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As you've seen there are people contemplating going to Kruger, or you meet people who've never been to Africa.

Now how would you describe a vacation in Kruger? And I don't mean the one word 'awesome', but in a way those people really get a good idea of what it's like?

Sometimes dry, sometimes wet! When the rains come the smell of rain lingers in the hot humid air. Then the heavens open letting lose its loead of precious water!

That I think they expect.

I meant more explaining for instance that you selfdrive, no taxis from camp to camp, what accommodation(s) are like, how large is Kruger, that sort of thing. Assume no knowledge at all!

With great difficulty
My SO tells them it's like a zoo in reverse You are ones in a cage(your car)the animals are free to wander and are wild.
Most don't realise the vastness of the Park or that the animals are free.
A safari park in the UK means enclosures for the animals.

This is something that i have thought about alot and it is often very frustrating as people who have not experienced kruger cannot imagine what it is like and look at you strange when you try and explain it I dont think words do the park justice .

people do not understand the size of kruger either , as if driving from croc bridge to satara is like a trip to the shop I think that it is also not easy to explain the feelings many of us have in kruger to others who have not experienced them, like trying to explain colours to a blind person.

ill have to think about it some more and come back with a better answer

Explain what

Do you mean the suppressed expectation as you slow down to enter the Park..

the walk into the reception area, feeding on the excitement of tourists, families, people who have just arrived with a hundred hopes and dreams.. the sound of different accents..

The smile of the reception staff as they proccess your entry.. all the while your happiness mounts..

the quick trip to the ablutions to smell the thatch, the ultimate smell of Kruger

Looking out for the first sighting, window down, drinking in the atmosphere..
waving to other tourists, knowing that the paranoia of the city is falling away..

the sharpening of the senses...

is that what you mean, Duco

One of the first things i do, that thatch smell is without a doubt my favourite smell in the world.

I was 30+ on my first visit. New to camping. New to any NP of any kind. What I tell newbies is based on what I wasn't told. You're locked in your car for hours - make use of toilets at the Gates and Picnic Spots, ladies! Do take water and snacks with you - preferably not too salty. Keep binos and cameras where you can get to them, same with books. Be prepared for long distances in a hot car with zilch to see - start birding. Stop wherever you're allowed to - get out if you're allowed to. Don't think your next rhino and Kori Bustard is just around the corner - took me 5years and countless visits to see another rhino! Kori Bustard never again. Shops in camps are a bit more expensive than your local supermarket - be prepared. Petrol is cash only - be prepared. ATM's are not the rule - take enough cash with you. Campers - get the blue plug at home at a camping outlet or it'll cost you. Don't camp in the middle of Skukuza!! You won't sleep, believe me. Be prepared for the experience of a lifetime!

Kruger National Park...some random thoughts

Imagine 2 million hectares of natural wild landscape, preserved (almost) as it was before colonialism and development devestated much of the wildlife in South Africa. The conservation efforts of Col James Stevenson-Hamilton in the early 1900s restored a severly depleted wildlife to its former numbers. Malaria (fortunately) prevented most of the natural bush in the Lowveld from being cleared for farming or forestry or being settled at a large scale.

Today the Kruger National Park is a fenced off area, so many of the natural migration routes have been cut off. For this reason man has had to intervene and provide water sources such as dams and boreholes. The park cannot exist merely for the purpose of conservation so roads and camps and associated infastructure have been built within to derive income from tourism. Even with these man-made structures there are large areas of Kruger that are essentially wilderness.

One gains entry to the park through one of several gates along the perimeter of the park. Kruger has 12 main rest camps, 5 bushvelsd camps, 2 bush lodges and 4 satellite camps. A large network of tarred and gravel tourist roads connect these camps. The main rest camps are connected by very good tar roads. The tourist gravel roads are easily passable by sedan vehices so 4x4 vehicles are not required.
Most camps are situated some distance into the park so one will require some form of transport to get to these camps. Tourists are only allowed to alight from their vehicles at certain marked areas, eg picnic sites, viewpoints, camps. Kruger Park is an excellent self-drive destination. Several excellent maps are available and roads are well sign-posted.

Camps are spaced well apart, throughout the 2 million hectares but most are situated in the south of the park, which is the most developed. Rest camps are fenced in an attempt to keep wild animals out and people in.

To be continued...

Senyetse Why should we even try, you are doing an excellent job

Kruger is big, larger than some small countries like Israel. It is as I imagine paradise to be.

There are trees of many descriptions some huge and others small. Animals abound in numbers especially the dainty little Impala which is the prey of many of the carnivorous, wild dog, leopard, cheetah.

There are areas of wide open grasslands, forrests of trees along the river banks and other areas and then there are areas that are mountainous.

KNP has a particular smell about it. Musky and spicey. The air is clean, fresh and invigorating and even more so after the rains. In summer there is greenery everywhere, and in winter the grasses are yellow and brown.

In the early morning it is filled with the sounds of innumerable birds and once they greet the day, they do not stop until they go to sleep at night.

At night there is the whooping of hyena, the roar of lions that sometimes sounds so loud, your chest vibrates with the sound of it. The jackals yip and in some places one can hear the sounds of the night birds, the Scops Owl and many others.

Around the camp sites there is the gentle and muted sounds of conversation around the camp fires. The smell of wood and charcoal buring is tempered by the smell of cooking meat.

If you look into the heavens, you will see more stars than you have ever seen before. The milky way is very clearly visible. If you look closely, you may even see bats flitting about on the nightly hunt for food.

There is never silence in paradise. The constant sound of birds and animals pervades the air all the time.

There are birds of every single colour you can imagine and even some you have not. The iridescent Starlings and so many others. Some drab, most vibrantly beautiful.

The animals also vary in colour, from the tall dappled giraffe to the striped zebras, the large grey elephants walking in huge and stately splendour. The arrogant walk of the lion who is the colour of the winter grass. Leaopards and cheetahs are spotted, cunningly camoflaged and very difficult to see, but if you're lucky enough are amazing to see. The graceful strut of the leopardand the sleekness of the cheetah.

Now I think it is time to ban DQ for starting this thread and both Senyetse and BH for making me so homesick I will refrain from reading another word here

I neglected to mention the vistas that one can see from many lookout points.

From Olifants Rest Camp, you look down into the valley of the Olifants River. The view is breathtaking and you can see the hippos, large grey beasts with their pink piggy-eyes, crocodiles and all the game that comes to the river to drink. A similar view can be seen from N'wanetsi. From Nawamnzi, you see a different part of the Olifants River, and let's not forget the view from Letaba Rest camp, where you look down into the Letaba River valley. You will see many animals coming to drink and elephants come down to bath those huge grey bodies and drink. Water birds from saddle billed storks to spoonbills. Small and large waders, from Blacksmith Lapwings to Herons.

From Longwe lookout, you can see forever. The trees and hills in the foreground, Engelhard dam in the middle ground and vast open plains beyond, stretching as far as the horizon.

Nkumbe lookout is also spectacular and from here you can also see the African bush stretching to the horizon.

In the north there are Baobab Trees. They are huge trees and look like they have been planted upside down. The amazing yellow of the fever trees. The forrests along the Luvuvhu River. Beautiful shaggy Nyala abound in this forrest. The light has a particular quality here as well and defies description. Soft and dappled as it seeks to invade earth while the trees fight to keep it out, winning mostly, but losing ground in the battle every now and then. Not forgetting the ginat sycamore fig trees along the rivers and if you look into them you might find a green pigeon. The comical hornbills are everywhere as is the Lilac Breated roller,stunning colour in flight and just as beutiful perched at the top of the trees, always looking for another meal.

On the ground, insects scurry to and fro with the daily need to find food and feed the mutitudes of family. Around Shingwedzi, the rather strange looking Mopani Worm and the beautiful emporer moths that are the final product of the life cycle of the Mopani worm.

And everywhere you go, the song of a myriad birds plays a symphony of sound.

There is no place on earth like it.

(Now I have made myself homesick too MG and I have a developed a very urgent need to go back. Once Kruger is in your blood, you're hooked / addicted.)

After explanations like the above, then IMO if that doesn't make anyone want to immediately rush off to Kruger, then
The longing is now very bad.

oh people im in tears for all of the above is what i so miss. U folk in SA treasure and appreciate what u have so close, i know from having lived in nelspruit so many do, but also know others who dont, they dont even own a camera!!!I LONG FOR KRUGER MY HEART ACHES

Lower sabie 21st feb - 28th feb 09