We're planning our first trip to Africa in March 2010 and will visit KNP for 3-4 days (Letoba, Satara and Lower Sabie). We will rent a car and sign up for several game drives. Yet, the game drives are in the mornings and evenings. What to do there the rest of the day? Are there places that we can safely drive to and do something on our own, like hiking and nature watching? The emphasis here is on "safely".
The literature that we have access to does not tell much about that.

Thank you.

Isa Ten

If I were you I would do a max of one morning and maybe an afternoon gamedrive organised by the camps but certainly do gamedrives myself in the rented car.

Frankly - doing gamedrives in my own (rented) car is much more rewarding than the "organised" ones - particularly with the huge vehicles going out of restcamps.

As you mention "nature": what can be more "nature" than doing gamedrives and watching/searching for animals in a beautiful bush environment.

Happy travels!

SV

My concern is the safety of the self-drives. With all thw wild animals around, do they attack the cars or people getting out of the car? Should we always stay in the car during these drives or can we walk around a little (or more than a little)? Are there areas where it is safe to do that?
Thank you.

We (from USA, CA) have been to KNP three times for several days each time. (We also go to private safari camps). Typically we rent a car (Avis) at JNB and drive to KNP. We have stayed at the camps Letaba and Satara you are going to. I would guess that 99% of the visitors to KNP are self drive like us. We have taken a couple of the KNP safari tours but frankly find them not as much fun/interesting as self drive. For one thing the KNP tours are in large truck like vehicles. They also do not go off road, same restrictions as for self drive. On our self drives we have never felt threatened, even when surrounded by a herd elephants (so wonderful). You just don't approach/drive up real close to them, they come to you, and you must stay in your car. There are occasional rest stops and picnic areas that you can get out of your car. But essentially you are in you car and on a park road - of some kind.

Anyway, if you take a KNP tour in morning or evening or both, then in between you go out on your own !!! . Not much else to do, no swimming pools, no masseuse, no hair dresser. You got up at 6am, take a nice nap from 12noon until 2pm. Maybe in our visits we have missed something here and one of the experienced local KNP visitors have other ideas. You could also go to the KNP web site, lots of interesting info there.
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/

Also, if it is the big cats you are after, they are elusive in KNP. Typically we would see lions about once every second day. And as for leopard, we have seen leopard only once in our three visits. Never seen cheetah there. If you want a really up-close and personal experience with the big 5, go to one of the private safari camps in the Sabi Sand or Timbavati reserves that border KNP on the west. We still love KNP and will be going back.

regards -tom

Absolutely, go out on your own! It is much more rewarding then the group drives and you never know what you will find, that is half the fun...just turning the corner and finding lions on a kill, etc. It is perfectly safe--as long as you follow the rules. You are NOT allowed out of your car except at a very few designated picnic or view spots. You need to time this carefully insofar as bathroom breaks and food You can't get lost, really, as there are very few roads and everything is excellently signposted. Just buy a good map when you enter the park. There is no hiking anywhere in the park (except for some guided hikes with armed rangers.)

The camps themselves are excellent for birdwatching and you can spend time walking around the perimeters of the camps (they are all fenced in.)

I do need to correct cary999--he said "no swimming pools" but in fact, all of the camps that you will be in have swimming pools and if its hot that is certainly a nice way to relax for a little while in-between drives. But honestly we spent every possible minute out on game drives and only wished we could have spent even more time (you must re-enter the camp before they close the gates at dusk.)

Others have given some ideas on what to do. I'll just point out there's a cozy bird hide about 6 km or so from Skukuza on the Kruger Gate Rd (look for signs to the Skukuza Plant Nursery). You can park and get into the safety passage that leads to the comfortable hide, which can hold about 20 people, though in the time I was there 4 or 5 was tops. You're elevated slightly above water level, and it's very quiet and relaxing, an excellent way to spend an hour or two.

Thanks jczinn for the correction on swimming pools. I really had not looked and simply assumed not. Your walking around the perimeter fence is a good one, will do that next time. Also, agree easy to drive in KNP, just get a decent park map, few roads, you won't get lost.

regards - tom
ps - jczinn, still expecting to see photos from you (early) next year

Hi,

We did a self drive in Kruger and loved it. There are safe places to get out for animal viewing, picnics and restroom breaks.You will be able to get a map and information when you enter the park.

Look at our trip report with pictures of our time in Kruger.

www.aroundtheworldin132days.blogspot.com

click on April on the right side and scroll down to March 30 through April 1 for the report on Kruger and the pictures.

Hi

Visited KNP in August 2009 and stayed at Lower Sabie (saw mother Cheetah and 4 cubs between Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie then the next day a Cheetah kill. Very exciting doing self drives (you must remeber driving is very slow as you have to look for the animals).

Satara every day we drove the same area (near the dry river bed and found the leopard in the various trees and some times on the ground. Lion kills near the camp on the side of the road.

In Shingwedzi there are 3 prides of Lion. One along the river, on eto the north and another to the west. Over the three days that we were there doing self drives we found all three prides one having 16 in the pride. We always were up at 5.00am started off at 5.00am when the gates opened came back around 11-11.30 for lunch and rest, checked photos then headed off again around 3pm remembering to be in the gate by 6.00pm

Lots of wildlife and eles.

Strogly recommend self drives very safe but no hiking.

Enjoy

As others have said, you should definitely do the self-drives. I usually drive most of the day, only taking lunch-siesta type of break. Self-driving is pretty safe, but do be careful, especially around elephants. Give them their space. We had one mock-charge our car. As others have said, there is no hiking allowed outside of the rest camps and approved spots.

However, you can sign up for guided morning and afternoon day hikes. These are scheduled during the same time as the big guided game drives from the camps. I would recommend doing at least one of these if you have the chance. The group size is limited to 8 guests and you do get to go on a short game drive to get to the hiking area. The guides are spectacular and you learn a lot about the environment. I've done a day hike from Lower Sabie and loved it. Irving and Martie are really fun guides.

The guided game drives are indeed in big vehicles and they can be hit-or-miss in terms of quality. However, I would strongly recommend you do a sunset drive anyway. You're not allowed to drive on your own after dark and the sunset drives are a great way to see all of the night animals. We've seen bush babies, civets, genets, a serval, and a leopard on our sunset drives.

Letaba has the Great Elephant Hall, with the tusks and stories behind Kruger's Magnificent Seven huge elephants of the past. It's worth an hour-long visit.

See if you can find the local scops-owl that hangs out at Satara. You'll begin to hear it just before it gets dark. They're hard to find!

The Lower Sabie restaurant has a huge deck where you can look out over the Sabie River and see hippos, elephants, buffalo, etc. coming to the water to drink and sunbathe. The hippo come up close to the deck at night. If you eat there, make sure you guard your food from the starlings and weaver birds that will try to steal it from you!

An emphatic YES to what everyone here has said -- do your own game drives, in addition to going with the rangers!

In between times, you can:
Write up your sightings in your journal, if you're keeping one (I always do)

Look up any animal behavior that interested or surprised you while you were out (the camp offices might have good animal behavior books, but it's a good idea to bring your own)

Have a "kooldrankie" or a glass of wine at the camp restaurant (especially nice at Lower Sabie with the view over the river)

Sit on a bench at the camp perimeter at Satara and watch the wildlife

Discuss your sightings with other camp visitors, at the pool, restaurant, camp office

Buy souvenirs at the camp shop

Snooze

We'll be in Kruger in February, for the 10th time or so, and we can't wait. I know you'll have a wonderful time too!

Celia

Please note that our visit to Kruger was in 2004, but I don't believe rules have changed significantly since then.

Self Drive v. Guided Drives

We found self drives far more rewarding! We chose our routes carefully and often sought out the dirt roads, as many visitors prefer to stick to tarmac roads only. We avoided crowded areas and often found peace and solitude whilst observing the wildlife. We also found it an unexpected pleasure to ID animals and birds ourselves - infact I'd go as far as to say we really observed them so much more closely precisely because we were trying to identify them. Very satisfying.

If you want to be able to reach more isolated areas, choose a camp where there aren't too many nearby in at least one direction, then take a packed lunch out with you so you can stay out longer.

The guided drives were in LARGE vehicles with too many people in the group for our liking. And, the experiences we had were disappointing, with a guide who really just went through the motions, and made no real effort at all.

The most disappointing was the guided night drive - we had to sign up for this as visitors aren't permitted to self-drive in the evenings/ night. And the guy just couldn't give two hoots. We had to insist he stop/ reverse when we, the passengers, spotted something as he neither looked nor spotted anything at all.

On Foot

You CANNOT just get out and walk/ hike anywhere in the park on your own. The only exceptions are designated picnic areas and designated bird hides. This is a strongly enforced rule. You really should not even get out of the car, standing right by it, to take photographs, though many flout this rule every day.

There may be specific areas where one is permitted to walk unaccompanied, but I don't recall such from our 2004 trip.

However, you can sign up for guided walks, where trained guides take you to carefully selected locations in the park for a guided walk. We did one of these and found it excellent, the guide was enthusiastic and knowledgeable, we felt safe at all times. Well worth doing. By all means sign up for more than one as this will break up the time spent in your car.

Food

If you are booking into a self-catering unit, do some reading to find out whether the camp in question has a decent or tiny food store, as you might find it best to do the majority of your grocery shopping at a supermarket outside of the park, before entering, just topping up from the camp shop.

Alternatively, most camps have onsite restaurants.

Oh, as to what to do in the midday break?

1) Take a packed lunch and stay out. If it's hot, yes animals aren't as active, but there's often something to see. And you can find a shaded spot to enjoy lunch (IN the car).

2) Sit out on the veranda of your chalet and watch the birds, catch up on your trip diary, look up information about wildlife you spotted that morning, and have your daily shower. I don't know about you but washing my hair (and letting it dry naturally) in the cooooold early morning is a no-no. I much prefer waiting till the middle of the day.

3) Some restcamps may have pools, or at least open garden areas where you can sit and enjoy bird life.

4) Letaba (I think) has the elephant museum, worth a visit.

Pah, I should have done a better job of skimming the previous responses, I've mostly just repeated what has already been said!

One tip in order to prepare your visit as well as a handy book for the drives:
TRACKS AND TRACKING

We bought one ages ago and make notes besides rare sightings to when and where.

You can get it via
http://www.exclusivebooks.com/search...s+and+tracking
or at OR TAMBO probably.

Another fine book is
the Safari Companion/Richard Estes
http://www.exclusivebooks.com/displa...=9781890132446


SV