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Hi Riverrat,

We did the trail on the 19th of October. - Brilliant!!! We did not spot another soul for 5 hours - pure bliss to have Kruger all to ourselves.

This is not so much a 4x4 route as a four wheel drive route. Most places a sedan would have coped.

The veld was extremely dry so visibility was excellent and game spotting easy.



The water crossing was no problem as everything was very dry there was no mud at all.



We saw all the plain animals in abundance ( Giraffe, Impala, Kudu, Zebra ( Huge Herd ) , wildebeest,waterbuck, ) also large amounts of steenboks. a few lone Buffalo's. Many of the herds had babies with them.

The birding was great especially the birds of prey, fish eagles, Bateleur, ground horn bills, koribastad, saddle billed stork, and many of the smaller species.

Large pod of Hippo,Jackals, 2 sightings of Lion, and Rhino , Huge troops of baboons, monkeys,

We were lucky to see all of the big five on the day we did the trail ( elephant just before starting the trail and leopard with her Kill about 10/15 km on the main road to Olifants. )

An absolutely brilliant day.

Sounds awesome wachinda

Hi Wichinda:
Wow Wow Wow! It's sure gonna be hard to beat that again. I bet you didn't want to leave the park at all at the end?

Absolutely awesome......and THANK YOU for replying so swiftly and clearly...everything I needed to know.

Another question: what time did you start the trail (go off the tar road)?
Did you do multiple circuits?

We left the tar at 8:15
We were staying at Balule so left early 5:30. On way to Satara saw Hyena, Lion twice, elephant three times, grazers, squirrel so stopped a few times on way. We were the first on the trail.


Left tar to start trail at 8;15 - left trail to join the gravel road ( last point on trail at 13:52.

Then traveled along the gravel road back to tar.
Slow drive back to Satara book out of trail.


We only did one circuit, a small back track along the s100 ( cause it is my favorite road ) ( SO - Says S100 sucks!) ( every family have their differences!!!!)
It took close to 6 hours.

We stopped often for birds, photos, video, leg stretch, just for fun , waterholes, dams, anything that moved.

New family tradition started - ice cream break on 4x4 trail ( keeping the ice cream frozen till break time - even more fun!!)


Where are you staying?

Good day, all.

I see earlier on in this thread that the instructions were confusing in parts. Is that still the case? I don't have a GPS for our trip, so I'm hoping the map and instructions would be enough to find my way in, and then out once again.

Hey Stark, you should be able to cope without a GPS - the trail is marked and visible for most of the way. If you would feel more comfortable with guides though - just shout any excuse to go to Kruger will be grabbed with both hands!

Good Day to All,

I am leaving for KNP on Saturday (10th Jan) and am hoping to do the Mananga Adventure Trail this coming Monday. I am aware of the fact that one can only book the trail on the day because of rain, however in reading through all the posts now I started to get worried that the trail is closed for the full duration of the wet months, or am I mis-understanding, I sure hope so. . I normally always visit the park in the dry months of June or July, so if it is just a case of the trail being closed after rains, can those in the know give me an idea of how often the trail is in fact closed at this time of year, is it a case of it rains more than half the week, so there is a less than 50% chance of it being open on the day?

Thanks otherwise to all the regulars in these forums, I love reading all the great info here.

Regards, Andrew

I suspect that the trail is closed a week after any significant rain ... perhaps mods can email the Satara section ranger and ask for a better update .
But it may rain buckets the night before , so it is really difficult to predict .

Notwithstanding this , a forumite spent the evening of 26 Dec 2007 stuck on the Mananga trail .

I have understood that is why they will not allow you to book the night before - only on the day. As it could rain heavily the night before.

I've left this part out when I describe our potential adventure on the trail. I'm hoping for a dry visit, but I'll adjust to whatever Kruger gives me.

Arrived at Satara last night and enquired about the trail this morning, but sadly was told the trail is closed until the end of February. Thought I would just mention it.

Thanks for that information Andrew!

Thanks for the info.

Which camps are you visiting Stark?

Quick trip, DB! We're only able to be in "Kruger Proper!" for 4 days.

Satara Feb 14 & 15, and Olifants Feb 16 & 17. We fly out of East Gate on the 18th.