christabir

I am planning an Africa trip. Wondering if any of you have a favorite rest camp in Kruger. DH will be playing golf at Skukuza so we need to stay in the general area, but Skukuza looks too big for my taste (obviously I've never been there, so please let me know if I am wrong about this). We won't be self-catering, so we need a camp with food. I was surprised last night when I checked on availablity for June 2011 that the "nicest" accomodations in Lower Sabie and Skukuza are already booked. So I have to actually think about it this far out - I wasn't planning on that.

Thanks.

wildwings

The public camps in Kruger, especially the more popular ones like Skukuza, Lower Sabie and Satara, are best booked 11 months ahead, as they may be fully booked many months in advance (especially during school holidays or long weekends). Lower Sabie is one of my favorite camps, and usually the first camp to be fully booked because it is so popular. Some of the smaller bush camps, like Talamati and Biyamiti are nice camps but don't have restaurants like the bigger camps have. You will need to self-cater, unless you stay there on a guided safari with meals included. We don't use them, but there are a few operators that use these bushveld camps. You are right about Skukuza, it is rather big and busy. If you prefer a small, intimate camp I would not recommend Skukuza, even though the game viewing around Skukuza is usually very good. Why not a consider a private game lodge where you don't have to self-cater? Private lodges in the vicinity of Skukuza are Tinga Game Lodge, Rhino Post Lodge (part of Rhino Walking Safaris), and Jock Safari Lodge. These are obviously going to be more expensive than Sanparks bungalow accommodation, but on the upside all your meals will be included, the accommodation is much more luxurious and the game drives are in open vehicles, rather than in your own car.
Onne from Wild Wings Safaris

Gritty

Check out page 500 of the latest "Fodors South Africa" guide, where I say Tamboti camp is my favorite. (Thanks, Fodors, for the free copy, and for including my comment!)

However, Tamboti camp does not have its own restaurant, so it would not work for you. However, if you get to the point where you feel adventurous enough to consider cooking your own food, know that Tamboti has the places to do it. We just grilled (braai-ed) some meat every night, and had some fruits or vegetables to finish off our evening meals. We bought some foods outside the park, but much of our food was purchased at the camp stores.

Tamboti is great because there's only about 20 tents, has a very secluded feel to it, and we heard LOTS of the night animals. The baboons, lions, hyenas, and scops-owls were continuously waking me up (this is a good thing). It was worth the extremely minor inconvenience of driving 2 miles down the road, buying some charcoal, matches, beer, and steaks at the camp store, and cooking them on the braai for one evening.

Lower Sabie is probably my favorite "main camp" (ones with restaurants) of the ones I've stayed at. It's got a restaurant with a great view, isn't too big, and is near one of the best game viewing areas of the park.

You may enjoy Satara camp, which is the next main camp north of Skukuza. It's in the central plains and has lots of wildlife in the area. It's a big camp, too, 2nd to Skukuza in size, but it doesn't seem as crowded as Skukuza.

Skukuza is big and popular for a reason. We've had some great sightings there. During our last trip there, when the park was full, we saw a followed a pack of wild dogs along the road for a few minutes. There were at most 4 other cars with us, and we were less than 5 miles from Skukuza.

Skukuza also is a few minutes away from Lake Panic, which has a bird viewing hide. This is a popular place for photographers and is absolutely beautiful. It's a relaxing place to watch hippos close-up.

I also like Berg-en-dal camp a lot, as it's in the mountains and a really pretty area. However, it's somewhat far from Skukuza. Olifants camp also has a great panoramic view of the river valley, but again, it's far from Skukuza.

Keep checking the availability, sometimes there are cancellations. Wildwings, do travel agents commonly book blocks of bungalows for potential clients? If so, I suppose that's another option for finding a place.

Celia

Christa, I like Berg-en-Dal too. The bungalows there are large and comfortable. There's a restaurant there and also a snack bar. We also loved Mopani when we stayed in a cottage there, but that's farther north than you want to be.

Be warned that the "luxury bungalows" at Skukuza are not luxurious at all. Apparently the term "luxury" means "with a TV". (Who wants a tv on safari? Not me!) We stayed in one last February, and I felt that it was definitely not worth the price over the ordinary bungalows. But Skukuza has really great game viewing.

At Satara we have stayed in the safari tents, which we liked. We've also stayed in the bungalows there (or whatever the two-person accommodations are called) and they are not nice at all. The lighting and electrical outlets are inadequate and the showers are basic. There's not even provision for making your own tea or coffee in the morning; you must go to the restaurant. The restaurant has a lovely view over the river, and the hippos come to play there all the time.

I really hate having to diss these accommodations in Kruger, because I absolutely love the park, and have had incredibly wonderful experiences every time I've been there over the last 30 years. But the bungalows in Skukuza and Satara are desperately in need of upgrading. The beautiful accommodations at Mopani, Berg-en-Dal, and Biyamiti are so much nicer than the older camps. I really hope Sanparks does some upgrading there.

christabir

Thanks! You have all confirmed my first thoughts that Skukuza is "too big" for me. But, as you say, there's a reason for that. So I am going to look at all the camps mentioned. I am leaning toward Lower Sabie for location and size. It's only for 2-3 days, so we can tolerate anything for that long - and if DH complains, I'll just remind him that it's because he wants to golf on safari! Read this for a good chuckle:
http://www.worldgolf.com/course-revi...course-994.htm


Any other input is very welcome!

cary999

We have been to Kruger three times in three years totaling 16 days in rest camps. Camps were Mopani, Letaba, Oliphants, and Satara. These are all centrally located. Here's a small map of Kruger and all rest camp locations -
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/

But we have no experience, even driving around, in the Skukuza and south area. And would like to. The central area I thought was not crowded, lots of nice back country smooth wide gravel roads where we saw another car about once every 10 minutes on average.

Also, I've heard that school holiday time is popular visitor time in Kruger and to avoid it if you can. Here is a calendar of SA school holidays -
http://tinyurl.com/ywhbw8

We will be going back to Kruger because it is fun and a good way to start a safari. After flying in (from Calif. USA) for 30 hours Kruger is a good way adjust to the time change (9 hours for us) and unwind some before a private reserve/camp. Although as it turns out we actually spend more time driving around in Kruger than we do in safari camp game drives!!

The huts/bungalows do need refurbishing and I think it may have begun. At Oliphants in Sep 2009 we stayed in one of the nicely refurbished bungalows. And the restaurant area was all torn apart for refurb. Must be finished by now.

I hope we get more replies here because I'm saving this thread for reference.

regards - tom
ps - FWIW, I'm also quoted about Kruger in the new Fodors South Africa, page 461.

christabir

So I checked out most of your suggestions. I think I like Lower Sabie the best, with Berg-en Dal a close second. I will book soon. The "luxury tents" are mostly gone already. So we called the airlines to use our FF miles - surprisingly lots of availablity in June (LHR-JNB). I was not expecting to have to do this so early.

tom - thanks for the calendar - there is a school holiday we will try to avoid.

I'm pretty psyched about planning this trip - I keep adding more and more inexpensive places. It's getting to be almost a month for the price of 10 days the last time!!

cary999

June 2011. I've been thinking of that time also. One problem I have with June in SA is that it has the shortest daylight days of the year. Being around the winter solstice for SA. (Just opposite for USA and EUR). Here's a neat calendar that shows sunrise, sunset and daylight hours for anywhere in world.
http://tinyurl.com/2c7kxn6 (set for Jo'burg in June)
If you look for Jo'burg for June 21 2100 there are 10.5 daylight hours. For say Sep 21 there are 12 daylight hours, another 1.5 hours of daylight. Is this enough difference to make a difference? I'm not sure. But considering that I'm there for game viewing, maybe.

regards - tom

christabir

tom - I went last year in June. It was great! We actually got way more sleep and missed nothing. I prefer June to Sept for that reason!

cary999

Ok, thanks CB for that. I've also been keen on July. Because, last Sep 2009 I had another bit of lousy weather in SA. So, I asked Kings and Kirkmans rangers about different months for safari. They said Aug was good but can be windy. And game tends to "hunker down" when windy. They both favored July. But only thing about July, minor for me, is that the mornings can be very cool (mid winter in SA). FWIW, in 2007 I went to SA in May and it was nice, trees were still green and weather was fine (if some cool). In fact I was tempted to go back this last May but did not and now thinking about 2011.

regards - tom

janev

We went to KNP in March this year, our first time to South Africa & really enjoyed it. We like to self drive and do our own thing. We stayed at Berg-en-Dal, nice cottage, outside patio & braii area, inside kitchen (so no vervet concerns!), then went to Satara, again nice bungalow, kitchen outside this time so we turned the fridge door around, and finally a Lower Sabie bungalow overlooking the river. As this was March it was very hot (especially compared to a bad winter in UK) & so we had all accomodation with air con, another time we would like to try the tented areas. We have booked for next February already & this time will go further north right up to Bateleur.
February and March may not be the best times to see animals, but we saw leopard, cheetah near Satara, lions lazing on the cooler tarmac, right through to the bush baby & little dung beetles. We hope we shall be as lucky again next year - it was wonderful.

christabir

janev - I guess I should take little strips of velcro to hold the fridge door closed! Sounds like a perfect Kruger experience. We stayed in Pafuri (private concession) last year - I would definitely recommend going even farther north than Bateleur as the landscape is so different than the rest of Kruger. Lots of Baobab trees.

tom - we froze our arses off in June 2009 and Sept 2006. Last June was miserable weather, rain, wind - but it was VERY uncommon for that time of year. I liked the hot water bottle in my bed at night. If you check my trip report, we still had great viewing at Mashatu in the pouring rain. Sept 2006 was a freak cold front. Unfortunately the southern hemisphere is experiencing a lot of changes, so nothing is as predictable as it once was. I guess being in S Cal you are more used to perfect weather than I am in NYC Metro.

I might have to add some more days in Kruger - everyone who goes seems to love it. We have not been yet, only to private consessions around Kruger. Can't wait!

cary999

CB - you will love Kruger, really neat to drive around on your own and discover. Like all of a sudden being surrounded by a large herd of eles!

Last Sep 2009 we spent 7 days in Kruger at camps Letaba and Oliphants. Every day out 7 am, driving/searching, lunch at another camp, driving/looking, back to our camp before 6pm. Every day, and we agreed that was too much driving for 7 straight days. After 3-4 days of nothing but driving about you need to break it up some how. If you'd like, email me your mailing address and I'll send you a DVD copy of our 2007 safari, lots of Kruger on it as well as Kings Camp and MalaMala.

And yes, being from Beautiful Sunny Southern California I do expect too much from weather in other places . (Hey, but I did serve time in Chicago winters and summers!!)

regards - tom

Celia

I've often felt like a lone voice in the wilderness when I extol the virtues of an inexpensive trip to South Africa. But really, you can have a marvelous time for much less money than the high-end places charge. If I were a zillionaire, I'd book at the super-luxury places, and I'd love every minute of it. But even then I'd also include some self-driving in Kruger and Kgalagadi.

Christabir, as you say, you'll get a whole month of SA for what 10 days cost you last time. Have a great time!!

janev

Celia - I have also been reading lots on KTP - would love to go there too. On this first trip we only had 6 nights in KNP (we then drove through Swaziland to Durban to pick up a cruise back to Italy), but next February we have 19 day. So we had considered KNP & KTP. I'd love to do KTP but I think we shall keep that for next time, as we might boil in Feb with only aircon at main camps & some of the wilderness places look wonderful!
One of my colleagues is South African and because of that I found out about the SANparks rest camps & how cheaply (in comparison to the private lodges) we could have this wonderful experience.

Christabir - its good to take something to tie your fridge door, vervets can have very busy fingers!!! We could see the marks where some people had taped the fridge closed even.

christabir

You guys are awesome.

tom - you haven't posted your pics online? I'd love to see them.

Have any of you done the game drives at the rest camps? In the pictures they look like bigger versions of the private safari camp vehicles. We will have lots of opportunities to do game drives on this trip - I'm wondering if we should just do the night drives and go it alone in the AM and during the day.

Any of you been to Tembe or Ndumo? We will go from Kruger, stay overnight in Mbabani (sp?) or Manzini in Swaziland and head to Tembe. Any thoughts?

cary999

CB - Indeed for each Fodors trip report I put a few snaps up here -
http://tomgraham.smugmug.com/
Kruger photos are in years 2006, 2007, 2009. After each safari I take maybe 80 photos and selected short video clips and make a "this was our safari" DVD. It becomes our picture album that is easy to share/send copies to family and friends.

Game drives at Kruger rest camps. Yes the Park does do game drives and walks and cookouts and ??? For -daytime- game drives I'm not sure the Park does those. There are private guided tours that come in from outside Kruger and tour. Some of these are very good if your after something like birds. Those guides know the best places to find them.

But the only way (I'm aware of) to see Kruger after sunset, 6pm say, is via a Park tour. This is the rather large, 20? seat open sided truck you see pictures of. We did it once and it was ok but did not see much. We also took a walk once and saw nothing but plants and poop.

I'm assuming you have poked around the Kruger web site, good site with lots of info including occupancy calendars for the rest camps so you can plan and make reservations.
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/

Happy to hear your are looking at all those places, I'd like more info on them also.

regards - tom

Gritty

christabir,

I think you're going to like Lower Sabie and surrounding area.

One thing to consider, though, as you plan your trip--does your husband have a tee time at Skukuza? If he's planning to be at Skukuza early in the morning, keep in mind that it could take you up to 2 hours to get from Lower Sabie to Skukuza. Somewhere on SANParks's website they have a chart for the distance and time it takes to get from one camp to another, assuming a traveling speed of 25 km/h. It's a mere 43 kms from the two camps, but my book says one should plan to spend 1 hr 45 min to get there!

Of course, 25 km/h seems slow--it's half the posted speed limit in the park--but the tar road between Skukuza and Lower Sabie is perhaps the most popular in the park. Again, this is for good reason. It follows the Sabie River and is a beautiful drive. It's also a very game-rich area. You will stop often! I've seen 4 of the Big 5 on that road, and missed a leopard sighting by seconds. I highly recommend taking this road at least once during your visit, but not if you're in a big hurry. It does get crowded if there are lion or leopard sightings--not Yellowstone crowded, but it's not the private reserves! A good uncrowded alternate road is the S30. It's a gravel road and will take 2 hours to drive, but I saw less than 5 cars on it when I was there in April 2008--when the park was FULL.

If you do decide to go on the SANParks drives, I recommend the sunset drives over the night drives. I've always had better sightings from Lower Sabie (leopard, serval) during the sunset drives. We also did an early morning drive once--I don't know if they do these anymore, but they leave the camp an hour before everyone else is allowed to. Since we were the first ones out, we saw lots of rhinos on the road. We also saw 3 cheetahs!

We did do a morning walk from Lower Sabie. We didn't see much other than 4 rhino and a breeding herd of elephant while we were driving to the hiking spot. We all were able to sneak up on a mother rhino with a young calf. We got to within a stone's throw from them--their response was to lie down and take a nap. Our guides (Irving and Martie) were awesome, and very humorous.

I love visiting Kruger. It's nice to know that my visiting there is directly contributing to conservation as the Park expands its boundaries into Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It's also nice to not have to worry about whether a travel agent overcharged me $3000 for my trip!

christabir

I've obviously never arranged a S Africa trip on my own. You are all so helpful!

tom - I'll get to your pics tomorrow. I appreciate that a lot.

Gritty - thanks for all of that info. (last lines - !). Very helpful. I'm a little thrown as I was not expecting to have to make these reservations so early. Tee times? Who knows? Do I have to make them now, too?! We're thinking late morning to be safe. I will probably walk the course with him - hate to miss anything!

christabir

tom - there are some fantastic photos! My faves - from 2006, the zebra mare and foal is gorgeous, and the lion cub is precious. How did you get the pic in Zam of the hyena pups in their den?! There are some great animals on kills - rare to see lions on an ele. Thanks for sharing.

I am not going to be able to avoid the school holiday on June 13 when we go to Kruger. Not happy about that. I might have to skip Shindzela, too. Really unhappy about that! But this trip keeps getting longer and more affordable. Something has to go - maybe skip Zululand Rhino Reserve instead? (no!!!!). Will have a clearer idea by Sunday, I think. Thanks to all.