2. Places
  3. Greater Kruger private reserves

Greater Kruger private reserves

There are seven main private reserves which are unfenced and contiguous with west and north of the Kruger. They offer a more flexible experience than the public park whilst sharing its game, and offering greater opportunities for sightings with better access with 4×4 vehicles and off-roading.

Together, they add around 2,000 square kilometres (10%) to the area conserved by the national park, bringing the total extent to well over 2 million hectares.

Concessions, parcels of land leased to private operators inside the boundaries of the park, share some of the same privileges.

Walking with the pride at Sabi Sabi

Sabi Sand

Sabi Sand is the home of Big Five private safaris. Just 25 superb luxury lodge groups enjoy 650 square kms on & around 2 major river systems whose banks teem with leopard, lion and their prey. Game roams through a 50km unfenced boundary with Kruger. Hard to beat.

Buffalo at Timbavati waterhole

Timbavati

Timbavati was a founding member of the Greater Kruger and in fifty years has enjoyed unfenced Kruger game roaming its plains, which are particularly noted for herds of buffalo and elephant. The ancestral home of white lions, it is lightly developed and wild

Makuleke concession from the air

Makuleke

Increased effort to reach the far north is rewarded with a large private area blessed with magical scenery, bird life & animals. Baobab trees dot floodplains surrounded by shady springs and fever tree forests. Now with scheduled flights.

Elephants on Olifants river at Grietjie, Balule

Balule

Balule offers 450 square kilometres of Greater Kruger on both sides of the perennial Olifants river. Big Five is here all year round with a strong elephant presence. More developed than its neighbours, you can find some of the cheaper lodges here.

Klaserie pride at Amani, Klaserie

Klaserie

Klaserie's 600 square kilometres of land are on the unfenced border with the Kruger with river frontage undeveloped on the opposite side. Big Five abounds with excellent lion sightings of resident prides along the margins.

Buffalo on drive in Manyeleti

Manyeleti

The "place of stars" offers 230 square kilometres of Big Five Greater Kruger, sharing topography and game with its better known neighbours including Sabi Sand. Less developed, it offers a small number of lodges at all prices.

Thornybush giraffe

Thornybush

The most recent addition to the Greater Kruger, Thornybush dropped fences between its 14,000 hectares of Big Five bush in 2016. Game has been observed migrating freely both ways since. Conveniently located near to Hoedspruit, the reserve offers commanding views of the Drakensberg escarpment with your lion sightings

Hamiltons Tented Camp mess tent

Private Kruger Central

Two large central concessions are named for their river, Mluwati and N'wanetsi. Five lodges vary in price and exclusivity, with Singita close to the Lebombo eastern mountains on the Mozambique border.

RWS Plains Camp

Private Kruger South

Five southern concessions offer the luxury private lodge experience on exclusive land inside Kruger, including spot-lit night drives and game walks. Most drive off-road and occasionally choose to venture into the Park itself, some after hours.

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