Driving from Elephant Plains to Kruger
 

Can anyone tell me how much time to plan for driving from Elephant Plains in Sabi Sands to either Lower Sabie Camp or Berg-en -Dal Camp? We have to be in Nelspruit by 9 AM for a flight so would like to stay at Berg-en-Dal Camp the night before, but we are trying to decide if we should go strait there from Elephant Plains, or cut that part of the stay even shorter and go from Elephant Plains to Lower Sabie Camp for 1 night, and then Lower Sabie to Berg-en-Dal for the last night. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

From looking at a map it seems that Berg-en-Dal camp would be an hours drive to Nelspruit.

Have you considered - You will be in EP for the night. Next morning do EP game drive. Then after EP game drive, breakfast and drive to Nelspruit and spend night in Nelspruit. So you are Nelspruit for sure by 9am. Sounds like a plan to me :-) . I hate to play things too close to catch flights.

regards - tom

EP like most of the lodges in that part of the Sabi Sand reserve is around three hours' drive from Nelspruit. Add an hour or so from Nelspruit to the camps (maybe 90 min.) and you can make your plans accordingly.

I have just returned from a trip to SA and stayed in both Elephant Plains and Lower Sabie.If you are thinking of leaving EP to travel to Lower Sabie for one night it is a lot of travelling just for one night.I wouln't do it.

We stayed in both EP and Lower Sabie for 3 nights in each place and both were wonderful.I would just enjoy EP.

In Lower Sabie we saw Cheetah with 4 cubs, another Cheetah on a kill, Leopard, Lion. Lower Sabie being situated on the river was fantastic.

On the other hand in Elephant Plains Lion feeding on a Giraffe, then a different kill on Zebra the next night. Several Leopard sightings A PACK OF WILD DOGS (11 ADULTS AND 2 BABIES) on 3 mornings. The variety of animals was just amazing.

We travelled from Lower Sabie to Satara (4 nights) then Shinwedzi (3 nights) then Elephant Plains 3 nights.

Let me know if you need any other info

I will do a trip report later as we stayed one week in Hluhlwee National Park before we headed to Kruger.This was our second trip to SA, previously we did Botswana and Vic Falls, Kalahri Desert and Okavango Delta.

This trip we saw 15 different Lion prides, 10 Leopard some up trres with kills other close on the ground,Wild Dogs,Honey Badger, Giraffe with twins and feeding them, Cheetah on several sightings with cubs, hundred of Eles and herd of Zebra in Kruger at least 500 the guide told us. Beautiful birds, 4 different types of Mongoose, just endless animals.

saph - sounds like an amazing trip. Very different from your first. Hluhluwe is definitely a place I want to go, so I'd love to hear about your week there, and everything else.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is about a 1-hour drive from Berg-en-Dal to the "Nelspruit" Airport (which, if you're referring to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, is closer to Hazyview or White River than it is to Nelspruit).

If you are interested in staying the night in the closest camp from that airport, I would suggest staying at Pretoriuskop camp instead. It is slightly closer than Berg-en-Dal, about a 45-minute drive.

I cannot comment on Elephant Plains because I have not been there, although it is one of the few private reserves in that area that I might be willing to check out. I would estimate that the drive from EP to LS would be approximately 3-4 hours--that would be a great day of leisurely driving, just seeing what crosses your path. The Lower Sabie area is my favorite area of the Park that I've visited. I've seen the Big 5 in that area as well as cheetahs and a serval. You're close to a couple of different habitat types at Lower Sabie, including the more wide-open plains and riverine woodlands.

Saph, Satara was another camp we were looking at, did you prefer Lower Sabie over Satara? I am thinking it might work to break up into 2 nights at Elephant Plains, 1 night at Satara and 1 night at Lower Sabie to shorten the drives.

Does anyone know how long to get to KMIA from either Satara or Lower Sabie?

Whatever/whosever info you get here, double check it against the Kruger web site. An excellent site with maps and tables of driving distances and times.
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/
And if you don't have a good map of Kruger get this -
http://www.amazon.com/Kruger-Nationa...4164739&sr=8-6
It is a good guide book with an excellent large map of Kruger.

regards - tom

Breaking up the trip does sound good. Lower Sabie was my favourite being situated on the river was a plus as the animals coming to the water was great. LS is where we saw 2 different Cheetah sightings, Leopard and Lions, Eles, Hipps and other wonderful sightings. Satara is a very large camp, we did however see 2 differnet buffalo kills very close to camp, leopard no eles.

I think you have to consider being in one place for more than a night you are able to book for early morning drives and early morning walks this gives you a break from just driving yourselves.

Let me know if you need any other info

We took 6 hours to travel from LS to Satara as the speed is like 35-40kph. Don't forget you see things and want to stop of course.

Drive from Malelane gate to MQP is around 40 minutes. Drive from Berg en Dal to Malelane gate around 30 minutes, if game en-route add another thirty.

Lower Sabie is further into the park, so add another 30 minutes to the drive.