In the heart of the Lowveld, stretching for 352 kilometers from north to south along the Mozambique border, one of the world’s foremost national parks can be found. This is the Kruger National Park, a wildlife sanctuary larger in area than Israel. Covering 19 624 square kilometers and averaging 60 kilometers in width, Kruger provides a refuge for 147 mammal species, 500 species of birds, 116 reptiles, 34 amphibians, 49 fishes, 457 types of trees and shrubs, 1 500 smaller plants, and countless insects.
Each year approximately 950 000 people visit the Kruger Park, and half of them stay overnight in the 26 rest camps that range from the intimate 19-bed Malelane, bordering the Crocodile River in the extreme south, to historic Punda Maria in the far north. South Africans account for 80 per cent of all visitors, and for many a visit to Kruger has become a kind of spiritual pilgrimage.
An entire subculture of devotees has developed over the past 70 years around the unpredictability of wildlife viewing, the apparent endlessness of the wilderness and the Park’s unique atmosphere. And it is these ardent supporters who are the Park’s greatest defenders. Kruger epitomizes for many the rejuvenating and healing qualities of Nature, allowing its visitors to escape the increasing pressures of modern urban life and the Information Age.
The Park’s rest camps are connected by a 2 600-kilometre network of all-weather roads, which allow visitors to explore its diverse habitats on their own and without the need to hire a guide. Income from tourism and trading activities generates more than R200-million per year, and the Kruger Park plays a major role in the Lowveld’s economy.
Purely in terms of facilities and the range of accommodation offered, no national park anywhere in the world can match what Kruger has to offer. Even the most popular national parks in the United States cannot equal the number of rest camps and the extent of the road network. This fact alludes to an apparent contradiction: South Africa’s largest wildlife reserve and one of its most unspoilt wildernesses is at the same time one of the most developed and accessible ecotourism destinations in the country.
Across these unbounded, bush-covered expanses everything is constantly changing: centuries-old trees are struck by lightning and are reduced to a small pile of ash; vegetation communities are altered as plants are influenced by drought, fire and animals; and fluctuations in animal populations closely track climatic change. And yet the cycle of life – birth, childhood, maturity, old age and death ensures that things remain essentially the same.
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