Tips for a DIY Safari in Kruger National Park
Before I show you awesome pictures of animals, let me bore most of you a little bit with the logistics of our safari. When we were planning our foray into Kruger National Park – at the last minute as per usual – reading about other people’s experiences and tips was immensely helpful. Okay, I can’t help myself. I’ll show you some impala, but be patient for the good stuff!
Safaris Don’t Have to be Expensive.
From the beginning, Sean really wanted to go on a safari in Africa. He really wanted to see the Great Migration (an annual event where thousands of wildebeest traverse the Serengeti and Masai Mara with predators in tow). We did some research into costs of a 7 or 10 day safari, and even a no-frills safari with a safari operator would have cost us thousands of dollars each. At some point, we nixed the idea, mostly because of cost and partly because we got distracted with planning the other 355 of this trip. When we were planning our stay in South Africa, we realized it was possible to take a self-drive safari through Kruger National Park in South Africa. Hooray for DIY, just like we like it.
If you have ever dreamed about seeing animals in the wild just like on the Discovery Channel, and cost is the only thing that is stopping you, time to start planning. Self-drive safaris in the Kruger are not only amazing, they are also incredibly affordable. The biggest expense will likely be your plane ticket to South Africa. Overall, we spent $783.61 for a four day, three night self-drive safari in Kruger. Extrapolated to 10 days, this was less than half the cost of even the most budget safari we checked out. That figure includes lodging in the park’s en-suite bungalows; cold meals purchased in advance from Woolworth’s and Pick’n’Play grocery stores in Nelspruit; a dinner and a lunch in the park’s restaurants (which, by the way, are overpriced; we wished we bought more groceries, as even more pricey prepared meals from Woolworths would have been more cost-effective); extra snacks, drinks, and ice inside the park; a nylon cooler from Pick’n’Play; fees for a guided night-drive safari at the Shindgwedzi Camp; gas; and the rental fees for a step-up-from-budget 2-wheel drive car. You can even do Kruger safaris for cheaper, if you are willing to camp or share a bathroom.
Now, you will not have a guide with you, but this also means that you can move around the park at your own pace. We were worried we would have trouble spotting animals, particularly when we drove around for hours the first day and didn’t see anything. The truth is, spotting animals is mostly luck and being in the right place at the right time. There are ways to maximize your sighting potential, described below. Even though we didn’t always follow such tips, overall we didn’t have any trouble spotting animals.
Our sightings (we counted the number of times we saw one or more types of animals, not the total number we saw):
wildebeest (6); buffalo (10); baboons (7); elephants (30); giraffes (14); hippopotamus (1); impala (countless); kudu (4); leopard (1); lions (6); nyala (3); zebra (12); scrub hare (5); serval (1); steenbok (5); vervet monkey (4); warthog (4); waterbuck (5); white rhinoceros (1); turtle (1); crocodile (1); African-fish eagle (2). The only animal we missed out on that we wanted to see were cheetahs – too fast for us, I guess.
Kruger Itinerary and Tips for Spotting Animals on Your Own
Here was our Kruger itinerary:
- Day before: We stayed in Nelspruit (at a great lodge not in the guide books, Khayalami Lodge) and stocked up on supplies.
- Day one: We left Nelspruit mid-morning, entered through the Malelane Gate, drove to Skuzkuza Camp, arrived mid-afternoon, and went back out for a couple of hours around close.
- Day two: We left around 7 a.m., drove from Skuzkuza Camp to Olifants Camp, got there mid-afternoon, went back out for a couple of hours around close, and went on the guided night drive.
- Day three: We slept in, left around 9 a.m., drove from Olifants Camp to Shingwedzi Camp, got there mid-afternoon, and went back out for a couple of hours around close.
- Day four: We left around 6 a.m., drove from Shingwedzi Camp to Phalaborwa Gate, exited, and drove to Graskop/Sabie in the afternoon.
If we had to do it over again, we would have still stayed three nights. We felt that was a good amount of time to make sure we had an opportunity to see most of the animals we wanted to see, cover a good bit of the park without rushing, and not get bored. However, we would have spent multiple nights at the same camp. This allows you to dawdle in good areas, especially in the early morning and late afternoon, and rest mid-day. We quickly learned that very early morning (about 6 to 8 a.m.) and very late afternoon (about 4 to 6 p.m.) is the best time to spot the most interesting animals and has the best lighting for pictures to boot. It really is worth getting up to leave right at 6:00. Even by 7:00 a.m., the animals that had been roaming around at night already have retreated deep into the bush.
The way we did it was fine, but it required us to drive many hours during the boring mid-day to get to the next camp, when the animal sightings are few and far between because most of them are sleeping. Everyone makes safaris sound so exciting, but the truth is you can easily spent hours driving where you see absolutely no animals except for countless impala, a type of antelope that is no longer exciting to see after the second or third time. (Although we did see our first good lion sighting in the smack dab middle of the day, so you never know…)
Me, out loud on Safari: Damn it, impala, why aren't the lions chasing you and eating you? And I call myself an animal lover. For shame. What can I say, the call of the wild gets to you.
Run like an antelope, out of control...runrunrunrun...
Satara is a good camp at which to base yourselves, because it is situated in an area where there are a lot of Big Five sightings. If Satara is booked, like it was for us, Olifants is a good alternative that isn’t too far away and near good sightings. Some people complain that the area around Satara is too crowded, and that you can feel more “one with nature” in other areas, but we never were distracted by other people, and we were there during one of the high seasons (August, during winter, when you the brush is not as dense). Plus, we didn’t have binoculars, so sometimes a group of cars helped us spot a really good sighting we wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
We also found it helpful to check out the sightings board at each of the camp, so we would know more about the activity in the area.
We didn’t hesitate to ask people in nearby cars what they were looking at, and we reciprocated by passing along information to people driving by. Finally, if you find a good animal, or have a clear view, make sure you hang out for a while. You will often see some action if you are patient.
Amy,
They are really great tips! We used similar strategy when visiting the Etosha Pan in Namibia. We saw lots of game animals and elephants, but no cheetah or lions that way unfortunately!