The South Africa Guide

Africa is known for its extraordinary wildlife and South Africa is no exception. There are Game Reserves throughout the Country where one can drive around and experience an abundance of wild animals at close range.

Photo: Karen ©

The largest Game Reserve in South Africa is The Kruger National Park. Known throughout the world as one of the most impressive Game Parks in Africa, it covers a span of 20,000 square kilometres, is spread out over the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga and is home to a remarkable number of different species including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.

Photo: Karen ©

Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo and Leopard – known as the Big 5 can be seen at the Kruger National Park as well as cheetah, giraffe, hippopotamus and many more fascinating animals.  Some of the lucky visitors even manage to watch  a kill with a cheetah, lion or leopard going after its prey, truly a spectacular show to experience.

The Kruger National Park is much too large to see everything in one day so there are over 30 camps where visitors can stay overnight before continuing on their tour of the park the next day. The camps range from regular rest camps, luxury lodges to “overnight hides” – these are bird hides by day which convert into primitive overnight dwellings by night where the animal nightlife can be experienced firsthand.

The options of touring the Park are varied. A lot of South Africans as well as foreign tourists like to spend 3-4 days travelling around the Kruger National Park in their own cars while others prefer an organized tour with a professional guide.

Photo: Karen ©

Another very exciting activity that the game reserve offers is nocturnal game drives where there is the opportunity of seeing the animals at night in the natural habitat.
Between October and March there may be many hot rainy days due to the subtropical climate. April to September, which are the winter months in South Africa generally are warm during the day and cold at night in this area. This is customarily the best time to visit the game reserve when the vegetation becomes much less dense than in the summer.

Just remember that the Kruger National Park is a malaria zone – check with your doctor regarding anti-malaria medication before your trip.
For more information go to the official website of the game reserve.

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Photos copyright Karen and licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.