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Have your meat vacuum packed in meal sized portions, it will last longer on ice.

Regarding malaria, remember pills are not 100 % effective and the side effects of some pills can mask the symptoms of malaria in certain individuals. To be safe go overboard and do all the things you describe in addition to taking pills.

Have a great time.

Rather prevent getting bitten Liora. I would take it seriously, but not panic or be fearful. Just use the advice and common sense. A friend who is a prof in this stuff advises that if you get flu symptoms whthin 2 weeks of leaving a malaria area, go to your doctor and tell him/her you were in a mararia area and treat as such.

Liora, on our last trip, we made extensive use of ice sold from the shops and a cooler bag. We just cut open the packets and poured a few packs of ice over our food. The meat did last from one destination to the next and in fact needed defrosting once before we braaied.
We were there a short period of time, which is why I am not sure how it would be for large amounts.

I would suggest that you steer clear of chicken, except maybe for the first two nights. Smoked meats, such as certain spare ribs will keep well. Have everything vacume packed, and for the later days have it vacume packed in marinades. I seem to remember the freezer being pretty much the size of the average fridge freezer.

If the freezers are too small for your quantity of meat, there is always the possibility of just using lots of ice and a cooler bag and replenishing it regularly. A pack of ice costs about R5 at most camps and I used about 4 packs a day for travelling purposes.

Does anybody know where i can find the rules and regulations for national parks?

Your urgent reply would be appreciated.

Regards.

Hope this helps.

Code of Conduct - KNP

Hi Liora.
I have researched the dry ice thing but have not used it yet.
It keeps you stuff cold at about -70 degrees so it will be very cold. I have no knowlegdeof how long it lasts.
The down side of dry ice (other than a very low temp) is that it is solid carbon dioxide, which goes from solid to gas. Co2 is known to attract mozzies.
What works for me a salt water solution which I freeze in 2l coke bottles. I am not certain what the ratio is but I would say about four tablespoons of salt per 2l will give you a solid ice bottle at about -20 degrees. As the water stays in the bottle, the food does not get wet. (I have an aversion to my Rump steak getting "marinated" in water for several days before I braai it.) I have three cooler boxes and use one for food only. It is in this box that I use frozen bottles of water and a saline solution. The salt solution will tend to melt before the ordinary water bottles, but the temperature is still low enough to keep everything cold.
This lasts us around five or six days in Winter. The secret is to open the coolers only when necessary and for as short a time span as possible. Open the box, get your stuff, and close it immediately. That keeps the warm air out and prolongs the life of the ice.
Also important is to keep the boxes out of the sun.
I purchased a Coleman wide body cooler some years ago, which I have found to be useless. If purchasing coolers, rather get the good stuff (it will last and can be used many times in the future. I am confident that you will enjoy the park so much you will want to go back again, repeatedly.)

In the drinks box, I use only ice cubes and this tends to leave rust marks inside, but that is not a biggie in my life.
Hope you have agreat trip.

BH, we also use 2L coke bottles filled with water which we freeze. I am curious to know why you add the salt if you say the solution with salt will melt before the ordinary water bottles?

[quote="Jazil BH, we also use 2L coke bottles filled with water which we freeze. I am curious to know why you add the salt if you say the solution with salt will melt before the ordinary water bottles? [/quote]

If you add impurities to water it lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point. (Primary school science as I remember it).
Therefore adding salt to water lowers the freezing point. To keep it solid, it has to be at a lower temp. (-20 deg.)
Therefore any temp above -20 will turn it back to salt water, but it is still very cold.
Also, being colder, it should keep your food frozen for longer.
Question answered Jaz?

You're so welcome MM, and yes I agree, I would also rather spend the cash on other things.
I tend to make ice for months before I camp and make marge tubs of ice as well as 'normal sized' cubes. The larger 'chunks' tend to last longer than the smaller cubes and I find the combination works better in my drinks box. The drinks box also gets opened more often than the food box so we need the ice to last longer.
We also often make the mistake of draining off the wateronce the ice begins to melt. This is a biga mistaka you maka. The water is still cold and stays cold longer than air.
Necessity is the mother of invemtion and I experiment all the time.
I have found that it is of the highest importance to cool your drinks in a fridge before you put them on ice. I tend to put my drimks into the cooler box about a week before I leave and use the excess ice I have madeto get my drinks cold. Just (about five minutes) before I leave, I drain off all the water, refill (cram) with fresh ice.
I always pack my coolers last.

I also use one of those cooler boxes that runs off car battery. Not the expensive condensor type as they take too long to get cold in the first place..... I have an invertor so I can plug it in to mains if needed too.

You too are welcome Liora.
You make it sound as if I have all the answers. I wish.
Every time I find a new answer, some other wiseass finds a new question. So it's a never-ending search for more and more answers.
I do not visit the park as often as I would like, but I do try and get there as regulalrly as possible.
My next experiment is to buy one of these extreme coolers and see if they work. I'll post the results of my findings if y'all can bear to wait that long.
Another smart idea is to re-freeze your bottles every time you have access to a freezer. Always leave one or two in the cooler and freeze the balance. I use two ice-water bottles and two saline bottles in my food box.That makes it easier to recylcle.
Ecojunkie says he uses one of those coolers that run on your car battery. I am just too cynical and poor to try the experiment for fear of failure. As I understand it, they cool to about twenty degrees below ambient temp. What if I am in Namibia or somewhere where ambient get to around 40?
I always take my food and drink with me as it's far more cost effective to buy at Trade Centre. Last time I checked, Trade Centre did not have branches in Balule or Tamboti. LOL.
Liora, I was a little concerned that my posts may not reach you before you leave. Glad they did, and I'm only too happy to share knowledge and experience.

My drinks have stayed cold in the hottest weather south east Kruger has thrown at me so far! Actually another tip is to freeze your drink itself - works well with juice cartons, and if you decant others into water bottles leaving space for expansion. Then it slowly defrosts giving you ice cold liquid through the day - and acts as cold block in your cool box too! I travel with one of the little DC cooler frigs next to me on the passenger seat as I am usually alone and always have a cold drink available.....

Liora dry ice works absolutely brilliantly - buy it in blocks and wrap it in newspaper - do not remove the newspaper (it helps to insulate) and place the food at the bottom of the coolbox with the dryice on top - do not cut the dry ice up but use one solid block. This kept our meat etc for 48 hours on the trip from Durban to Kgalagadi with an overnight stop in Kimberley where we did not even take the coolbox out of the trailer. It works brilliantly. The problem with using anything that has to be be refrozen like blue bricks, bottles of water etc. is that with some of the freezers in the Park there is insufficient room to put both the food and the means to keep it cold into the freezer together unless you have more than one hut in which case you will have more than one fridge. One June holiday we kept meat in a steel belted Collemans coolbox with dryice and did not open it for 5 days and when we did everything was still rock solid!

We are going to go to Kruger for the first time for 2-3 weeks in July of 2008 and am wondering what the difference is between the bushveld camps and the main camps.

Would it be better for us to stick to main camps, or should we also try a bushveld one.

Any advise will be appreciated.

Bushveld camps have no shops, restaurants, swimming pools, budget accommodation, camping, fuel, etc.

They are smaller and more peaceful. They usualy have a piece of road for residents only.

I would definately stay in one.