we recently spent 14 days in the kruger national park we entered at orpen gate which is more or less
in the middle and then headed north before heading back down south to exit at malelane
a number of years ago some of the land owners bordering the kruger national park
agreed to take down the fences between their own properties and with the kruger park itself and
thus the greater kruger national park was born before going into the kruger park itself we
spent two nights at the simbavati hilltop lodge which is in the timbavati game reserve which
is part of this greater kruger national park it's a four-star all-inclusive lodge accommodation is
in safari tents but it's not just any tent this is a luxurious tent it's got everything you want
the king-size bed is really super comfortable and this outside bathroom and shower is so special
it's unfenced so the reserve is right outside your door and just look at this view
does it get any better than that i'm not sure during other times the lodge caters mainly for
foreign visitors when we visited it was very quiet there were very few other guests and they were all
south africans they are in fact running specials for south african and sadc residents at the moment
i really can't praise it enough from the food to the facilities to the staff it really is top class
and we paid for our stay so i'm not being paid to say that that is my honest personal opinion
there's no self-drive game viewing at simbavati it's guided and we're not normally
people that go on guided trips like this but to be honest it's really really educational the
guides and the drivers know so much about even the smallest animals
and they know where to find the big predators and they know where to find the big animals so
it's really worthwhile doing it now and then i don't regret it at all we had some amazing game
orpen gate which is kind of more or less in the center of the kruger is the closest access from
hoedspruit and the road between orpen and satara is said to be very very good for lion viewing we
didn't see any of the predators on this drive but we saw plenty of elephants giraffes zebra
and antelope we traveled east along the h7 and then turned north although the main north-south
route through the krueger is the h1 if there's a highway in the kruger that would be it we took
a lot of back roads crossing some semi-flooded low water bridges on our way to olifants rest
camp there's no traditional camping in olifants but the chalets are very
comfortable they have outdoor kitchens ours had two single beds but the layout does vary
the shower had piping hot water and there's aircon which is very important in the summer
there's a very cool viewing deck overlooking the olifants river
there's also a well-stocked shop which is actually very reasonably priced
and a restaurant the tindlovu restaurant is kind of okay it's not really gourmet dining but
what a view from the deck the game viewing in the three nights we stayed there wasn't the best
we didn't see any of the big predators loads of elephants loads of hippos and zebra giraffe and
so on but they're wild animals and they don't always do what we want them to do
our original plan and booking was to stay at sirheni bush camp which is in the
fairly far north of the kruger but we got a call from sand parks to say that the
road had been washed away due to heavy rain so we had to change our plans and they accommodated us
at bateleur bush camp which is quite a bit further south it's in the vicinity of shingwedzi rest camp
but first we've got to cross the tropic of capricorn for the first
time of this trip we will cross it again on our way back south
bateleur bush camp is named after the bateleur eagle which is thought to be the
inspiration behind the zimbabwe bird which is the national emblem of zimbabwe
the chalets are really really well equipped they've got everything you
need comfortable beds there's electricity there's air conditioner ceiling fans
but no mobile phone reception and no wi-fi this is really really remote if you want to
get away from it all for a digital detox this is definitely the place to do it
this area is dominated by very thick mopane forest so the game viewing wasn't very good
so we were quite happy actually to head back south again to our next destination tamboti tented camp
is what's called a satellite camp of orpen rest camp it's not far four or five
kilometers away and you do your check-in at orpen because there's no facilities
at tamboti the park shop at open rest camp is a good spot to stock up on supplies for your stay
at tamboti yeah shop we're going out here now we're going to turn left and go down to tamboti
there are 40 tents in tamboti bush camp
all along the riverfront but there's nothing here no shop no swimming pool no facilities whatsoever
just a genuine bush experience the tents are all canvas but very very comfortable comfortable beds
nice shower all the cooking facilities that you need and it's all really close
to nature with the sounds and the sights of the park right in front of your door
chilling on the deck in the cool of the evening with a cold beer
and a braai fire going i'm not sure that it actually gets better than that
that's it for this week thank you so much for watching next week we're heading south for some
of the best game viewing of the entire trip if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up
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pledge on your part will help me to keep making videos like this see you next and then big time