If you’re escaping to the Kruger bush this holiday season, a beautiful new app can help you avoid the crowds and discover parts of the park that you never knew existed. KrugerExplorer is a comprehensive field guide to Kruger National Park and includes over 300 detailed animal profiles, stunning images, the most up-to-date maps of the park available today and more than 70 expertly guided self-drive routes.
We spoke to creators Danny Broome and Charlotte Kirke about their favourite off-the-beaten-track areas of the park.
The Big 5 Triangle
The triangle of roads between Skukuza, Lower Sabie and Tshokwane offers incredible wildlife viewing but can get very busy with visitors during the holiday season. Yet exploring the gravel side roads in the south can quickly get you away from the crowds and into some beautiful wilderness areas.
The S23 south of Skukuza is one such road. It follows the course of the seasonal Mbiyamiti River and offers visitors potential Big 5 sightings, large herds of game and excellent birding opportunities. The Biyamiti Weir river crossing is a low causeway that gives an eye-level perspective of the wildlife drinking in the dam and is not to be missed. Further south, the Gardenia Hide and surrounding roads support superb densities of both big game and rarities, while the S120 will take you up into the Berg-en-Dals hills – seeing an elephant on a mountain peak is a unique bush experience!
Northern roads less travelled
Visiting the more remote north of the Kruger takes you away from the vehicles and into the wild. The floodplains around Pafuri and the Luvuvhu River (S63/S64) offer some of the most magical woodland habitats imaginable and host tropical birds, rare antelope and croc-infested waters. Expect to add to your sightings ‘life list’ here.
The S50 is a long route between Shingwedzi and Mopani and is one of the park’s best-kept secrets. The variety and abundance of wildlife and habitats along here is incredible, while the southern end of the road presents one of the best places in the Kruger to find cheetahs. You can explore the waterholes, riverbanks and beautiful birding hides along this road for hours without seeing another vehicle, while still encountering big cats, huge herds of game and rare birds.
About the KrugerExplorer app
The KrugerExplorer app maps and describes all of the roads in the Kruger National Park, explaining the habitats from the ground up so you can learn about why particular flora exists there, which herbivores and birds depend on that flora, and which predators stalk them. Even for seasoned Kruger visitors, this immersive understanding of the park brings its habitats to life and will help you rediscover the magic of Kruger this holiday season!
The KrugerExplorer app is available to download for iOS or Android.
