South Africa – Self-drive safari?

By Neil Burton

Website:  Http://www.travellinglight.de

Self-drive safari?

To see the most famous of Africa’s inhabitants, including the Big Five, people often spend a small fortune for specialty tours and safaris. But here is how you can do it on a budget, and at all times be in complete control of where you go and how long you stay in any given spot.

Lion Cub

Where?

Kruger National Park, South Africa.

How?

Flight to Johannesburg, internal flight to Nelspruit or car hire from Johannesburg. I recommend flying to Nelspruit, it is not expensive and saves the five or six hour drive. Once in Nelspruit you will still need to hire a vehicle.

Planning

Your accommodation within the park needs to be booked prior to entering, this was formerly done by ringing the SANparks office or through a travel agent, but thankfully South African National Parks now have an internet booking system. The system is completely up-to-date and is a brilliant way to plan and book your trip, it took me ten minutes! Address below.

Bataleur Eagle

Choice and accommodation

The park camps have accommodation ranging from safari tents to bungalows with air-con, you can even camp if you wish to take your own tent. For the real budget conscious traveller the safari tents are a brilliant bargain, shared facilities but you wake up to the sounds of Africa.

Accommodation close to, or overlooking, the perimeter fences is more expensive and not always justifiably so. The perimeter is generally only a few minutes walk from any room, so more of a luxury than a necessity.

All accommodation has a braii (barbeque) and camp shops sell all you need to make use of it, but stocking up on water and essentials before entering he park works out cheaper.

Lion King

What to see

Nearly all the predators are here and sighted on a daily basis. If you are really lucky a cheetah, wild dog or caracal will also be checked off your list. There is an immense number of raptors and other birds, not to mention antelopes and prey animals such as impala. Buffalo, elephant and rhino are also on the list, you may even see a black rhino if your luck is in.

Cost

Flights from Europe to Johannesburg (for me via Dubai) cost as little as 500€, direct flights booked well in advance are currently around this price (after the football World Cup!). Internal flights will set you back around 120€. Car hire, standard 4-door saloon with AC, around 180€. Bungalows, which accommodate two persons (check the booking system for max occupancy per room) cost 60- 70€ depending on the position in the camp. Safari tents cost around 30€ per night for two persons.

My recommendations

A night at Tamboti tented camp. All rooms overlook the river bed and you are almost guaranteed to wake up to the sound of roaring lions.

Skukuza. Not that the camp is special but it is close to Panic Lake, a morning spent in the hide shooting hippos, crocodiles and kingfishers is a morning well spent.

Pied Kingfisher

Lower Sabie. Another ‘busy with tourists’ camp but a great area to see leopards, and watching the sun set at Sunset Dam is more than worth experiencing. Try to get a perimeter luxury tent here as they are built high up, overlooking the river, and have en-suite facilites.

Satara. Yes, another large busy camp but the area is full of predators. The S100 dirt road is a great place to spot lions.

Lions Play

In general the southern end of the park is more productive for wildlife sightings but the northern end has less visitors, so sightings can be a more intimate experience. The park is 220 miles long, so you have plenty of space to go at.

Cheetah and Fly

Likes

A safari holiday at your own pace. Only restrictions are the gate open and close times, if you are late to camp expect to be fined. You have around twelve hours a day to plan as you wish. Every room has a grill – sitting with a beer and a steak listening to the bush, does it get any better?

Dislikes

People who do not respect the rules, calling to get animals to look their way or hanging out of their vehicles. The rules are there for the good of the wildlife and the visitors to the park. Traffic jams – encountered quite often mostly at leopard sightings. The roads can become blocked with people hoping for a glimpse. Most often this happens south of Satara camp.

Lilac-breasted Roller

Equipment

A good zoom such as the 100-400 L will cover you for most of your photographic needs, especially on a 1.6x crop camera body such as the 50D. However for birds and distant wildlife a good long prime is a must. I used the 300mm 2.8 with a converter to give me 600mm, which is an amazing combination. However it is worth noting that heat and haze will make longer shots impossible in the middle of the day.

Occasionally I used a wider lens for the odd sunset or panorama image, the view from Olifants camp over the river demands to be taken, and sometimes for wildlife too. As for bodies, it is nice to have a two camera setup, one with a long prime and the other with the zoom. Quite often wildlife walks up to the road, or the car, and you need to be flexible. I used a 50D for long range and my 5D with the 100-400 L for those larger or closer animals.

Leopard

My tip

Talk to people and ask around. We found carrying a large telephoto lens, big white Canon ones, often brought people to us. Some will make silly remarks about the size of your equipment but a few will offer valuable advice or recent sightings. This was brought home to us on the last night when people asking if we were professionals also asked if we had seen the lions at a kill nearby. We hadn’t but the next morning the lions were still there.

Further information

Visit http://www.sanparks.org for booking and camp information. They also have a forum where you will find accurate information from people who live close to the park and visit on a regular basis.

King

Thanks to Sue Berry for her invaluable information prior to my departure and thanks also to Adam Lawler for being a great travel partner.