The Kruger National Park is the premier game reserve in South Africa. Even though the subcontinent is blessed with hundreds of beautiful and biologically diverse conservation areas, you still find that many people have a peculiar connection to Kruger as the greatest of them all, as well as being the biggest national park in South Africa.
The primacy of the Kruger National Park in our national consciousness is so strong that it even manifests itself in the subliminal vernacular of the local tourist. Thus, when a South African says that they are going to a game reserve for a holiday, they could be referring to any one of our fine national, provincial or private game parks. However, if they say that they are going to 'THE' Game Reserve, odds are they are referring to Kruger National Park.
The international treasure that is the Kruger National Park had very humble beginnings. Its birth was exceedingly difficult and its origins were fraught with conflict. Most modern visitors simply aren’t aware that the Kruger was ever anything but the popular and much-loved national treasure it is today. Nevertheless, in the first few decades of the park’s existence, it came perilously close to being destroyed – several times.
Today’s Kruger National Park is a very different proposition. It boasts rest camps of every description, picnic spots, game drives, walking trails, an extensive public road network, a staff of thousands and over 1.5 million visitors annually. It is a vital economic driver in the region and a keystone of South Africa’s tourism industry.
By David Fleminger
There is a wide variety of accommodation in Kruger National Park options ranging from rest camps to luxury Kruger Park safari lodges....
There are many different Kruger National Parks; the bush speaks in a multitude of voices and therefore appeals to a diverse group of people....
Skukuza is the largest of all the camps in the Kruger National Park, and is also the administrative headquarters. The camp is spacious, well...
Driving the length of the Kruger National Park offers some of the best wildlife viewing in Africa. The park has incredibly diverse fauna and...
Clocking in at nearly 2 million hectares (or 20 000 square kilometres), the Kruger National Park is an internationally renowned wildlife san...
Be warned, the Kruger National Park can make people go crazy. The game reserve has a strange power which transforms normally mild-mannered a...
During the 1890s, things grew chaotic in the Republic of the Transvaal (present day Mpumalanga). Since the discovery of gold, Johannesburg h...
The early days were tough on the warden and his first rangers. They and their wives, if they were married, lived in primitive conditions and...
The first intake of rangers, for the newly formed Sabi Reserve, which later became the Kruger National Park, was assembled on an ad-hoc basi...
In the 1800s, game was seen as a commodity, to be exploited for commercial gain. In the early 1900s, attitudes became more romantic, thanks ...
Kruger is South Africa’s most iconic reserve. It’s a pristine wilderness that’s practically a country in itself. Kruger National Park ...
It was near the base of Ship Mountain, in clear sight of today's Jock Safari Lodge, that he became the master of a mongrel runt he named Joc...
In 1902, just after the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, feisty Scotsman Colonel James Stevenson-Hamilton was sent to the Lowveld to run th...
There are literally hundreds of natural and cultural heritage sites within the Kruger National Park. However, many of these sites are unmark...
As was the case throughout southern Africa, the first identifiable human civilisation to live in the Kruger National Park was the Bushmen (o...
When the Sabi Reserve was proclaimed at the turn of the twentieth century, it was decided that the protected area should be cleared of all p...
At Balule, a pontoon across the Olifants River was constructed. This floating platform carried vehicles across the wide watercourse from 192...
In 1890, while the Eastern Railway Line was being built, a member of the Volksraad introduced a petition from the Soutpansberg district requ...