Where to fly to in south africa for safari
What It's Like to Safari at Kruger National Park in South Africa | A Travel Guide
so I think one of the most challenging
things in terms of planning this trip to
South Africa was really figuring out
Kruger National Park it was a bit of a
mystery to me figuring out the bookings
the accommodations what the camps were
like so I want to put together this
video for you guys to show you a bit
about what Kruger is like life on the
road doing self drives in the park what
our accommodations were like about food
the trips as well I'll give you an
inside look make sure you subscribe on
the channel and let me do a full rundown
so what do you do when you first come
into Kruger well with Kruger there are a
whole bunch of gates all around the park
and the main gate that we came in
through was Paul Kruger Gate from there
you gonna drive to your campsite so it
really depends on what campsite you
decided to stay at the one that we came
to first was skukuza and what you see
behind me is the skukuza main gate once
you're inside your camps gate the first
thing you're going to want to do is
check in so there's a reception building
pretty much right by the gate and it's
actually right behind or right in front
of you right now and the reception
building is actually a large complex
with reception you're gonna want to
check in to your room and get your keys
and also get situated with your
activities so all of the online bookings
that you've made they're gonna check
them all and give you any sort of Indian
forums that you're gonna retire from the
reception building you have a whole
bunch of other different things that are
around so in front of the reception is
the latest sightings board and this
sightings board has pretty much anything
that anyone is seen on the day of and
the previous day and as well you have
the post office the bank the ATM if
you're gonna want it withdraw money also
if you have any activities like the
sunrise Drive the sunset Drive the night
drive the trucks are pretty much right
behind the building so just wait there
and they'll pick you up and across the
street actually from the reception
building is the gas station there's a
total gas station where you can fill up
so you don't really have to worry too
much about not having enough gas for all
the day's drives that you're gonna be
doing in Kruger we are now in the parts
shop in skukuza and this is a shot that
pretty much has anything that you'd ever
need I've been really impressed with
everything I've seen so far just look at
how modern it is and how massive it is
you can find anything from food
groceries snacks drinks souvenirs
clothing camping things postcards maps
guys you name it all that stuff is here
anything that you might have forgotten
you'll be sure to find it in this shop
[Music]
so while you can cook I feel like if
you're here for only a couple days it
actually doesn't make a whole lot of
sense because each of these camps like
skukuza or lower savvy are so well
equipped similar to the post shop which
has a ton of variety there are many
restaurants to choose from for all the
various camps in the park and so behind
me we have cattle baron which is
fantastic for dinners which has great
steaks and around the corner we have a
takeaway spot which is also cattle baron
which has things like salads sandwiches
burgers ribs as well so a lot to choose
from and last thing I'll add is that all
of these have amazing views of river
Savi with the outdoor patio so what you
see behind me is our bungalow and there
are a ton of different type of
accommodations in all the different
campsites across the entire national
park we're specifically at Asko Cuza
campsite and this is the L 2 RW
Riverside bungalow so we opted for a bit
more of an upscale type of accommodation
here at camp we actually have gorgeous
views of Savi River that run right
across through this particular bungalow
is one that includes a lot of different
amenities so there's built in
air-conditioned which you really need
especially during hot climates of South
Africa you got your own kitchen which
you could definitely use if you want to
cook and do kind of your your own
self-made meals it has everything from
the fridge to a stove to pots and pans
to an oven as well the thing is you'll
have to make sure you have all your
equipment to make sure you're able to
cook I think for guys like me which are
coming in for just maybe two or three
days it doesn't really make a whole lot
of sense the leverage what's back here
but you definitely can if you want to I
would say mainly because the cafe and
the restaurants are right over there
literally two minutes walk away which is
what I really loved about the L 2 RW
bungalow so we just walk over we can
have a full meal there
the restaurant and cafe are really
really good now inside the accommodation
itself is actually really really nice
it's just like your standard hotel room
slash motel room I guess it's two single
beds you got AC like I mentioned you
have TV as well lots of outlets so you
can charge your stuff which is really
critical when you're out here on Safari
and then you got a full bathroom so
shower toilet sink and all that stuff
racks the dryer your clothes if you're
washing clothes like we do when we
travel so pretty much everything that
you need so it's a really good
accommodation I highly recommend this
particular one at skukuza camp now
they're gonna differ for all the other
ones so another place that we're gonna
check out is lower savvy but there are
other ones as well Satara up north and
others depending on what your itinerary
looks like so this is really camp life
the top end of things with a bungalow
but you have cheaper ones as well if you
want to stay at some of the smaller huts
that have more communal bathrooms or
communal kitchens so it really depends
on what your budget is and what your
style of travel is but for us again this
Riverside bungalow was a really good
choice we stayed here two nights and you
could park your car right there you can
drive right in it's really convenient
and we really loved this particular
bungalow
now if you want to look at our bungalow
and lower savvy we have the Biddy - room
27 bungalow here in lower savvy and this
one is actually a little bit different
the other one was that Rhonda Bell style
which was kind of neat a little bit more
traditional this one I would say is a
bit more hotel slash Motel style the
kitchen is actually inside the suite
which is actually pretty nice and the
rooms themselves are a little bit more
modern and just as nice as the other
ones so if you're coming to lower savvy
this is what you can expect so there are
a long list of activities here to do at
Kruger National Park and there's really
two types you have the guided kruger
national park tours and then you have
really your self-drive which is what
most people come here for now what you
see behind me is one of the trucks that
we use for the morning bush walk and
that's just one of the activities you
have Sunset Drive sunrise Drive night
Drive and I would say that really the
advantages of these drives is that
they're fully guided you have your own
Ranger tracker they're gonna spot the
animals and let you know what you can
see and so the the thing as well is with
this truck this is a smaller truck but
there's a larger truck as well I'd say
these also have the better vantage
points because you're a bit higher up
and they know exactly where to go what
I've learned with these drives is that
they're typically a fixed route but for
each of the camps each camp has a set of
those sunrise sunset night drives and
bush walks and they cover different
areas so if you want to do one of these
drives in let's say lower sabhi versus
skukuza or Satara
they're all gonna cover different
landscapes and you'll probably see
different animals as well but I
definitely recommend doing them the
other half of it is the self Drive and
with the self drive it's really a
choose-your-own-adventure kind of thing
there's no fixed routes that you can do
but there are ton of roads from the camp
so you pretty much pick for the day
which one you're gonna do now what I
recommend is that you should start super
super early and so in the summertime the
gates open up at 4:30 and so start your
drive that early in the morning all the
way until about 9:00 or 10:00 come back
have breakfast lunch nap and then I'd
say around 4 o'clock do a second drive
which is from 4:00 to 6:00 because
during the mid-afternoon it's just way
too hot you're not going to see any
animals the latter half the animals come
back out again but if you are gonna do
an afternoon Drive I'd say try to do or
rather mid afternoon Drive try to go
around the watering holes because that's
where most the animals are gonna be
drinking water a ton of things to do
like I mentioned and you're not going to
run out of things to do here at Kruger
okay so the truck in front of us just
told us there is a lion out there not
too sure but I can't see anything at all
it's kind of like how this Kruger
self-drive has been if you don't have a
tall vehicle or you don't have the luck
and it's not right by the side of the
road you're not gonna see it this is
crazy it's all the way down that you can
barely see he's lying down back towards
this paw is kind of outstretched see
them way behind past these whole set of
bushes and it's on on a side dirt road
actually it's a kind of like a dirt road
back there the flat plain but I have no
idea how somebody would have spotted
that that's insane we would have just
driven by it's a bad bone
giant we've been driving for a total of
almost seven hours now but because it's
mid-afternoon it's insanely hot all the
animals have gone to rest or hide under
trees so we've seen some elephants and
giraffes under trees but a lot of the
big cats you know go into hiding and we
don't really get to see them by the side
of the road but we're gonna continue
driving and see what we find we
sometimes see a few birds kind of in the
tree we're trying to look under the
trees as well to see if there are any
animals getting some shade so the hunt
continues
good morning it's our third day here at
Kruger National Park it's about five
o'clock in the morning I got my trusty
tracker here Chantell we are on the
lookout for some big cats that's what
we've been wanting to see out here we
haven't seen a whole lot of other than
we saw some lines off sight which is
really crazy
but we'll see so it might be something
over there let's go check it out it's
always a bit of FOMO when you see a
bunch of cars stopped on the side of the
road you're wondering what's out there
you want to make sure you don't miss it
but it could just be you know it could
just be kudu
impala who knows we are headed towards
our camp blower savvy actually and we're
taking some side roads but we just
passed by a couple that told us that
they saw a leopard but two kilometers
from where we bumped into them so we're
looking really closely on both sides to
see if we're lucky enough to spot them
apparently just walking around so yeah
so we looked for a whole two kilometers
and then some still couldn't find it so
fortunately no leopard for us today
