The incredible Kruger

The incredible Kruger

The world-renowned Kruger National Park, named for the president of the former Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger, was officially proclaimed as a national park in 1926, but has a longer history than that having gone through an earlier incarnation as the Sabie Game Reserve (proclaimed way back in 1898) situated between the Sabie and Crocodile Rivers, and later added to with the Shingwedzi Reserve to the north.

The current national park totals just less than 2 million hectares - the size of some small independent countries! The boundaries of this massive area are formed by the Limpopo River in the north, the Crocodile River in the south, Lebombo Mountains (and the Mozambique border) in the east and privately owned land to the west. Four other permanent rivers, the Levuvhu, Letaba, Olifants and Sabie flow through the park which ranges in altitude from just 122 metres above sea level in the Olifants Gorge to 839m in the mountainous south western section.

Rainfall varies tremendously from the very wet southwest to the hot and dry northern areas, and encompasses no less than thirty-five different vegetation types. One can drive from Baobab and Mopane dominated savanna through to Acacia-dotted plains, riverine forest, rocky outcrops, and grassy mountain tops, and just about any variation in between. This variety in vegetation supports an incredible diversity of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians, that, despite some intensive study, still await full cataloguing. For example, more than 500 species of birds (almost 60% of South Africa's total) have been recorded in Kruger, more than 30 frog species, 114 reptile species, innumerable insects species and almost 150 mammals. Not to mention the 50 species of freshwater fish! It is the spectacular mammals like Elephant and Lion, that get most of the attention but rarer species like Roan and Lichtenstein's Hartebeest can be seen in the north, Mountain Reedbuck, Oribi and Vaal Rhebok in the south, Nyala along some of the permanent rivers, Meller's Mongoose on a night drive ...

Kruger holds one of the few viable populations of species such as the African Wild Dog and Lion on the continent, and is a sanctuary for many other vulnerable species. As if this weren't enough the national park will soon become part of a massive project involving South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This is the Limpopo Transfrontier Park that straddles the borders of the three countries and will comprise more than 3 million hectares in a so called ‘Peace Park'. This, in addition to the ambitious ‘Kruger to Canyon Biosphere' project on the western side that aims to link up conservation land between Kruger and the Drakensberg escarpment, thus consolidating the area's ecological integrity.

CC Africa is fortunate to have three properties that either border Kruger or fall within the boundaries. The most southerly is Bongani Mountain Lodge that occupies an area adjacent to the mountainous region of south-western Kruger. The high rainfall and underlying geology have resulted in unique vegetation and spectacular landscapes. Game viewing of all the larger species as well as Mountain Reedbuck and Klipspringer is good, but perhaps the ‘jewel in this crown' here, is the abundance of San rock art that adorns many rock shelters. Londolozi is situated further north in the well-known Sabi-Sand Reserve and is world famous for its amazing Leopard viewing and its pioneering approach to the private game lodge industry through community involvement. Ngala is the first reserve to have been statutorily incorporated into Kruger and occupies the area to the west of Orpen Gate in the game rich central district. This came about in 1990 through the donation of almost 15000 hectares by Hans Hoheisen to the National Parks Trust from whom CC Africa leases this concession. This spectacular piece of land is well know for its high densities of Elephant, Buffalo and Lion and for its Wild Dogs which have denned here four times in the last ten years.

-Chris Roche-

Posted: Other by CC Africa, Date: 21 November 2006