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This is a solo adventure through the Kruger National Game Park (Kruger) in South Africa to visit all the camping sites and enjoy the wonderful experience of the Kruger and it's wide variety of wild life.
Elephants crossing the Sabie River
The Driver: Philip Elliott
The Vehicle: 2001 Landrover Defender 90 TD5
Start Date: 31 July 2024
End Date: 17 JAug 2024
Start Odometer (km): 235 643
End Odometer (km): 239 029
Total Distance (km): 3 386
The Kruger Park is one of the largest and best known game parks in the world. I travelled over 2200km in the park alone.
There are many videos on YouTube that provide good information on this magnificant park (Refer to You Tube for suggested video channels worth watching).
The South African National Parks (SANPARKS) WEB site (https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger) also provides useful information and online booking facilities. The site also provides a link to WEBCams that monitor sites that attract wildlife.
The Kruger is a very popular tourist destination for local and international tourists and booking suitable accommodation can be challenging. It is therefore recommended to plan the Rest Camps you wish to stay-in and book well in advance (12 months or more).
Lion along the H4-1 Road north of Lower Sabie
Refer to Common Sightings for animals and birds that I did see.
For an excellent condensed 1hr video of the Kruger Park, look at the video by "The Safari Expert".
I replaced my vehicle's BF Goodridge tyres before the trip because of their age, even though they still had 50 % tread life. I replaced them with Goodyear Wrangler tyres.
There are some camp sites in the Kruger that do not have electricity. I therefore packed my 105Ah 12V Lithium power supply to keep my refrigerator going at night. While I am travelling, I run the fridge off the vehicle's battery. I also packed my 200W fold-up solar panel and charger which I only used once on the trip.
Land Rover ready of the Adventure
The Kruger Park has a great recipe for setting up rest camps. Most rest camps include a fuel station, Park Shop and Restaurant. Refer to Kruger Accommodation for details, but in principle, rest camps that allow camping include the following:
Communal Kitchen. Kitchens include one or two hotplates, washing basins and an instant hotwater urn. Great for making a quick hot drink or fill a flask before departing.
Communal Ablusions. The number of showers, basins and toilets depend on the number of camp sites it serves. I seldom had to queue for a toilet or shower.
Laundry: The laundry includes 1 or 2 washing machines and 1 or 2 dryers. Make sure you have a pile of R5 coins to operate the washing equipment as it was mostly difficult to get change from The Park Shop.
Camp sites. Most camps provide electricity connections. However some sites require a 40m electrical cable to reach the plugs. About 3 camps do not have electricity connections.
Water Taps. A single water tap is often available, but one tap is shared amongst many camp sites and it's location is not always easily identifiable. In some cases, I could not find a water tap and therefore used the kitchen or ablusion water taps.
Example of Communal Ablutions - Maroela
Example of Communal Kitchen - Lower Sabie
Example of Communal Kitchen - Balule
Refer to the Daily Logs for progress and details of the adventure.