Kruger National Park

Info

There are many options on how to discover the beauties of Kruger. Would you like to spend a whole week in the park or would three days do? Are you eager to experience the safari 'the old way', or is a five-star luxury lodge a must? Are you travelling alone or is your whole family aboard? Do you think about popping THE question? Or, perhaps even self-drive through the park? From ultra adventurous to fully romantic - we can offer all of the above and more - just as you'd prefer.

Details

Kruger National Park covers an area of almost 20.000 km2; it stretches 360 km from north to south and 65 km from east to west. Some areas of the park were protected by the government of the South African Republic already in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926. From 2002 it constitutes the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.

It is also a part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, an area designated by the UNESCO as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve. These are just some facts to underline the importance of Kruger, which was recognized more than a century ago.

Vegetation-wise, Kruger offers four main areas: shrub mopane covers almost the entire north-eastern part of the park, red bush-willow and mopane area lies in the western half of the park, thorn trees and red bush-willow flourish between the western boundary and roughly the centre of the park, while knob-thorn and marula veld in the eastern half of the park represents the most important grazing-land.

This beautiful landscape also swells with diverse fauna. Kruger National Park has 147 species of large mammals, more than any other African game reserve. All the Big five animals are found there. A big population of elephants started to change the plant growth and density in the park. Man, of course, tried to intervene - luckily killing elephants stopped in 1994, afterwards, they tried contraception, but herds were too upset, instead, relocation began. Some animals, like wildebeests, profited from the increase of the grasslands, some miss other vegetation. Kruger is also home to a few packs of the endangered African wild dog, of which there only about 400 in the whole of South Africa.

The number of some animals, such as black rhinoceros, blue wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, greater kudu, hippopotamus, and spotted hyena is increasing, while others, like southern white rhinoceros, impala, leopard, lion, and African wild dog record a decline in numbers. To illustrate the data - from South Africas 22.000 black and white rhinos, 12.000 live in Kruger.

But these are only the mammals! Kruger is also home to 253 species of birds, and it occasionally hosts 117 non-breeding migrants and 147 nomadic birds. The Big six birds - the lappet-faced vulture, martial eagle, saddle-billed stork, kori bustard, ground hornbill and the reclusive Pel's fishing owl, which is localized and seldom seen, can be spotted here.

126 species of reptile, including life-threatening black mambas, magnificent African rock pythons, and Nile crocodiles inhabit the Kruger. The beauty is perfectly rounded with brightly coloured butterflies and other insects.