South Africa
Kruger & Big Five Reserves
Big-game country, from open park to private concession.
What makes it special
Kruger runs 360 kilometres from the Crocodile River to the Limpopo and about 65 kilometres across at its widest: roughly 19,485 square kilometres of Lowveld between the Drakensberg escarpment and the Lebombo mountains on the Mozambican border. It holds 147 mammal species, 507 birds and 336 trees, and few protected areas carry the Big Five at these densities across this much ground.
Read the full story →Travel Advice & Access
By air. Kruger Mpumalanga International (MQP), opened in 2002 some 27 kilometres north-east of Mbombela, takes Airlink and low-cost services from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and lies about 40 kilometres from Numbi Gate. Skukuza (SZK), inside the park and named for Stevenson-Hamilton, is the most useful for the Sabi Sand: Airlink flies it twice daily from Johannesburg in an hour, and daily from Cape Town. Hoedspruit Eastgate (HDS) serves the Timbavati, Klaserie, Thornybush and Manyeleti.
Read the full story →When to Go
June to September — peak dry season, and the reason to come. The bush thins, surface water disappears and game concentrates on the perennial rivers and pumped waterholes, so visibility improves and predator sightings become reliable. June is the coldest and driest month, with dawn drives in single figures Celsius warming to the low twenties by midday — clients need a fleece and gloves. July and August warm through the middle of the day while the bush stays open, and mosquito numbers hit their annual low.
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