Kruger National Park was the first national park to be established in South Africa and stretches for 350km north to south along South Africa’s eastern border with Mozambique It is a game park that is world renowned for its rich and diverse wildlife. It history starts as early as 1,500,000 BC from evidence of early humans being found in the area. The San people also existed in the area as far back as 100,000 BC. In AD 200, the first Nguni speaking people, looking for more grazing land for their cattle, migrated south into the area and displaced the San. By 800, the Arabs started raiding the area for slaves, using the ports in Mozambique. The first known European to explore the area was the Dutch Francois de Cuiper, who led a Dutch East India Company expedition from the Cape Colony in 1725 but did not stay after being attacked. Around 1838, Voortrekker expeditions led by Louis Trichardt and Hans van Rensburg explored the Lowveld and in 1845, João Albasini, an 18 year-old Portuguese national of Italian birth, became the first European to settle in the area. About the same time, wagon routes were established across the Lowveld linking the Transvaal Republic to Delagoa Bay at Matupo. Gold was first discovered in September 1873 at Pilgrims Rest, and then in 1881 at Barberton. Fortune seekers rushed to the lowveld, and this started the dramatic decline of wild animals in the region, due to hunting and trading of animal horns and skins. In 1896, the Rinderpest virus wiped out most of the region’s game and cattle. Aiming to preserve game animals for future hunters, the Transvaal Volksraad voted in favour of a small government game reserve. Funds for the Sabie Game Reserve were allocated in 1898, but war broke out. After the Second Boer War, Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) James Stevenson-Hamilton was appointed the first warden in 1902, and a few months later the area from the Sabi River to the Olifants River was added.

The far north area gained protection in 1903 as the Singwitsi Game Reserve. This area included Crooks Corner, a small triangular tongue of land between the Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers, where the borders of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe meet. In the 1900s this area was a safe-haven for gun runners, poachers, fugitives and anyone else dodging the law. It was an easy hop across the river whenever police from one particular country approached. As a result of nearly a century of unbridled hunting, there were virtually no animals in the reserves, and with the reputation of the malarial Lowveld as a white man’s grave, Stevenson-Hamilton removed all human inhabitants from the reserves. In addition, he and his assistants began shooting all predators in order to “bring up” the antelope herds.

In 1912, a railway line was routed through the reserve. Stevenson-Hamilton successfully used this to get tourists to stop over for lunch. By 1916 a government commission was appointed to assess the future of the reserves. In 1926, as an act of reconciliation, the British administration officially renamed the reserves after Paul Kruger, and declared it to be South Africa’s first National Park. In 1927, the park was opened to the public who where charged a £1 fee. Only a handful of cars visited the new park that year, but in 1935 some 26,000 people passed through the gates. Today the number is around 1.25 million per year. Stevenson-Hamilton was surprised when lions became a key attraction, and he stopped the indiscriminate shooting of the predators. There are up to 150 different mammals and over 500 species of birds plus Kruger is a ‘Big Five’ territory of the lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard. Endangered wild dogs can be seen in the south, cheetah and zebra on the plains and giraffe in the wooded areas.

We traveled into the Kruger over two days from our lodging at Mvura Game Lodge. The first night we encountered a terrific storm at the Lodge and by morning the skies were heavily overcast, lit by lightning and full of rain. Nevertheless, we still ventured into the park and had a marvelous morning drive in an atmosphere that to me, appeared to be straight out of a National Geographic film. The dry and barren plains and then the rains came; it was exactly how this morning played out for us. Not too much animal sightings on the morning, some elephants, a few antelope and wildebeest, but not much to speak of. It was also cold, so we were wrapped up and trying to keep the wind out on the open sided game vehicle. We stopped for lunch after viewing the hippo water hole on the Lower Sabie River and by the time we had started off again, the skies had cleared and we had a sunny and warm afternoon drive for the second half of our trip. Needless to say, there was a lot more game available then to see.