A World in One Country
Thirteen nights from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The Panorama Route, Kruger, eSwatini, Zululand, the Garden Route and Hermanus, finishing under Table Mountain.
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Game Drives in the Kruger
Big Five country on the low veld: open vehicles out before the gate opens, mopane and marula rather than open plain, and the Panorama Route along the escarpment on the way in or out.
At a glanceOn land
How longTwo nights and upTwo or three nights, more if you can
How hardLightSitting in a vehicle on rough tracks, early starts
SeasonDry months easierThe dry months open the bush up and bring animals to water
The Kruger runs down the north-east of the country in a long strip against the Mozambican border, and the first thing a Kenyan traveller notices is how different it looks from home. This is low veld: mopane scrub, marula and knobthorn, granite outcrops, sand rivers that are dry most of the year. Not an open plain. You see less far, and what you see, you see close.
Mornings start before the gates open. Coffee in the dark, a blanket over your knees, and then the bush going from grey to gold in about twenty minutes while a francolin makes an unreasonable amount of noise about it. Elephant are everywhere and unbothered. Buffalo stand in the road and decline to move. Rhino are more readily seen here than in most of East Africa, which for many people is the reason to come at all, and their guides will be careful about where and how that is discussed.
The choice that shapes the trip is national park or private reserve. The park is enormous and public: rest camps, tarred and gravel roads, gate times you obey, and the option of driving yourself, which plenty of people love. The reserves along the western boundary share the same unfenced wilderness and run it as a guided product, with a tracker on the bonnet and rules of their own about where a vehicle may go. The second is closer to a Kenyan safari camp in feel. The first is closer to an adventure.
Either way, the escarpment is on the road in. The Panorama Route runs along the top of it: Blyde River Canyon dropping away green and enormous, the potholes at Bourke’s Luck, and viewpoints out over the low veld you are about to descend into. Give it a morning rather than a photo stop.
Two nights is the minimum that makes sense and three is better. Then fly down to the Cape for Table Mountain and the Garden Route, which is how most of these trips are shaped.
Good to know
- Early is not a suggestion. The first and last hours of daylight are when the bush does anything.
- Neutral colours, a warm layer for the morning drive and a hat for the afternoon one. Winter mornings here are cold.
- Binoculars each. In thick bush, sharing one pair ruins two sightings.
- Malaria precautions depend on the season and the exact area. Ask a travel clinic before you book.
- Park gate times, fees and reserve rules are set by the authorities and the lodges, and change. We confirm yours in writing.
- Give the Panorama Route its own morning on the way in or out. It is not a detour, it is half the reason for the drive.
Park gate times, conservation and park fees, night-drive and off-road rules, malaria precautions, which reserves permit what and minimum ages for game activities are set by the parks, the reserves and your doctor. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.
It is thicker country than the Mara, so you hear things before you see them, and sometimes only hear them.
Where to do it
Where we arrange game drives in the kruger
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Questions we are actually asked
The national park, or a private reserve?
They are different holidays. The national park is vast, you can drive it yourself, and the rules that keep it wild also keep vehicles on the roads. The private reserves on its western boundary are smaller, guided, and run their sightings differently. Tell us which experience you are after and we will place you accordingly.
How does it compare with a Kenyan safari?
Honestly? Different rather than better or worse, and worth saying plainly since most of our clients have Kenya to compare it with. The bush is thicker, so sightings are closer and harder won; there is no migration; rhino are more readily seen. People who know the Mara well tend to find the Kruger a genuinely new kind of game viewing.
Is it a malaria area?
Parts of the low veld are, and the risk varies by season and by exactly where you stay. This is a question for your doctor or a travel clinic before you book, not for a website, and we will tell you where your itinerary actually goes so you can ask properly.
Does it work with children?
Often, and lodges set their own minimum ages for game drives: some take any age, some do not take young children on a vehicle at all, and some run a shorter drive for them. We check the rules that apply to the specific lodge before anything is confirmed.
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