SANParks.org Forums

Hello everyone!

I am in the planning stages of my first trip to Kruger for the end of May beginning of June 2012. I have been reading the forum and have put together a plan and wanted to see if I was on the right track. I also have some logistic questions. Any suggestions, advice or personal experiences are greatly welcome. I am so excited for this trip (I may have caught the Kruger Fever without ever stepping foot there)!

The tentative plan is as follows:

International Flight Scheduled to arrive in JNB at 8:35am

I was figuring on about 2 hours to pass immigration/customs and collect baggage- is this a realistic time frame?

Collect rental car and estimate to be on the road to Kruger at 11am- again is this realistic?

Plan is to enter Kruger at Malelane Gate stopping somewhere nearby for some groceries.


If the trip takes 5 hours, that puts us at the gate around 4pm. What happens once we reach the gate?

I read in some posts that there can be long lines waiting to get in (does time of day matter regarding lines?). Do we get out at the gate to pay the conservation fees or do we simply show the reservation information to the guard and proceed on to the rest camp (and pay the fees there)?

I have accommodations booked for 6 nights in the park with our first stop being at Berg-en-dal.
I was entertaining the thought of doing a sunset drive at Berg-en-dal the day we arrive, but looking at the times, I am just not sure that is feasible. I know the camp gates close at 5:30pm - what time would the drive leave (I am thinking around 4:30pm but am unsure)?

Whew that was a long enough first post! I will save up my other questions for later!

Sara

Hi Sara, and a very warm welcome to the forum

All the excitement of planning one's first trip!

I will leave the questions re the arrival at the airport, car collection etc as I am sure there are many mites that will be more informed in that direction than me.

If you reach the gate at around 4pm I can pretty much assure you there will not be any queues at that time of day and that time of year which is when we usually go to the park on our twice yearly trip.

You will be required to get out at the gate and show your papers to the officials.
once that is done which should not take very long you can drive up to B & Dal and check into your accommodation.

Yes you are quite right re the sunset drives which leave around 4.30pm usually an hour before gate closing and I think you will be very pleased you did not book a drive on your first night as I am sure you will be tired and if I was you, I would just relax, make some supper, either yourselves, a braai or go to the restaurant and rather just absorb all the lovely night sounds around you.

Maybe do the sunset or night drive from one of your other camps once you have recovered from the flights, jet-lag etc.

Please do not hesitate to ask as many questions as you like.

Another saraf, welcome!

We've got through passport control/baggage in anything between 1.5 to 3 hours in the past. But we've also got stuck in huge queues for the hire car as well, last time took us 2 hours. It all depends on how many flights land at the same time. But don't panic as I believe tha BnD have a scheme where you can be escorted from the gate to the
camp, at a price. Carry the
camp's phone number and if you
look like you will be late phone
and arrange an escort.

You should be able to pay conservation fees at the gate but sometimes they ask you to sort it at reception, so don't worry.

First, you are given an entry permit at the gate when you come in.
If you have overnight bookings then you pay the conservation fee/Wild card at the camp when you check in. You check in separately for each camp you stay in.
The last camp you stay at gives you an exit permit (stapled into the entrance permit) which you can get the day before you leave, or on the last morning.

Read the leaflet containing your permit carefully as it gives you most of the rules, and some good tips too.

Do not panic about being late as you can get an escort to BnD as said above.

The sunset drive will leave at 4.30 in May or June, so you will not be able to join it the first day, but there is a night drive leaving at 6.30 which you would probably be in time for.
But I would suggest you wait until you arrive to see what you feel like!
Or if you have a mobile phone and the camp number with you then call while en route to book if you think you are OK for it.

Thank you for the responses and all the personal experiences.
The information has assured me that all I need to be is flexible and willing to go with the flow on arrival day (and probably will be wise to carry that attitude along for the rest of the journey)!
This will make me so much less stressed trying to get from point A to B after the long flight (and will make for a happier husband)!

I will be sure to have the Berg-en-dal camp number with me just in case we are running late.

We are planning to move on to Satara after the first night.
I was looking at sightings and best roads on the forum and was having fun proposing different routes to take up to Satara.
One of my proposed routes added up to 210km (with short stops at Biyamiti Weir and Vervoer/Transport Dam).
As we are planning to start the day at 6am and don’t have to be at Satara until 5:30pm it seems to me that we should have enough time to make this at a leisurely pace (taking the day as one big game drive).
Does anyone have any personal experiences driving between these camps they would like to share or advice on this drive (maybe I should post this on the other thread advice x to y camp)?

Whilst there isn't really a wrong road to take when you are in Kruger, my personal choice would be to always move towards my objective, in this case to drive north all the time but to take a variety of routes from there. Maybe take the tar road up to Skukuza and then onto Tshokwane, which will be a long route even if you only drive the tar roads.
From there, depending what time you are at Tshokwane you could take the S37 up to Nwanetsi and then think about the S100 in the late evening on the way to Satara.

It does take a bit of time to realise that time in Kruger has a completely different significance.
I plan my trip from point to point as the day progresses.
People tell you about sightings along the way, you might even be delayed by a sighting of your own.
The recommended advice given by most Krugerites is to reckon on averaging 25kms/hour.
That includes food and sighting stops.

The route from Berg n Dal to Satara, no matter what road you take, could prove interesting.
It covers many eco zones and many animal rich areas.

Hi Sara,
welcome to the forums.

Your planning sounds very good so far. In April my flight arrived around 10:10 am at JNB and to pick up my luggage and to pass the immigration took me less than 50 minutes. At the car rental there were only 3 or 4 people in the queue and after another 20 minutes i was on the road.

The drive to Malelane on the N4 was very smooth - but as it was a Sunday there was less traffic than during the week and it took us only 4 hours to Malelane.

You can do your shopping at the little shopping mall in Malelane. They are well-stocked and you get everything you need there. From the shopping centre to the gate is only a 10 minutes drive.

I would recommend to book a sunset or a night drive for the first day (well....as said before you won´t make it for the sunset drive anyway). Your plan is to drive from Berg-en-Dal to Satara on the 2nd day. After an overnight flight and the long drive to KNP i would recommend to have a good sleep at the Berg-en-Dal to recover from travelling and to be fit for the long but very nice drive to Satara. Depending on time and your sightings there are so many options for detours on this route - always a hard choice.

Hi Sara,

I am sure you will suffer from a severe Kruger "fever or bug" at your trip.

My SO and I have made more than 30 trips to southern Africa, most of which to South Africa in the last 14 years. We have been to most parks and have seen more of the country than many South Africans. We will do our fourth trip in a year in late September and early October (2nd trip to KTP). We love this wonderful country with the most beautiful city in the world, i.e. Cape Town. We have been asked so many times for travel advice and I would like to share some of them with you.

I believe you can make custom control and baggage claim in 2 hours, but please consider that the flight can be late. It happens, unfortunately. We generally travel with LH because the connections to Stockholm in Sweden where we live are convenient. We have never experienced any delays except last April when the flight was 2 hours late into JNB. We had a short connection time to Vic Falls which we missed. Another 25 passengers going to neighboring countries missed their flights and were stranded in JNB until the next day.

If you have not visited an African country and may not be used to left hand traffic I would advise against driving a car from JNB to Kruger directly after arrival. The traffic is very heavy and dangerous (especially after dark) and whether you are young or older (like us i.e. 60+) it will be exhausting. It is really much more convenient and not that expensive to fly to Mpumalanga airport (consider sufficient transfer time) and then rent the car from there. Less stress and you may even be able to go on the sunset drive at BnD or just relax and enjoy the sunset by the BnD camp waterhole (unfortunately you are not allowed to bring your beer or glass of wine there).

Do not try to cover a too big area in Kruger. You will hopefully return. BnD has excellent game drives and you will not be able to make a morning drive before going to Satara. Driving 210 km on your first day ever in Kruger is really too far. Kruger experience is not about covering distances.

Also, to first-time goers (honeymooners and friends), my SO and I recommend (and get appreciation) that they should stay a couple of nights in a private lodge in Kruger or in one of the bordering reserves. There are some that will not ruin you and some may have special rates in late May and early June. None are cheap tough and you still have to pay for the car but it gives you a different dimension of your wildlife experience. If you know that you unlikely will make another trip (despite the fever) in the near future, I would definitely consider adding or switching 2 nights to a private lodge. We have ourselves done that at 6 occasions though we love the Kruger camps (especially the bush camps) and have stayed in most of them over the years.

Good luck with your planning and have a great trip.

Birgitta

You are going to get as many opinions as there are forumites replying to you! Everyone has their own way of enjoying Kruger, based on their own experiences.

My advice for a long trip like BnD to Satara is not to think in terms of overall distance, but to break it down into chunks. For your trip BnD to Skukuza, then to Tshokwane, and finally Satara gives you 3 roughly equal sections. Allocate your time available to each section and plan to arrive at Satara an hour before you need to (avoids panic at the end of the trip!). That way you can adjust for extra time spent at a special sighting, or add an extra 'loop' along the way if you have time in hand. Each point is on the main tar route, so you can easily stay on the tar if you have to for time, or branch off on a gravel road. The stops give you restroom facilities and restaurant/take aways.

Take cool drinks/water and snacks in the vehicle with you too.

Hi Sara, I know you will have a fantastic trip.

I would just like to re-inforce Birgitta's advice about flying up to KMIA. Driving from JNB after an overnight flight is tough, but then driving again all the way up to Satara on day two sounds shattering.

In October I will be making my sixth trip to Kruger from England. We drove from JNB on our first visit but have flown up every time since. On my first trip I stayed at Berg n Dal first and then drove up to Olifants! Now I stay at Skukuza for my first three nights before I move on anywhere.

I would also give the sunset drive on the first night a miss. From memory, the sunset drive only just gets you back in time to eat at 8:00 p.m and I'm sure you will want to be up bright and early to be on the road the next day when the gates open. Take a sunset drive on a later day once you have aclimatised.

It is difficult, every visit I resolve to pace myself better so I can really take in the environment as well as the animals, but too often end up on the road all day. 8 to 10 hours driving in the park can be thrilling, but will reduce your enjoyment the following day, your body reacts just like it would at home to driving for that amount of time, tiredness then accumulates. Also the camps are great places to be and to wander, and Berg n Dal is one of the best. There are always plenty of animals and birds to be seen just from walking around the fence.

Meandering Mouse and Barcelona are quite right, time is not to be managed so tightly in the Park.

The secret is to see lots AND to look after yourself, I still haven't perfected it but hopefully there will be many more visits for me to keep trying.

I too would like to agree with the suggestion that you FLY rather than drive from JNB. It does depend on your energy, age, lefthand drive experience, length of flight etc. We are in our 60s and used to driving on the right side of the road. We find that after a 10 hour flight we are in no shape to drive (on the "wrong" side ) all the way to Kruger. There are plenty of car rental places at the Kruger (Mpumalanga) Airport and it is a fun flight.

As someone already said...we are all different. Any way that you get there, you will have a magical time.

Hi Sara,

And hi to everyone else.

This is my first post but have been a long time loiterer on this forums.

I will entering KNP for my third visit beginning September. Which considering I live in the UK and my first visit was July 2008 isn't bad

My SO, Rindy is originally from SA and this trip we will be on our honeymoon.

When I first visited in 2008, we flew in to Jo'burg and hired a car and drove down. Now this was not as direct as Sara intends to take, as Rindy wanted me to see some of SA before hitting KNP. We drove to Pretoria and then down to Nelspruit (where Rindy spent a good deal of her childhood), before going on to Hazyview. Spent the evening in a great hotel, and up early the next to enter the Numbi gate at 10.

Now the roundabout drive from Jo'burg, although beautiful could never have prepared me for what was come in KNP.

I had purposely avoided doing any research into KNP before the trip. My first impression after entering Numbi Gate and driving towards Pretoriuskop was one of diappointment, lots of brown woodland and bush. Then as we came to the turning to the S8 I saw my first game - Nyala. At that moment I fell in love with KNP, and it is a moment I will never forget.

We stayed at BnD and Skukusa that first trip, did a sunset drive from Skukusa. But the main issue being a first timer was that I wanted to see it all, spent as long as possible out of the camps driving all hours, never rushing but maybe not going as slow as we should have.

April 2010 we flew to Kruger Mpumalanga International airport KMIA (via Durban). As much as I enjoyed the drive from Jo'burg to KNP in 2008 it was so much easier flying in and picking up a hire vehicle. If you do decide to fly into KMIA book your vehicle a good time in advance to ensure you get a decent high vehicle/4x4.

We will be doing the same this year. The drive from Numbi gate to Satara, timewise is a fraction shorter than BnD, but with an early start you will have plenty of time.

One thing I will say, is that I find being in the vehicle for long stretches of time can be really tiring if the weather gets hot. I do not overly enjoy extreme heat and one day last April it hit 38C on day in which we covered 170km. That was a killer for me, and we certainly didn't have enough water in the car!

Rindy and I now try and slow everything down so that we can fully appreciate the whole atmosphere of KNP. We love Satara and we will base our whole trip there again this year.

Everyone experiences KNP differently, but if you are a lover of nature be prepared for a most magical time. I myself can not get enough of the place, as my complaining bank balance can testify

Have a great trip Sara