Holiday reviews for Kruger National Park

By far the highlight of the holiday was the Kruger National Park. It is difficult to explain the profound effect the park has on the human spirit to someone who has never been.

This is an animal kingdom, one of the few places left on earth that belongs to the wild. Although manmade camps have been built, this is truly the animal's domain.

The idea is that you drive around the park spotting animals and birds. The animals live and hunt as nature intended, they are not dependant on humans and live in a completely natural environment. The animals you see are more beautiful and healthy than anything you have ever seen. Because these are wild animals, you must not get out of your vehicle at any time and extreme caution is recommended when you come across the larger animals.

Maximum speed is around 20 miles per hour and you rarely see other vehicles. I would recommend buying one of the guides at the gate which tell you which types of wildlife you can expect to spot in different parts of the park, we kept a log of what we had seen.

We stayed in the Lower Sabie Camp, the accommodation was basic but this added to the back to nature experience. Light a barbeque, buy in some beers and spend a relaxing evening looking at the stars and listening to the hippos in the Sabie River.

Unfortunately, we were too late to the camp to book the night safari, but this is when you might be lucky enough to see the Big Five (Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Buffalo and Rhino); which predominantly hunt at night.

Bearing in mind, the Kruger Park is the size of Wales, so you could spend several days in there and still not cover this vast area of country and astounding changing landscape.

We spent one night and two full days in the park, however, if I was to go to S. Africa again, I would spend more time here and highly recommend that if you are planning a trip to South Africa, try and spend as much time in this beautiful place as possible.

Tip: Only a certain number of cars are allowed into the park at any one time, so booking ahead is a must. Book your trip direct with the park, my Dad booked through the Kruger website which was cheaper and more efficient than going through the tour operator.

Useful Link - Official Kruger Park Website - http://www.krugerpark.co.za