South Africa Accommodations
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South Africa's largest and most famous wild-animal reserve covers nearly 7,525 square miles. The park was established in 1889 to protect South Africa's wildlife and is today a world leader in environmental management. The park contains mores species of wildlife than any other game reserve in Africa. It has large herds of elephant, buffalo, kudu, zebra, impala, both black and white rhino, giraffe, as well as all the predators; lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and wild dog. It also boasts 468 species of birds. The park is open to all vehicles and the main roads between rest camps have a hard macadam surface. Visitors are required to stay in their vehicles except at designated rest stops or viewing areas. Driving off the roads is not allowed.
Just to the west of Kruger Park are a number of private reserves, most sharing an unfenced boundary with the Park itself. In contrast to the limitations and crowds of the park, the private reserves offer a more wild experience with the benefits of off road driving to see predators, night drives in search of nocturnal animals and walking through the African Wilderness. These reserves include Sabi Sands, famous for the incredible leopard sightings, Timbavati, Klaserie and Thornybush.
Only 70 miles west of Johannesburg, the Pilanesburg National Park is the fourth largest national park in southern Africa and covers an area of 212 square miles. The park is malaria-free and has a mild, dry winter climate - ideal for game viewing. The park has healthy populations of the "big five," as well as cheetah, zebra, giraffe, springbok and sable antelope. Bird watching is excellent with over 300 species recorded. The park has an extensive " Education Zone" where one can walk on marked trails.
Madikwe Private Game Reserve has the distinction of being one of the few game reserves in the world to be proclaimed purely on the grounds of being the most appropriate and sustainable land use for an area. The reserve is home to 66 mammal species including the Big Five and approximately 300 resident and migrant bird species. Madikwe represents an extension to this philosophy in that it is run as a joint venture between the State, the private sector and local communities. The success of this approach has made Madikwe the role model for similar ventures being started up elsewhere in South Africa.
An amalgamation of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa (proclaimed in 1931)and the Gemsbok National Park in Botswana, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park comprises an area of over 3,6 million hectares – one of very few conservation areas of this magnitude left in the world. Red sand dunes, sparse vegetation and the dry riverbeds of the Nossob and Auob show antelope and predator species off to spectacular advantage and provide excellent photographic opportunities. Kgalagadi is also a haven for birders, especially those interested in birds of prey.
Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, located 280 km north of Durban, is the oldest proclaimed park in Africa. The area was originally a royal hunting ground for the Zulu kingdom, but was established as a park in 1895. It consists of 96,000 hectares of hilly topography in central Zululand and is known for its rich wildlife and conservation efforts. The park is the only state-run park in KwaZulu-Natal where all the Big Five Game occur, although lion and leopard can be hard to spot. Due to conservation efforts, the park now has the largest population of white rhino in the world. Additionally there are many signs of Stone Age settlements throughout the park.
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