Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park is one of the most famous wildlife parks in the world. It's also one of the biggest and oldest. Sabie Game Reserve was established by the ZAR president Paul Kruger in 1898. The reserve, since renamed and much expanded, is now nearly two million hectares in extent.

The park authorities claim Kruger has the greatest variety of animals of any park in Africa, with lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and black and white rhino (the 'big five') as well as cheetah, giraffe, hippo, and many species of antelope and smaller animals. Altogether, these include approximately 147 mammals, 507 birds, 114 reptile and 34 amphibian species. There are also 336 tree and 49 fish species.

Unlike some of the parks in East Africa, Kruger doesn't offer a true wilderness experience. The infrastructure, including a network of sealed roads and comfortable camps, is too highly developed and organised. The park is too accessible and popular, making many of the animals acclimatised to the presence of cars and humans.

However this should not put you off because Kruger will undoubtedly be a highlight of your South African trip. The positive side of the park's excellent organisation and facilities is that you can explore the park at leisure, without having to depend on organised tours or guides.

The landscape is both beautiful and fascinating, and although you have to be lucky to see all the large predator, you will almost certainly see some of the 'big five' and an extraordinary variety of smaller mammals and birds. Seeing that many of the animals are used to the presence of cars, it means that you can get really close to them.

The eastern plateau region (including Johannesburg) has a dry, sunny climate in winter with maximum temperatures around 20ºC and crisp nights with temperatures dropping to around 5ºC. Between October and April there are late-afternoon showers often accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightning, but it rarely gets unpleasantly hot. Heavy hailstorms cause quite a lot of damage each year. It can, however, get very hot in the Karoo (the semi-desert heart of all three Cape provinces) and the far north (the Kalahari). The Western Cape has dry sunny summers with maximum temperatures around 26ºC. It is often windy, however, and the southeasterly 'Cape Doctor' can reach gale force. Winters can get cold, with average minimum temperatures of around 5ºC, and maximum temperatures of around 17'C, with occasional snow on the higher peaks.

The coast north from the Cape becomes progressively drier and hotter. Along the south coast the weather is temperate, but the east coast becomes increasingly tropical the further north you go. The Transkei region and KwaZulu/Natal can be hot and unpleasantly humid in summer, although the highlands are still pleasant; this is also a summer rainfall area. The Mpumalanga and Northern Province lowveld get very hot in summer, when there are spectacular storms. In winter the days are sunny and warm.