SANParks.org Forums

Hi All,

We stayed in August last year and Balule was as usual great, even better, the floods had removed some of the bush and we could see the river easier, plus with the bridge closed it was quieter, plus the hyena dan was right outside.....

on the negative our friends wanted to book huts, as we are camping in Aug this year and for 10 days in August all the huts were fully booked before we were even able to book.!!!! how can this be so? if it is for a travel company then this sort of full block booking shouldnt be allowed in such a small place (but that was only a guess)

john

Sorry no pics of balule camp either.

Shows you how popular this little gem of a camp is . There are only 6 huts and certainly you have to check availability on a daily basis even many months ahead

Yeh, we've had trouble booking Balule. 2 consecutive nights can be a problem. Certainly the booking patterns seem to indicate it being block-booked for a night, then [5] available the next night, then booked out again. I suspect its popular with groups for one night as it is cheap and you get your own hut.

As such we've never stayed there, which is a big big shame.

You start checking availability 11/12 months ahead , and take whatever you can , be it one day , or whatever . Then you check daily , and I mean every day , sometimes even twice per day , and see if you can build up some more time .
Incidently , it is cerainly possible that a touring group books it up , but there is nothing one can do about that . Oh , and August is also always extremely popuplar with Europeans to visit

So , even for us Saffies , it becomes quite difficult during that time

I phoned Sanparks central reservations on 16 Jan 2013 (the day the bookings opened for Dec 2013) filled with anticipation, hoping,praying that we could get a booking for "the gem of the Kruger" better known as Balule,after giving the lady our booking for Dec she told me to hold on,my husband had already left the room because he said that we would never get in at Balule, and when she came back on the line she said our booking was in order, all the camps that we had requested could accommodate us ,Balule is our favourite camp, we had the pleasure of camping at Balule 5 years ago and everytime since then that we have tried to get a booking we have always been told "sorry,try again some other time"

And if you look at availability right now , you will see that you can just about get any day or days in December 2013 that you may wish for .

Booking in this coming Saturday - yeah...

So what is the sightings like at Balule at the moment ?

Hi Callieh

Welcome to the Forums

Just over a week or so a go, 10 lions took down a Giraffe about 150m from the Balule gate. As always you need a bit of luck with sightings but I have just returned from a week end at Satara and the s41(even though quite a drive) has been full of Lion activity

Enjoy your stay and Goodluck