Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park If you are planning on visiting the Kruger National Park you should know a few things about this world-famous park before you arrive.

The park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Africa and it offers many opportunities for game viewing, learning, recreation, and nature photography.

South African safaris in Kruger National Park - Here is an overview of the Kruger National Park: 1. Uniqueness - The Park is the flagship of the South African national parks and is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals. The park is 350 kilometers from north to south, about 60 kilometers wide and has five perennial rivers traversing it.

2. Location and history - The park is located in the North East of South Africa in two provinces, namely Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. The park borders Mozambique to the east and Zimbabwe to the north. The Kruger Park was first proclaimed in 1898 as the Sabie Game Reserve and in 2002 the fences between Kruger and Mozambique's Limpopo National Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou, were taken down to create the Greater Limpopo Trans frontier Park (GLTP).

3. Size - nearly 20 000 square kilometers just in South Africa. The Kruger parks gets about 1.5 million visitors per year making it South Africa's second most popular tourist attraction behind only the city of Cape Town.

4. Known for - a combination of comfortable and affordable accommodation, good quality roads, unique rest camps, amazing diversity of wildlife, about 120 waterholes along the tourist roads and very good photographic opportunities for animals both in and out the camps.

5. Roads - There are about 850 kilometers of tarred roads in the Park, 1444 kilometers gravel roads and more than 4200 kilometers of fire breaks in the park. You do not need a 4x4 unless you are going into Mozambique or going on one of the 4x4 trails in the park. The southern Kruger Park is situated 440 km from Johannesburg and the northern part about 530 kilometers from Johannesburg. You can fly to Nelspruit, Phalaborwa or Skukuza and then hire a car or drive from Johannesburg. The roads leading to the nine park entrance gates from cities in South Africa are all tarmac and in good condition.