SANParks.org Forums

Hey all.

I have been looking into south Africa recently and have gotten an insatiable urge to visit, and depending on my experiences make it a recurring winter getaway (I live in Canada ) Obviously I need to experience this first hand to make that decision but I have a great love for wildlife. Watching these wildlife cams and stories of people being woken up to lion roars make my hair stand up, amazing.

I plan to visit one of the many parks in SA, probably Kruger, but I have a few questions.

If I plan to stay for lets say 2 months (hypothetical), staying at a Kruger location probably won't be very affordable. Also you are fenced off. (correct me if wrong on both accounts) I know that homes can be rented/purchased on private reserves bordering Kruger with no fences which is a good option, but probably not cheap either. There are a few for sale on krugerrealestate.co.za in Balule, Umbabat, Klaserie ect but not rent.

Basically, I am looking for a place that offers some of all worlds. I don't want to be so far in the bush I have to plan a whole day just to reach civilization, but I don't want to be so close to a town that it affects wildlife. I would also prefer to not live in a bunker I may sound confused, its because I am. There are so many options in this beautiful country and its hard for me to really visualize them without seeing the landscape first hand.

I am hoping someone that has this experience can help me out. I appreciate any help.

Hi IaminA and Welcome!

If you have two months to travel, I would suggest that you see a bit more of South Africa than Kruger — altho of course you should spend some time there!

South Africa is a BIG country, not so big as Canada (or the USA), but big enough to offer great variety and you can see a lot of it in two months. What I'd suggest is that you start out either from Gauteng (flying into Johannesburg) ending in Cape Town or reverse and start in Cape Town. It's easy to book an "open jaw ticket" that allows you to fly into one airport and leave from another. Starting from Joburg, I'd suggest that you spend 10-14 days in KNP, then drive through the Parnorama Route (Blyde River Canyon) and head south. There are lots of interesting places and SANParks to visit en route, so you should look at a map and choose the places that interest you most. I'd suggest that you might include Mountain Zebra National Park and Addo and then travel the Garden Route to Cape Town, where you have the various parts of Table Mountain NP and also West Coast NP, which is a favourite of mine.

South Africa is a very easy — and safe, so long as you observe common safety measures —country to explore, with excellent roads and many accommodation choices. And South Africans are the friendliest people I've ever encountered, you will be overwhelmed by saffie generosity!

Every one of us forumites has our own set of personal favourites, but over two months, this sort of itinerary will give you an introduction to all that South Africa has to offer, and if you decide to make South Africa an annual winter getaway, you'll still have much else to explore in future

Good luck with your planning, I'm sure that others will offer plenty of further suggestions.

Hello and welcome, laminA.

I can't think of a better go-to North American for your questions than arks. Enjoy your planning and your eventual trip! Once you go to SA, I have no doubt that you'll be back.

Thanks for your vote of confidence, Stark You're an excellent NA advisor as well, and as we all have slightly different points of view, the more advisors the better!

Thanks for the reply's so far gents!

Yeah, exploration is a must. If I were to do it right, I would start in either Uganda/Rwanda to do the Mountain Gorilla trek, then Tanzania, then down to Okavanga Delta in Botswana, then South Africa as you described, but that would be a little further down the road when I can afford the expense.

To give a little background, I make my living day trading, which means I don't have any specific job related connection keeping me where I am. At the same time, it cant be a true vacation as work would be involved on a regular, or at least semi regular basis. Variations in activity also make it hard to plan far ahead.

If I multitask a little bit I could definitely see myself doing a trip from the eastern cape down the coast as you mentioned Arks. I am going to look into the cost.

As for staying in one place in south Africa, what would you suggest for the best compromise? Which place out of all of the places you've been would you choose to live, taking into account wildlife(if a city, how far from wildlife is it? Zoo's excluded) safety ect access to a town ect.

Arks - I agree with you. IaminA - you should see more of our country than just Kruger Park.

I would, however, add Kgalagadi on the way to the Cape. IaminA - you seem to have plenty of time at your disposal and the Wilderness Camps there are wonderful - only 4 huts in each, unfenced camps etc. A forumite reported a lion kill right up against the fence round their braai area!!! How much closer to nature do you want to get??

In most SANParks you can get cell phone reception in the main camps and run a laptop computer. Kgalagadi has very limited cell reception, but you could always make a plan to "check in" with work every few days.

Good luck with the planning!

Hippotragus, while I love KTP, I did not include it for IaminA's first RSA explorations because it's more remote and doesn't fall as easily into a comprehensive RSA itinerary for a first-time visitor. It should definitely be at the top of the list for a return visit. However, if IaminA needs a reliable internet connection wherever he is, then KTP presents some major challenges, as the only camp with cellphone reception is TR.

There are many variations that can be worked into a 2-month itinerary starting in Joburg and ending in Cape Town (or vice versa), but I don't think that a 'detour' to include KTP would be wise for a first visit. Rather, I would suggest that a later visit be planned to centre on a visit to KTP.

@IaminA: As for a base that is close to "wilderness", several towns in the lowveld might be excellent options if what you'd really like is to be based in one spot for your two months. Phalaborwa, Nelspruit, Sabie, Graskop, Hazyview ... But for a first visit, I'd really strongly recommend that you plan to travel and see a good cross-section of this amazing country! That way, you can make your own decision about a more permanent sort of base for future visits

Most of the larger cities and towns in South africa are just that, cities with traffic jams people rushing etc etc etc .. But as you want to come in our Summer you must take into account the hot summer days we have here .. and to try to stay in the bush .. no fences etc would also mean no electricity and therefore no cooling systems. Kruger has inexpensive accommodtion in all the camps.. and even though they have fences the animals are right there. We had a lion kill at the fence in one camp and a leopard kill in another. And there are sometimes honey badgers , civets and warthogs and impala and bushbuck in the camp not to mention the baboons and monkeys . !!!
Ease yourself gently into South Africa and what it has to offer.
The Cape is glorious in the summer months and if you want to be in a really quiet spot the WCNP has a little house called Abrahamskraal and its all by itself in the middle of the park .
This ellie was taken in KNP just outside Shingwedzi
Just to whet your appetite

Yes, Arks, I see your point. Maybe KTP would be a bit ambitious for a first visit. As you will agree, once bitten by the KTP bug, one has to keep going back.

Hopefully IaminA will have such a wonderful trip to South Africa that it will be the first of many and each trip can include some new places.

Just want to say, you guys are really helpful

You all bring up great points and I now agree that the only way to do it is to travel. I've got some time until the goal of this tip is attainable but I still think creating the itinerary and establishing the estimated cost is important to know. How can you set a goal if you don't know what the goal is?

Obviously I would go through this thoroughly before I went, but can anyone throw out an estimate of what this would cost based off of your trips? (2 months time)

While I can't be specific on costs, generally your most expensive item will be the airfare — but that will be mitigated somewhat by the length of your stay. The second big expense will be your rental car, but it's necessary, tho you likely won't need a 4x4 and will be OK with something budget like a Golf Citi. Third big expense will be accommodation, especially in the parks, but you can save if you're a camper or happy with shared kitchens and ablutions. Beyond that, costs of 'necessities' are reasonable and I've found that the pay-as-you-go cellphone and modem/data packages for my laptop are much more affordable than they are in the USA Good RSA wine is definitely less expensive than wine in the USA and the same may be true for beer (I'm not a beer drinker, so no idea). HTH

LaminaA, very warm welcome to the forum!

Your dream of spending 2 months here sounds wonderful and I wish you lots of luck in the planning and do hope it can come to fruition one day not too far in the future.

I agree re the travelling around the country and seeing what is on offer is a good idea, but of course depends on what you would like to experience first off.
If you want to focus on the wild life aspect then I would recommend a couple of weeks stay in Kruger which is the iconic park of the country and has the most diverse variety of wild life of all.
One of the members has just spent 9 weeks staying, (renting a cottage,) in the small town of Phalaborwa which is right on the border of Kruger and going in on daily visits but of course that does restrict you to how far and what areas you can travel in the park.
Here are a list of the tariffs for the camps in the park, some of them are with own bathrooms and others, cheaper without, using the communal bathrooms and even kitchens.
You can also purchase a Wild Card which once bought is valid for all the Sanparks daily conservation fees.

I am sure you will be asking more questions as your planning slowly progresses.

As an alternative to staying in Kruger you could look at Bed and breakfast accommodation in neighbouring towns like Malelane or Komatipoort in the south (my part of the world!). You can be in Kruger in 30mins or less, and have the advantage of good cell reception..... Combine it with time in Kruger itself to experience the evenings in camp.

The advice to travel to other areas is good too!