Kruger Wildlife Safari Pictures
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A close encounter with an African Elephant in south Kruger National Park, June 2005

Click on the image for more Kruger wildlife safari pictures, South Africa.

The Kruger hype can be overwhelming. A game park as big as Wales...more animals than the Serengetti...drive yourself around at your own pace...safari pictures to show your grandchildren and so on. These kind of PR puffs lead to over-expectations of a verdant Eden, alive with wildlife lumbering or skittering in front of your wheels at every curve, while you exchange meaningful glances with the Big Five from behind your safely airbagged steering wheel. Not so, my naive chums.

Firstly, bear in mind that a vast park with limited roads - that you have to follow - gives the wildlife plenty of space to conceal itself, though waterholes can deliver good action.
Secondly, the grass is fairly long even during the dry season and this hides a lot of the critters from your roving eyes, even if they are nearby.
Thirdly, there are other tourists out there on safari too - though less so up north - so you can be pretty sure that you will be sharing meaningful glances with both neighbouring drivers and beasties.

Bottom line is, if you really want safari pictures of vast numbers of wild things, go to the waterholes of Namibia's Etosha or the plains of Kenya and Tanzania, particularly during migration season.

However, Kenya and Tanzania wildlife safaris are hideously expensive and your timetable is controlled by a third party - a game ranger or driver, while Namibia is a hassle to organise. But if you've already done East Africa, or can't afford it, or fancy self drive independence, or want to see other places in South Africa too, Kruger National Park can be a wonderful experience - and here are the pictures to prove it, plus a few tips on how to ensure a South Africa safari has a chance to deliver.

Best time to travel in Kruger: Winter [June-September], but beware the 3 week South Africa school holidays [end of June-early July]. This is the dry season so grass is shorter giving better visibility, animals tend to wander less since water is harder to find, and importantly, there's no water for mosquitoes to breed in so the little whiners disappear for their holidays and malaria is not a problem. However, early morning game drives in open trucks will be very cold, and the enticing swimming pools that most restcamps have will be barely useable.

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