Wildlifepictures - National parks

There are a lot of National Parks and game reserves in South Africa, with a big difference in size, price and offered service.
In the National Parks you can drive around in your rental car, planning a route between the camps where you stay at.
The biggest National Park is the Kruger Park, with a lot of different camps wich look like small villages enclosed by an electric fence.

Most of the camps have a small shop where you can buy the most necessary items and foodsupplies, and many camps have a restaurant.
Almost every kind of accomodation his its own small kitcken and bbq, or there is a communal kitchen available.

There is a big variety in accomodation in the national parks, from campingsites, small cottages and bungalows to big guesthouses and more luxury safaritents.
The standard accomodation is pretty basic but has everything you need like a fridge, bbq, utensils, airco etc.

Something to keep in mind while making a reservation is the fact that not all accomodation have their own shower and kitchen, so you have to use the communal ablutions or kitchen.
On the sanparks website it is easy to find out online what is still available on a certain date, with a description of the accomodation.

Most national parks offer some extra services that you can book in the camps:

Gamedrives - accompanied by a ranger you will be searching for animals for about 3 hours from an open safaritruck, on wich the ranger will tell you more about the things you see on this trip.

Nightdrives - the same principle but starting at dusk, and using spotlights to find the animals.

Morningwalks - a few hours walking through the park accompanied by 2 armed rangers.

In the national parks there a strict regulations for visitors to keep it safe and pleasant for human and animals.
There is a speedlimit on the tar and gravelroads, now more often being enforced by the police.
Keep in mind that the limit of 50 km. an hour is still way too fast if you want to find animals that blend in with the surroundings...
Take time enough to travel to your next camp, and preferably drive 15 to 20 km. an hour max then you will see a lot more!

Getting out of your car for a close-up of a lion is not only pretty stupid but also illegal, and still there are people doing just that.
The sad fact however is that when a visitor is seeking such danger that lion might get shot, for being a bigger danger when used to eating human flesh.
To animals a car is often nothing more then a harmless tin thing untill some idiot gets out or is sitting on the roof, then it becomes a cookiejar on wheels..

All animals in the national parks must get their own food, it's not a zoo after all....
The signs indicating that it is not allowed to feed the animals are there for a good reason.
Once used to feeding animals might get pushy or even irritated when getting nothing more, and those sweet monkeys turn out to have pretty big teeth!
Remember you are not doing animals a favour by feeding them, baboons or hyenas that have become troublesome this way are considered a danger and will get shot in the end!

The wildcard :

In the national parks you pay for your accomodation and entrance to the park, the so called conservation fee.
In the Kruger parks for example the conservation fee is 120 Rand per person per day.
With a longer stay in one of the parks it could be wise to buy a wildcard, that gives you acces to all national parks for a year to a fixed price.

You can buy this card for a couple ( any 2 people ) or family, and most of the time you'll start saving money after 6 nights. The wildcard costs 1395 Rand for a couple and 1795 Rand for a family.
Besides not paying the conservation fee at the gate, you will also get a discount with this card in several shops and restaurants.
For every night you stay in a national park you will save a small amount on your card wich you can use for future purchases.

Other gamereserves and parks:

Private gamereserves and parks are much smaller then the national parks, with a smaller number of visitors.
In these reserves it's not allowed to drive yourself, but you will get a number of gamedrives every day accompanied by a ranger or fieldguide.
Besides not having to find the animals yourself the ranger has enough time to explain everything you see on this drive.

The accomodation is more luxurious, and you don't have to do your own cooking.
These reserves are a bit more expensive then the national parks, but usually offer good value for money.