SANParks.org Forums

Graham, the rivers in winter are animal magnets.

The Timbavati, tends to dry up, as well as the Sand river I think, not sure about others.

I love the Mphongolo route in winter, running next to the river. It is a wonderful place to attract all kinds of animals.

The Crocodile, Sabie, Olifants, Letaba and Levuvhu usually have water in them in winter. You may be lucky and get water in the Limpopo at Crooks Corner but more often than not its just one big sand bank. The Shingwedzi has a dam so has some water but more often than not is dry by the camp.

Although not flowing, the Ngotso (north of Satara) and the Tsendze (south of Mopani) are two of the smaller rivers in the park that has some waterholes right through winter.

Even the dry river beds provide brilliant game viewing in Winter!
The clay soil acts as a giant sponge holding a vast reservoir of underground water and keeping the vegetation lush

Haha brilliant - thanks! Just bought my highlighter pens! Will highlight that route for sure. Will probably do gravel roads further east the next day when I travel down from OL to LS, so the S39 in the west will make a welcome contrast on my first whole day in Kruger!

Do you circle all the dams, waterholes, viewpoints and picnic sites you plan to visit? Am thinking of doing that too in true geeky fashion!

That sounds like a fantastic plan Graham
I do not. (yet )
I have animal list that I tick off and mark off the exact km count where I see the animals. Kruger Geeks anonymous

Hi

I have had bad experiences with driving on the road to Kruger from Johannesburg with mist early in the morning. Has anyone driven up this morning ads the radio reported bad mist. Any advice on the best time to start out. I have tried various times but what are your experiences. The man this morning said people were driving like maniacs and visibility was about 10 20 metres

We have experienced mist from 06h00 until about 11h00. The worst part this time of the year is between Jo'burg all the way to Dullstroom. And yes, a lot of people think that if they put their headlights on, the are immune to any accident. Unfortunately the guy that is coming from the front thinks the same.

At this time of the year in the early morning, the mist can be very bad on both the N4 , and particularly the N12 to Witbank. One year we hit mist before Bronkhorstspruit, and it carried on till the Ultra City near Middleburg. I could not believe how people were driving. Sometimes the mist does not lift until 11am, so it would be difficult to know when to leave Joburg.

Nicolette,

I am staying in the Mpumalanga mist zone and finnd it difficult to predict how bad the mist will be. The one day it is completed clear and the next morning very misty like last week when I drove to Pretoria and could not see more than 50 meters

We travelled to Kruger end of March and tried to leave early at 5 am, but still had some mist around Hendrina to Carolina. On that day the mist were so bad near Middelburg and due to an accident the highway was closed.

The best is either to leave very early so that you are past Waterval Boven by 6 am or rather leave later at 9 am.

Hope the coast is clear when you leave and sleep well before you leave. Enjoy your trip and good luck with the cats.

Went to KNP last week - just after entering we found this Cheetah - just came out of the mist - sprayed the tree before jumping into it - spraying some more and then away back into the mist - oops will have to upload the pic to one of the picture sites

Saw 24 Rhino - including two Black Rhino (mother and baby)

Although Kruger is relatively warm during the winter months there are some nights that can be cold,
I also think the Kruger houses are designed for hot weather and not cold weather which is understandable as Kruger weather usually ranges between very warm to blazing hot .
But we have had shivering nights in Kruger, according to SA standards of winter weather that is and we have found a few nights a bit difficult to keep warm .

Us fourumites that come from colder climes than SA, usually have a giggle, when Saffies talk about the cold, but I have to admit many years ago, we had a weekend away in Kruger in July, and boy was it cold at night!!!

As said previously, it's quite true that Saffie homes are built to keep cool in summer, rather than warm in winter, so when it gets cold, it is really noticeable!!

Still, although the nights were very cold......those winter days were amazing!!!!

One morning at Talamati we had to throw buckets of water over our windscreen as it was a solid sheet of ice and on another evening drive at Biyamiti I distinctly remember the ladies outvoting the menfolk and telling Van Rooi that we would be returning to camp early as despite huge layers of clothing and blankets it was below zero with the wind chill factor! We no longer do the Park in June or July for this reason!