Selati Railway Line
Up until the proclamation of Kruger National Park in 1926, the Selati Railway Line, ox wagons, buggy carts, pack donkeys and horses represented the only forms of transport. There were no vehicles or roads at the time. The first tourist services introduced by the South African Railways (SAR) was also exclusively limited to rail transport. It was not until 1923, when the SAR implemented a tour to the Lowveld and areas bordering Maputo (then Lourenco Marques) in Mozambique, that the potential of the reserves as tourist attraction was again discussed.
An overnight stop in the then Sabie Reserve at the Sabie Bridge (now Skukuza) was only included in the itinerary from a convenience point of view. Stevenson-Hamilton convinced the Commissioner for Railways that the inclusion of a day excursion through the Sabie Reserve would enhance the attraction of the so-called ‘round-in-nine’ railway excursion. As there were no facilities for tourists at Sabie Bridge at the time, tourists slept in the train. Game rangers would brighten up the evening around large campfires while sharing interesting anecdotes with the tourists, which became a highlight for most of them.
On New Year’s evening in 1970, the worst accident happened since the reserve was proclaimed when a goods train drove into a stationary passenger train four kilometres from the Crocodile Bridge. One driver and 13 passengers were killed in the incidence. The last train that drove through the Kruger National Park, in 1973, stands at the Selati restaurant. Originally, the locomotive had three carriages, which was used as a restaurant. In the 1990s, two carriages were destroyed in a fire, the remaining carriage and the engine are still intact.
GPS Waypoints: 24°59'37.6"S 31°35'58.5"E