Northern Kruger Park - 440km

LOUIS TRICHARDT [ALSO KNOWN AS MAKHADO]

Situated at the foot of the Soutpansberg, Louis Trichardt lies in an area rich in culture and history. The Voortrekker leader Louis Trichardt and his party stayed here from May 1836 to August 1837, before Trichardt set off on his ill-fated attempt to find a route to the sea. In October 1898, General Piet Joubert led a commando across the Doorn River in preparation for an attack on the Venda chief, Mphefu. The commando struck camp on the farm Rietvlei, where a portable iron fort was erected. In November, the Venda were subjected to a three-pronged attack in which the royal village was burnt. Mphefu and his subjects were forced to flee across the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe. A town was established the same year on the farms Rietvlei and Bergvliet and named Trichardtsdorp in honour of Louis Trichardt. The name was later changed to Louis Trichardt. The old portable fort (known as Fort Hendrina) can be seen in the town. The Church of the Vow (one of two in the country) was erected after the defeat of the Venda. The Venda people are accomplished decorators and crafters, and there are many art and craft shops to tempt visitors.

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK (KNP)

Covering nearly 2 000 000 ha, the Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s great game parks and ranks among the world’s top conservation areas. From the Crocodile River in the south, the park stretches northwards for 350 km to the Limpopo River, and ranges in width from 25 km in the far north to 85 km in the south. This unspoilt wilderness of bushveld, woodland and thornveld is home to a rich diversity of wildlife which includes 147 mammal species. In addition to the Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard), the park is home to a wide variety of antelope, such as sable, roan, impala, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, waterbuck, tsessebe, kudu and nyala, as well as hippo, giraffe and Burchell’s zebra. It also provides protection to the only viable wild dog population in South Africa. With 490 bird species recorded to date (about 55 per cent of the total number found in southern Africa), the park is truly a birder’s paradise. More than 50 raptor species have been recorded, while many of the species occurring in the north of the park have a limited distribution elsewhere in South Africa.

The park is also an archaeological treasure chest, with over 250 cultural heritage sites, ranging from rock art sites (about 130 have been recorded) and Late Iron Age settlements to early transport routes. Access to Kruger is via eight gates, and accommodation ranges from rest camps with all the necessary facilities (filling station, shop, restaurant) to smaller bushveld camps without facilities, and bush lodges for groups. A vast network of roads traverses the bush, providing access to rivers, water holes, dams and viewpoints, while picnic sites in the bush allow motorists to take a break from the driving. In addition to self-drive game-viewing, the park offers a host of outdoor and adventure activities such as short, self-guided nature walks in some of the rest camps, night drives and guided walks of between three and four hours. There are also seven three-day guided wilderness trails in various remote areas of the park. Because the park lies within a malaria area, it is advisable to consult a doctor about prophylaxis, especially if visiting between December and April.

NORTHERN KRUGER

The northern part of the KNP lies in an ecologically unique area where nine major ecosystems meet. It is a mosaic of mopane savannah and shrubveld, baobab ‘forests’, plains, sandstone koppies and patches of rare sand forest. This region is home to several mammal species that occur nowhere else in the park, such as Sharpe’s grysbok, suni, samango monkey and yellow-spotted rock dassie, while noteworthy species as Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (released in 1990 after it became extinct in South Africa) and wild dog are also found here. Other game to be seen include elephant, white rhino, buffalo, blue wildebeest, impala and Burchell’s zebra. The northern Kruger is a birders’ paradise, and among the rare species are Arnot’s chat, Böhm’s and mottled spinetails, racket-tailed roller, yellowbellied sunbird and yellowbilled oxpecker.