Day 108: Getting Ready For Safari - Kruger National Park

 

Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 7,576 sq mi in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa and extends 220 mi from north to south and 40 mi from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza (which is where we flew out of - cute little airport!). Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.

To give you some idea of the size, it is, depending upon your location, about the
same size as New Jersey, Wales, or Portugal. Yet, looking at the map to the right, it only occupies a tiny portion of the country, tucked away in the far northeast, adjacent to the Mozambique border. Maputo, where we were a few days ago, is actually closer to Kruger than Cape Town.

The park was started back in 1898 when the Sabi Game Reserve was initially created to control hunting and to protect the diminishing number of animals in the area. The reserve was located in the southern one-third of the modern park. James Stevenson-Hamilton (remember that name) became the first warden of the reserve in 1902. Over the years, additional sections were added as the tribes on the land were "relocated."  The Makuleke area in the northern part of the park was forcibly taken from the Makuleke people by the government in 1969, and about 1500 of them were relocated to land to the south so that their original tribal areas could be integrated into the greater Kruger National Park. They sued - won their claim in court, and were regranted their lands. Instead of resettling, they engaged with the private sector and went into the tourism business.

In a remarkable display of cross-border collaboration, Kruger National Park, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique joined forces in 2002. This alliance birthed a peace park, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a testament to the collective commitment to wildlife conservation and preservation of biodiversity.

The climate isn't as bad as you might think. Average daily temperatures range from 66 to 92 in the summer and a (surprising) 42 to 79 in the winter. Rainfall is 22 inches, mainly occurring from mid-November to the end of March. This year, it went on a bit longer, resulting in a lot of greenery still at the end of April. As you move further north, say from Skukuza in the south to Parfuri in the North, it does get hotter and dryer.

The two main threats to the animals and general biodiversity are climate change and poachers. The timing of the wet and dry seasons has shifted by several weeks over the past couple of decades, which messes up some of the mating cycles of the smaller animals. There is also a considerable anti-poaching effort consisting of 600 SANS park rangers, drones, and helicopters. Rhino Horns are especially prized, so outside organizations will equip locals with hi-tech gear and offer them 100,000 rand (5,000 USD) to get a horn. If caught, they'll look after their families. For some, that's more than they'll earn in a decade. 

Nevertheless, we decided to help the local economy and be typical tourists by going "on safari" for 3 days in the Southern part of Kroger at Hamiltons Tented Camp. The next few posts will detail our adventures.