

Also reminded me why I don't read TA (TripAdvisor). The thread was about the Simbavati Lodge with review titles of - "If you are looking for dreams to come true, look no further", and "Absolutely Fabulous!". Yes, another set of "greatest safari ever" reviews, yes, greatest ever because it was their one and only safari ever!! Not that Simbavati Lodge is not good, I believe it is, but got to have standards for comparison and some scale.

regards - tom

pixelpower

@Shujbhar; I know nothing about that change in animal densities and damming etc. All I know is that I had extremely good safaris in Timbavati. Last year highlight was a wild dog encounter ON FOOT. They passed three meters away from us. Video here: http://vimeo.com/16303387
This year absolute highlights were a huge lion pride (with 9 cubs) and an extremely relaxed leopard (idem as on Sabi Sands property). She was in the same tree with her kill for two days. Plus, like Leopardress says: less vehicles. At Elephant plains we did get the awful "time slots" now and then. So far that has NEVER happened to us in Timbavati.

Personally I highly advise a safari in Timbavati. You can rough it up a bit and add a camp in Klaserie that offers walking safaris, and your total cost will certainly be less than what you pay (on average, of course) at Sabi Sands properties, while staying for a longer period.

Another plus is the proximity of Hoedspruit airport; direct flights from Jo'burg, and from the airport to Klaserie/Timbavati gates is 10 minutes. A negative would be that your whole safari is in the same type of habitat.

Best regards,

Jochen

pixelpower

@Christabir,

I have been to Manyeleti, last year. To Pungwe Bush camp, to be precise. Trip report is here; http://safaritalk.net/index.php?show...ndpost&p=47596

Long story: Manyeleti went through a rough period a while ago. But the reserve went from being government-owned to being community-owned recently and things seemed to be slowly getting better. We got one of the last convulsions of that bad period; an attempt to rob the tent next to ours. They failed, and had to make a run for it (in the dark, through kilometers of dense bush and wild animals; better them than me!) In hindsight it was just a moment of all the "right" things happening together; a reserve being transferred, a failing boundary (and patrols) near Pungwe town, a long holiday weekend, and a full moon.
I am sure such event will not happen to anyone who will visit the reserve now. They are clearly doing much better. There's a reason that Honeyguide is running two camps there now.

Anyway, apart from that glitch, we had superb game viewing, like a leopard drinking from the Pungwe waterhole, an elephant encounter on foot (and a mock charge), a rhino mum and playful calf, and a coalition of four cheetahs.

Short version; we loved Manyeleti! And we loved Pungwe, and the owners Loot and Cilla.

B.regs,

J.

pixelpower

I guess those people at Simbavati RL simply got really unlucky.

We saw plenty of animals. The traversing rights are pretty good as well. Simbavati RL, for example, could drive on Peru plots, Argyle (this is all close to the lodge itself), Motswari, Jaydee, Oud Nederland (camp there but not commercialized), Nederland and Rothsay (where Kings Camp and Thanda Tula are) and even Umlani (but on invitation/request only).

if all these plot names don't mean much. Hold on; got a bit of a scoop for you guys.

J.

pixelpower

>> Jochen - nice map, thanks.
Do you know of one like this that also has the camp locations?

Hi Tom,

Yes, I know exactly where to find such map. In fact; for EVERY major reserve in South Africa. And what's more; the Timbavati map will show all traversing rights, just like the official Sabi Sands map. And on top of that; the maps are not flash but pure html, so they work on smartphones and tablet PC's too.

Where they are? On my computer.

But soon you'll see them online as well. What started out as a little personal project in Google Earth (the image I uploaded yesterday is a screen shot of that) has got a bit uhm... out of hand.

Can't say much more at this point. Like Lesley Neilsen said in that hospital to that guy on a stretcher; "you're just going to have yo be patient".

;-)

J.

cary999

Wild dogs on foot - that would be safari memory for a lifetime!!! (Hopefully not a nightmare!! ).

It is easy to get to the Timbavati, SAA flys JNB to Hoedspruit (HDS) and back every day. For about (I think) half the cost ($130?) of FedAir into Sabi Sand.

And looking forward to those maps.

regards - tom

christabir

J - I heard Manyeleti was community owned and we are trying to visit camps in the future that help the local people more than big co's. That's why we went to Tembe this year. It's a shame there was that "incident" - hopefully they have that problem solved. But the area is intriguing to me. Tembe has a few issues too, but I hope they do well. It's just about the only place to work in the area.

Your map project sounds interesting too. Looking forward to it.

Gardyloo

We've stayed at Balule twice (Ezulwini and Pondoro) and SSGR 3 times (Elephant Plains, Nkorho, and Chitwa Chitwa). Certainly we saw more game on a day-to-day basis at SSGR; we also saw a lot more vehicles and fellow tourists there too. On the other hand, I don't think we've had a better lodge experience than we had at Pondoro. Balule is rougher and less developed (or, put another way, more evidence of its pre-game reserve status - more evidence of old farms, scraps of fence, etc.) However it's also faster to get to, and to be frank, we saved enough with a couple of nights in Balule to pay for an extra night or two at SSGR, so in terms of dollars-per-safari-night, it worked out well for us. That's FOR US; YMMV.

One other advantage of Balule is that you can easily do a day trip from Balule up to the Kruger Phalaborwa gate and get into the Oliphants or Letaba camps/game viewing areas, and still be back by evening. This would be much harder in the case of most of the Sabi lodge sites (not that you'd necessarily want to leave.)