Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park
Powered by
In many ways Mpumalanga ("where the sun rises") is South Africa's wildest and most exciting province. Its local history is action packed: local wars, international battles, and a gold rush every bit as raucous and wild as those in California and the Klondike. Kruger National Park and the private game reserves abutting its western borders provide the country's best and most fulfilling game experience; in fact, it's highly probable that you will see all of the Big Five (lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, rhinoceros) during an average two- to three-night stay at one of the private reserves.
If you look at a map of South Africa, Mpumalanga is in the top right just below Limpopo. It spreads east from Gauteng to the border of Mozambique. The 1,120-km (700-mile) Drakensberg Range, which originates in KwaZulu-Natal, divides the high, interior plateau from a low-lying subtropical belt that stretches to Mozambique and the Indian Ocean. The lowveld (the subtropical region of northeastern South Africa), where Kruger National Park alone covers a 320-km (200-mile) swath of wilderness, is classic Africa, with as much heat, dust, untamed bush, and big game as you can take in.
The Drakensberg Escarpment rises to the west of Kruger and provides a marked contrast to the lowveld; it's a mountainous area of trout streams and waterfalls, endless views, and giant plantations of pine and eucalyptus. The escarpment has some of South Africa’s most spectacular scenery, including the Blyde River (Motlatse) Canyon—one of the world’s largest canyons and one of its greenest because of its luxuriant subtropical foliage—waterfalls, amazing vistas, great hiking, and river rafting. People come to the escarpment to unwind, soak up its beauty, and get away from the summer heat of the lowveld. Touring the area by car is easy and rewarding—the 156-km (97-mile) Panorama Route winds along the lip of the escarpment—and you can reach many of the best lookouts without stepping far from your car. You’d miss fabulous sightseeing opportunities if you failed to stop on the way to or from Kruger to take in some of Mpumalanga’s fantastic sightseeing opportunities.
From the escarpment, the landscape plunges down to banana, mango, and papaya groves and the lowveld. It’s here you’ll find Kruger National Park, undoubtedly one of the world’s finest game parks. Apart from its ease of access (there are nine entry gates along its western border), there is plenty of excellent accommodation ranging from bushveld and tented camps to luxury lodges. Mbombela (Nelspruit), south of Kruger, is the nearest big town.
Top Destinations
Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve
Also known as the Motlatse Canyon Nature Reserve, this breathtakingly beautiful 71,660 acres of red sandstone mountains, gorges, and grassland stretches 60 km (37 miles) north of Graskop, to the Abel Erasmus Pass. Its spectacular main feature is the canyon itself. Carved out of almost 2.5 km (1.5 miles) of red sandstone, it’s the world’s third biggest and greenest canyon, on account of its lush evergreen vegetation.
Graskop
Graskop (translation: "grass head") was so named because of the abundance of grassveld and few trees. Like so many of the little towns in this area, it started as a gold-mining camp in the 1880s, on a farm called Graskop that was owned by Abel Erasmus, who later became the local magistrate. After the gold mines closed down, the town served as a major rail link for the timber industry. Today the main features of this rather featureless little town are its curio shops and eateries. Perched on the edge of the Drakensberg/Mpumalanga Escarpment, Graskop considers itself the window on the lowveld, and several nearby lookouts do have stunning views over the edge of the escarpment. It's an ideal base for visiting scenic hot spots, including Mac Mac Falls and the beauties in and around the Blyde River (Motlatse) Canyon Nature Reserve.
Traveling east toward Hazyview, you enter the lovely Koewyns Pass, named for a local Pedi chief. Unfortunately, there are few scenic overlooks, but you'll still get sweeping views of the Graskop gorge. Look for the turnoff to Graskopkloof on your left as you leave town, and stop to get a closer view into this deep, surprisingly spectacular gorge, where in the rainy season two waterfalls plunge to the river below.
Hazyview
Named for the heat haze that drifts up from the fruit plantations and bush in the surrounding area, Hazyview is a bustling little town. Situated in the center of the prime tourist attractions, it's also another gateway to Kruger through the nearby Phabeni, Numbi, and Kruger gates. There are plenty of good places to stay and eat, and Hazyview is also the adventure mecca of the region. Here you can try your hand at horseback riding, helicopter trips, river rafting, hiking, ballooning, quad biking, golf, and game-viewing safaris.
Kapama Private Game Reserve
The 32,123-acre Kapama Private Game Reserve, the area's largest single-owned private reserve, here, and it boasts some high-end luxury lodges, but it lacks some of the genuine wilderness feel of other nearby reserves because of its proximity to roads and electrical towers. Its trump card, however, is that it is home to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, where rescued and endangered animals like cheetahs are to be found.
Kruger National Park
Visiting Kruger is likely to be one of the greatest experiences of your life, truly providing ultimate "Wow!" moments. You'll be amazed at the diversity of life forms—the tallest (the giraffe), the biggest (the elephant), the funkiest (the dung beetle), the toothiest (the crocodile), and the glitziest (the lilac-breasted roller).
But it’s not all game and safari. If you’re into ancient human history, there are also major archaeological sites and fascinating San (Bushman) rock paintings. (There is ample evidence that prehistoric humans—Homo erectus—roamed the area between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago.) Founded in 1898 by Paul Kruger, president of what was then the Transvaal Republic, the park is a place to safari at your own pace, choosing between upscale private camps or simple campsites.
Kruger lies in the hot lowveld, a subtropical section of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces that abuts Mozambique. The park cuts a swath 80 km (50 miles) wide and 320 km (200 miles) long from Zimbabwe and the Limpopo River in the north to the Crocodile River in the south. It is divided into 16 macro eco-zones, each supporting a great variety of plants, birds, and animals, including 145 mammal species and almost 500 species of birds, some of which are not found elsewhere in South Africa. In 2002 a treaty was signed between South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique to form a giant conservation area, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. It's a complex ongoing process, but once all the fences between Kruger, the Gonarezhou National Park in Mozambique, and the Limpopo National Park in Zimbabwe are finally removed, the Peace Park will be the largest conservation area in the world.
Manyeleti Game Reserve
North of Sabi Sand, Manyeleti Private Game Reserve ("the place of the stars" in Shangaan) covers 59,280 acres that border Kruger, Sabi Sand, and Timbavati, but it's something of a Cinderella reserve compared with its more famous neighbors. Away from the major tourist areas, it's amazingly underused; you'll probably see very few vehicles while you're here.
Mbombela (Nelspruit)
Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit), the capital of Mpumalanga and home of the provincial government, is a modern, vibrant subtropical city of nearly 600,000 people. Known as the gateway to Kruger and the lowveld, it's also a notable stop on the main route between Gauteng and Maputo, Mozambique. The compact town sits in the middle of a prosperous agricultural community, which farms citrus (a third of South Africa's citrus exports come from here), subtropical fruit, tobacco, and vegetables. It has an international airport, excellent hospitals, great restaurants, superb botanical gardens, and the Riverside Mall, Mpumalanga’s biggest shopping center. Nearby is the Jane Goodall Institute’s Chimpanzee Eden.
Pilgrim's Rest
The charming (although very touristy) village of Pilgrim's Rest—also a national monument—dates back to the 1870s gold-rush days when it was the first proper gold-mining town in South Africa. Alec "Wheelbarrow" Patterson abandoned the overcrowded Mac Mac diggings and, carting all his belongings in a wheelbarrow, left to search elsewhere for gold. He found it in Pilgrim's Creek, setting off a new gold rush in 1873. Rumors about the richness of the strike spread quickly around the world, bringing miners from California, Australia, and Europe. Within a year 1,500 diggers, living in tents and huts, had moved to the area. Most of the alluvial gold was found by individuals who recovered more than R2 million worth of gold dust and nuggets using pans, sluice boxes, and cradles. It wasn't until about 1876 that most of the tents were replaced by buildings. Most of the beautifully restored houses seen in the village today are from the more staid and elegant period of the early 1900s. It’s worth walking up to the cemetery, as the old graves provide an instant history of the village.
Sabi Sands Game Reserve
This is the most famous and exclusive of South Africa's private reserves. Collectively owned and managed, the 153,000-acre reserve near Kruger is home to dozens of private lodges, including the world-famous MalaMala and Londolozi. Sabi Sand fully deserves its exalted reputation, boasting perhaps the highest game density of any private reserve in southern Africa.
Although not all lodges own vast tracts of land, the majority have traversing rights over most of the reserve. With an average of 20 vehicles watching for game and communicating by radio, you're bound to see an enormous amount of game and almost certainly the Big Five, and since only three vehicles are allowed at a sighting at a time, you can be assured of a grandstand seat. Sabi Sand is the best area for leopard sightings. It's a memorable experience to see this beautiful, powerful, and often elusive cat padding purposefully through the bush at night, illuminated in your ranger's spotlight. There are many lion prides, and occasionally the increasingly rare wild dogs will migrate from Kruger to den in Sabi Sand. You'll also see white and black rhinos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, and most of the antelope species, plus birds galore.
The daily program at each lodge rarely deviates from a pattern, starting with tea, coffee, and muffins or rusks (Boer biscuits) before an early-morning game drive (usually starting at dawn, later in winter). You return to the lodge around 10 am, at which point you dine on an extensive hot breakfast or brunch. You can then choose to go on a bush walk with an armed ranger, where you learn about some of the minutiae of the bush (including the Little Five), although you could also happen on giraffes, antelopes, or any one of the Big Five. But don't worry—you'll be well briefed in advance on what you should do if you come face-to-face with, say, a lion. The rest of the day, until the late-afternoon game drive, is spent at leisure—reading up on the bush in the camp library, snoozing, swimming, or having a spa treatment. A sumptuous afternoon tea is served at 3:30 or 4 before you head back into the bush for your night drive. During the drive, your ranger will find a peaceful spot for sundowners (cocktails), and you can sip the drink of your choice and nibble snacks as you watch one of Africa's spectacular sunsets. As darkness falls, your ranger will switch on the spotlight so you can spy nocturnal animals: lions, leopards, jackals, porcupines, servals (small spotted cats like bonsai leopards), civets, and the enchanting little bush babies. You'll return to the lodge around 7:30, in time to freshen up before a three- or five-course dinner, with at least one dinner in a boma (open-air dining area) around a blazing fire. Often the camp staff entertains after dinner with local songs and dances—an unforgettable experience. Children under 12 aren’t allowed at some of the camps; others have great kids' programs.
Sabie
As you descend Long Tom Pass, the town of Sabie (sah-bee) comes into view far below, in a bowl formed by the surrounding mountains. It's by far the pleasantest and most enjoyable town in the region, with restaurants, shops, and bars. The name Sabie is derived from the Shangaan word uluSaba, which described the "fearful river," home to many crocodiles. Today it makes a great base for exploring.
In the 1900s gold provided the community's livelihood, but today it's been replaced by timber, and Sabie sits in the heart of one of the world's largest human-made forests—more than a million acres of exotic pine and eucalyptus. The first forests were planted in 1876 to provide the area's mines with posts and supports. Today much of the timber is still used to prop up shafts in the Gauteng gold mines.
Sabie itself is a busy little town with a farming feel. It boasts some of the biggest traffic humps in South Africa, ensuring that farmers' and visitors' tractors and cars drive slowly through the broad, shady, tree-lined streets. It's easy to walk from one end of the central part of town to the other, taking in sights like Market Square, the commercial hub of Sabie in its early days. Here St. Peter's Anglican Church, designed by the famous architect Sir Herbert Baker and built by Italians in 1913, stands in its own pleasant gardens. Also in the square is a Jock of the Bushveld sign, said to commemorate Jock and Percy's arrival in 1885.
Thornybush Nature Reserve
Situated within 34,594 acres of pristine wilderness, adjacent to the Greater Kruger National Park in Limpopo, Thornybush Nature Reserve is set among classic bushveld scenery. There are nine comfortable, unpretentious lodges offering friendly service, excellent food, and great game. Thornybush was the first lowveld reserve to implement rhino horn treatments (injecting poison that is harmless to the rhinos) as a form of anti-poaching (some disproven but popular traditional Asian medical treatments use rhino horn), and one of the first to introduce elephant contraception as an alternative to culling.
Timbavati Game Reserve
The 185,000-acre Timbavati, the northernmost of the private reserves, is collectively owned and managed by the Timbavati Association, a nonprofit organization that strives to conserve the biodiversity of the area.
White River
This pleasant little town is set amid nut and tropical-fruit plantations and is one of the gateways to the escarpment's major sights. Settled by retired British army officers in the early 20th century, it still retains some of its colonial feel, but it’s now much more representative of the "new" South Africa, crowded with people of all backgrounds. Casterbridge is an attractive shopping center, and because White River is home to a resident esoteric community, those who feel like a bit of alternative therapy will find holistic healing hands.
