Kruger Park Album
We made a trip to the world-famous Kruger National Park. As Kruger National Park is in the north-east of the country and we are in the South of the country, we needed to traverse quite a bit of South Africa to get there (about 1500km/950 miles). We visited some places on the way to and from Kruger and I will post the pictures of the trip separately. In the mean time, you can see the pictures of the actual visit to Kruger Park by clicking here or on the picture above.
We spent about 4 days in Kruger, partially driving around ourselves and partially participating in organized game drives while we stayed for a couple of nights at Tinga Private Game Lodge. The accomodation at Tinga was lovely, but we were extremely disappointed by the level of service provided for the price they charge (list price 6050R/$972/Euro775 per person per night! – we paid less, but still very expensive). We had our own private lodge, which was large, private and had a lovely game viewing deck including heated pool. There are some pictures of the lodge in the album. However, the lodge was operated like a “packaged tourist place” where everything had to be done on their schedule. Some examples of this include:
* When we arrived, we could not get a quick lunch because the person at reception had to give us a full tour first that took an hour and could not be changed to meet our schedule!
* When we decided not to go on the game drive the first evening, but instead get an early dinner in order to get up early the next day, this could not be organized as dinner is only served after the game drive is back (19:30).
* When we enquired about a walking safari this was seen as an unusual request, even though it is mentioned on their website, and could not be arranged because there were not enough rangers available.
* When we had a “private dinner” the second evening at the managers suggestion, this was poorly organized – the crew moved our deck table indoors, and told us it was considered dangerous to sit out, at night (the general manager contradicted this to us the next day); dinner was served after 20:30 because they hadn’t taken our order before we left on the game drive and when they finally brought dinner (really not much more than room service) they forgot water and wine. It took them half an hour to bring the drinks!
Overall, I would not recommend staying at Tinga unless they improve their levels of service dramatically. What we experienced was unacceptable for a 5 star place, which is what Tinga claims to be and charges for.
In Kruger we saw the “big 5” (Leopard, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant) as well as many other mammals (antelopes, giraffes, hippos), primates, birds and reptiles. The phrase Big Five Game was coined by game hunters and refers to the five large mammals that were originally most sought in Africa based on their difficulty to hunt.
We bought a high quality lens (Canon 100-400 IS L Series Lens) for the occasion and got great pictures which you can see in the album.
