SANParks.org Forums

I first stayed at Letaba in 1976. I was 19 and it was my first trip to KNP. My next opportunity to visit KNP was in 1981 with SO and 6 month old daughter. We stayed at Letaba and Skukuza.

For some historical perspective, back in those days black people could only stay in circle A, huts 1 to 6 in Letaba. Similarly, we had a small area allocated to us in Skukuza and Lower Sabie and the Balule camp (which had 5 huts). Therefore Letaba was always on our itinerary and is very special to us.

We have seen lion, leopard and cheetah in the area and have plenty of wonderful experiences of seeing huge tuskers and some mock charges and one or two very scary moments. I remember the days when hyena use to patrol the fences as soon as it was dark. Also have wonderful memories of Engelhard dam.

The children spent many a hot afternoon on the lawn alongside circle A, running under the sprinklers to cool off. Now that they are older they do no like Letaba and call it the mopani pit claiming that the mopani hides everything.

On our recent trip my son took these photos in the elephant hall. For those that have not visited the hall it contains all sorts of information on ellies and also tusks of the magnificent seven……..here are three of them

These are the tusks of Mafunyane, "the irritable one"


and this is Kambaku



and Phelwana

I thought something amiss before but didn't check up till Theresa mentioned it.
Yes, that's Shawu's. Huge tusks with the big curl inwards. Look at Shawu standing at the entrance to Lost City.

Kambaku's tusks are much straighter. A lot like Mafunyane's but a bit wider set apart and even a little bigger I think.

Just an update concerning the bungalo renovations taking place in Letaba.
The budget huts received the following: rustic tiling on the floors, area surrounding basins received wooden covering, new built-in cupboards, the braais look new, a concrete circle has been added like the ones at other bungalos and the thatched roofs have been renovated (not redone). I think they also have been generally touched-up. Two are done and they look very nice.
The C-circle perimeter bungalos ( towards the elephant hall's side of the restuarant-west side) are receiving the same upgrade as the B-circle's have and is quite a magor change. The pictures on "Availability" for BD3 gives a good idea what these look like.

Hi Bert

We phoned both camps, and was able to establish that the accomodation allocated to our party is exactly as we booked. 3x 3bed rondawels in the B circle at Satara, and 3 bed perimiter rondawels at Letaba. It would seem that the rondawels at Letaba will remain as 3 beds after the upgrade. I'm not to sure why the need is there for only 2 bed rondawels at Satara, as most families have kids.

We just spent 3 wonderful nights in Letaba.
We stayed in the newly renovated first budget hut next to the restaurant, right on the perimeter. What a bargain!
I want to compliment the staff at Letaba, and the duty manager in particular. The camp and its facilities were impeccably clean. The ablutions ever smelled good. The staff at reception were friendly, the restaurant staff even more so and the breakfasts and other food was very good.
The staff of the restaurant start working very early and on the first morning they woke us up with load talking and moving around of chairs etc. My wife went and spoke to them, they apologised and the next morning and the one after, we barely heard a sound.
They have a security guard who patrols the camp at certain times to specifically make sure that the people do not feed the bush buck.
Thumbs up to the staff and the duty manager.

Letaba Camp..
Ive been there so many times and the excitement of the first sight of the camp is still the same now as what it was many years ago. Coming from Phalaborwa Gate, you 1st see the blue hills in the distance.. then carry on straight at the 4 way stop.. by then you can already see the rooftops and radio masts through the trees.. and then the gate, the trees in the camp giving plenty shade. The campsite used to be just on the right from the gate. There was a resident ellie on the camp site fence for a long time. Taking the gravel road to Olifants, those huge trees and makalani palms (i think).. been there since I can remember.

Hi giraffee,
The drums are still being played at dinner time. I can't recall any other camp this is done in. I hope this is a tradition that will remain for many years to come.

Hi Forum Folk

I hope you don't mind that I have dug up this old thread to post this on, but I think it is relevant.

Beeld and Kruger Park Times newspapers will probably carry a story about the bat situation in Letaba soon, so I thought I will inform you of the situation. Unlike my other posts, I have written it in point form so please pardon the formality of the post.

Visitors alerted KNP officials to the fact that there were dead bats near one of the "bat houses" in Letaba Rest Camp on Saturday July 14, 2007.
The section ranger for Letaba Ranger Section, Mr Joe Nkuna and his staff had also noticed dead bats, particularly around the bat house in the Ranger Post and alerted State Vet Dr Dewald Keet (from the Department of Agriculture's Veterinary Services).
Staff from the camp, in particular from People and Conservation (Ms Kirsty Redman's staff), was alerted and started collecting bat carcasses on the request of Dr Keet.
On Monday and Tuesday (July 16 - 17), 140 carcasses were picked up near the bat house at Letaba Ranger Post, 134 carcasses were picked up near the bat houses in Letaba Camp and 500-odd were found in the Linen Room of the camp.
On Wednesday (July 18 ) a further 200 carcasses were picked up all around Letaba.
On Thursday (July 19) a further 100 carcasses were picked up.
Dr Dewald Keet (State Vet, Department of Agriculture's Veterinary Services) contacted Professor Bob Swanepoel at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Pretoria as he couldn't find any specific reason why the bats died. Dr Keet has ruled out rabies.
Prof Swanepoel and his team came to Kruger (Letaba) to investigate and arrived on Thursday July 19.
Letaba People and Conservation staff continued to find carcasses, but these were all small amounts. It is believed that they were old carcasses that have been hanging in the houses since the phenomenon started. They also investigated the bat houses and, to our surprise, it was found that more bats had moved in to these houses. These bats are still alive.
Over 1 000 bat carcasses were found in the Letaba area during that week. No new carcasses have been found since then.
In effect, we still don't know what caused the deaths but hopefully Prof Swanepoel and his team will find answers soon. As he has explained to me, there are a number of tests that will need to be carried out and answers don't necessarily come quickly. Some might only come after years of research, but this is another one of those mysteries at the moment. I have asked him to keep me in the loop so I will let everyone know as soon as there are any developments.


Notes:
- Bat Houses (or hotels) have been erected at a number of rest camps in the Kruger National Park as an environmentally-friendly way of decreasing visitor discomfort when these animals roost in tourist accommodation facilities as, it is hoped, they choose these "bat friendly" facilities rather than the tourist units. There are nine bat houses in Letaba, eight in the camp itself and one at the Ranger's Post;
- The bats found were all Angolan free-tailed bats (Mops condylurus);
- Prof Bob Swanepoel is a well known virologist from the Special Pathogens Unit of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Pretoria.

Kind regards
KNP Spokesman

Letaba has the Elephant Hall
It is not as busy as Skukuza
Beautiful camp on the river
Roads up north not as busy as the south
You will need to take malaria prophylaxis
Not as much variety of game as around Skukuza but Satara is an easy day drive
Lots of lovely birds

My two cents worth:

I would never choose Skukuza over Letaba - purely because it is too busy.

As to Satara - gamewise a better option than Letaba, but as you are going in summer I think Letaba is a much better choice. Satara's campground has very little shade and can be very dusty. And believe me, in December/January a shady campsite is much nicer than one without.

Letaba is a beautifull camp with prolific birdlife - in my opinion the nicest camp in Kruger for camping. (Berg-en-Dal a very close second).

Go for Letaba. The River view, nice large trees and Elephant hall make the winner of the two.

Also more and bigger tuskers, and as already said, lesser traffic.

I agree, go for Letaba. Beautiful shady camp. Game vewing ariound Skukuza is excellent but the camp is very busy. Same goes for Satara, busy and very little to no shade will make camping in summer quite challenging.

Let me be the spoke in the wheel!
Yes camping at Satara over this time is super hot weather and game wise........ but if you have a airconditioned vehicle, no prob. When the driving gets to much you can always spend some time at the pool!

I must I am biased as I just love Satara and would nearly always want to stay there. I have camped at Satara over this time and yes it was very hot but the evenings as everywhere in KNP are gr8.

I am a cat man and saw 40 plus lion in this area over that time!

And this is my half cent opinion!!!!

Where ever you will be, believe me it will be a vacation to remember! Just to be in the park..........................

hi figjam

well through the years of guiding in the kruger ive found letaba to be very quite when it comes to cats. they are there but not seen to mush. yes letaba has got the shade and the views but the sightings around satara far outweigh letaba.

the night live around satara is truelly the best in kruger. hearing lions almost every night and the heinas around the camp, well what beter way to spend in bed listening to the lion forum outside.

also around satara there is more roads to travel on. some advice on them. in the last 4weeks ive done 24 days gamedrive from orpen to satara, i got 4 out of 5 on at least 20 of the 25. had lion every day.
the S100 has currently a pride of 14 lion, usually seen from 5km to 15km down from the satara tar road. leopard at 0-3km down and 6km and also 17km. lions also on the tar road to nwanetsi picnick site 2 prides. to olifants on the tar from satara pride of 10 about 7 to 15km from satara. Ngotso dam pride 14 strong also often see rhino at ngotso ellies and buf. leopard between the s90 and s127 there is a female with cubs we often see. on the olifants bridge we have seen a male leopard several times sroling along the river. also a male leopard 4km soth of satara on the tar to tsokwane. rhino on sweni road(10km south of satara) also lion lots of ellies and a female leopard around mundzanzeni picknick sight. orpen road mnsemani dam very good at mid day and late afternoon for drinking animals. road to timbavati picknick sight good for cheetah(2 males) and girvana dam lion, resident male leopard. at timbavati p/nick another male leopard(had him stuck in a tree with 5lionesses under the tree 2weeks ago) s39 to orpen from timbavati p/nick site 3km down rhino bull, leeubron pan pride 10 lion, 28km down 2 male cheetah seen. to orpen bobbejaan krans area 3male lion 1 male cheetah. from orpen gate to satara 5 cheetahs(been together for last 2 years) to rebelias road, big male leopard 5km to 10km from gate , the rabelias pride 18 strong.

well i can keep going on but hope that can help with your choice. if you love mopani trees, well then letaba is your place.

SATARA FOR PRESIDENT
thanksandrew