"Kruger by Car !" a Kruger National Park Travel Page by Bwana_Brown

Following our very enjoyable sight-seeing expeditions in the northern Drakensberg Mountains (please see my Sabie page for details), my wife and I got down to the serious business of enjoying all that an African Game Park has to offer. Having toured Kenya's Amboseli Park in 1981, we had been itching at the chance for another go for many years - and Kruger was reported to be one of the best! It did not disappoint - as soon as we entered the park there was game everywhere. We even had to slow our pace to, literally, a 'walk' as an elephant decided that he would take the easy way on the paved road! We had arranged, at the last minute, to spend 3 nights in the park at two different Camps so we were anxious to get moving with our rental car to experience the surprises of big game viewing in Kruger! We found that the start of the South African summer was a good time to visit. At that time of year, the land is still dry enough that most of the bushes have not yet grown foliage to block your view of the game and also the rivers are almost bone-dry, forcing animals to concentrate near the few remaining water-holes! Our one regret on this trip was our lack of a decent camera with a telephoto lens. My old Olympus OM-1 with its 400 mm telephoto had given up the ghost after an attack of fungus in Papua New Guinea! Still, with a video camera zoom and our binoculars, it was a great game viewing experience! Our entrance fee to the park was US$15. For an overview of the Park, check out my first Transportation tip!