Safari
Price Per Person
Arno Pietersen is 33 years old and has been working in the Kruger National Park for the last 12 years guiding. He then became a photographer and birder in the last 6 years of his career.
“I had many images published and took a few very famous images in my last 6 years of Guiding Tourists through the bush.”
Everyone starts somewhere with a small camera and builds themselves up by experience and passion. For me it is a great pleasure to be working with nature and helping others understand the balance thereof. I am an Olympus Pro camera user and we strive to provide guests with the best experience by guiding/tutoring them to be a better photographer with the gear they have.
Kruger National Park has some of the best wildlife and birding photographic opportunities in Africa, and I am here to guide you through it and make it an unforgettable experience!
Come and join me on a Multi-Day Safari through the Kruger national Park in the South and the North, and become one with your equipment and your surroundings!
With a quarter of a century experience guiding wildlife safaris through Southern Africa, I have developed a particular passion for birding.
My tours not only take me coast to coast in South Africa but throughout Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe and even into Uganda and Tanzania.
“I am a registered National guide in both Nature and Culture. Looking forward to sharing my Knowledge and Passion with you!”
Departure & Return Location
Please note: OR Tambo shuttle/bus terminal (Johannesburg) at 6:45 am daily
Clients with more time to spare can add on 3 Nights to the Great Northern region. From here we explore the great North, the famous Luvuvhu rivers and Crooks Corner where Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa meet.
The regions is vast and remote and great for photographic safaris. Predators are more commonly found within the Southern and Central Kruger, but The North is the home to rare antelope species, like roan, eland and Tsesebe. The majestic baobab trees and large herds of buffalo and elephants are an unforgettable experience. The area also offers incredible bird life.
Expect to see packs of lion and leopard as very few people visit this area.
Cost and validity
PP Sharing (Min 2 clients)
Best Season
BERG EN DAL OR PRETORIUSKOP REST CAMPS
Kurt safari Shuttle departs Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport and lodges within a 5 Km Radius early in the morning and travels east towards Hazyview where you will meet your Guide. You will then travel in an open safari vehicle and this is where the true adventure begins.
We enter the park in the afternoon for the first safari, 2 Nights are spent in the Southern Kruger. We enjoy our safari until the gates closing times. Dinner will be at the local rest camp offering a variety of dishes.
Accommodation is in air-conditioned En-suite Rondawels a traditional Kruger experience.
BERG EN DAL OR PRETORIUSKOP REST CAMPS
We depart before sunrise every morning. Different times of the year will mean different areas traveled.
We rest every day between 11-2PM, and swim and relax before the afternoon safaris. Our aim is to photograph during the best lighting. This region is the best for finding the great and threatened Rhino.
One has the option of experiencing optional night safaris booked through the rest camp.
SATARA REST CAMP
This will be our last morning safari before heading north towards the Central regions of the Kruger.
This is a long day as we spend most of the time on safari. Our Camp for the next 2 nights will be Satara – a special and different part of Kruger.
We get to Satara around midday, check into our rooms and depart on an afternoon safari. We have a few dams that are great for late afternoons as
wildlife come to drink.
SATARA REST CAMP
We depart before sunrise every morning. Different times of the year will mean different areas traveled.
Satara is centrally situated so there are 4 directions to choose from in the mornings – making it a really exciting destination.
We rest every day between 11-2PM, and swim and relax before the afternoon safaris. Our aim is to
photograph during the best lighting.
This region is the best for finding Lion. One has the option of experiencing optional night safaris booked through the rest camp.
Today is a long drive passing the Olifants and Letaba rivers, then the Mopani woodland region and we finally head towards Shingwedzi Camp on the banks of the Shingwedzi River.
This region of Kruger is truly special and remote, the camp is quiet and one will spend the next 2 days exploring this magical region.
Today we will spend the morning exploring the Mphongolo River loop, the special Boyela Waterhole and Babalala Rest Stop. In the afternoon we will visit the Red Rocks loop to the
South West.
Between October and April the afternoons can be very warm so the mid-day is spent relaxing at the pool or having a sleep with the cool air-conditioning units.
Today is a really exciting day as we experience a full day expedition in the great Crooks Corner. We enjoy a braai at The Pufuri RestStop on the Luvuvhu River, watching elephants drink from the water.
The Yellow Fever Tree forests and the massive Baobab trees makes this one of the most beautiful and unique areas the park has to offer, yet one of the least visited. It is also one of the best birding
regions of Kruger.
The last day will be an early morning safari and transfer through the park hoping to see those last few animals or birds.
One can catch a return flight from Phalaborwa airport to Johannesburg, and this is a preferred option as it will take no less than 5 hours to reach Phalaborwa from Shingwedzi. Flights depart midday to Johannesburg. The second option is to continue to Hoedspruit with your guide and there we catch a shuttle back to Johannesburg, this is a very long day.
Please book accommodation in Johannesburg as flights can be delayed and one can miss the connecting flight.
Price Per Person
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Questions?
Many people don’t see the point in driving through a bushveld looking for animals, but there’s so much more to it. wild animals are seen as a nuisance in most inhabited areas, but if you’ve never seen the magic of animals in their natural habitat, untouched by humans, you’ve been missing out! looking at zoo animals in their enclosures might be considered nice, because you’re almost 100% guaranteed that you’ll see them, but that’s not how they behave in the wild. nothing beats the thrill of finding a pride of lions laying in the shade, or walking across the road right in front of you, and once you’ve felt the reverberations of an elephant’s trumpet through your bones, you’ll be hooked! our clients often come back for more, because you never know what you’re going to see next…
Every single one of our guides have a passion for the kruger park. we love waking up every morning and meeting new people, never mind sharing our love for the bushveld with them. we are highly experienced and have heaps of knowledge about the fauna and flora in the knp at our clients’ disposal. one of our best characteristics must be that we focus on small groups to give each safari trip the best chance of seeing the best sights that the knp has to offer. our safaris depart any day of the week to suit our clients’ busy schedules and will accommodate all your needs as best we can. visit our website for more information on our company…
We operate from hazyview and will collect you from any of the lovely holiday resorts, lodges or nearby locations. our vehicles depart at different times in different seasons… for full day or morning safaris, we leave at 5am in october to march and at 5h30am in april to september. for afternoon safaris, we leave at 13h00 pm in the afternoons. most of the wildlife in the park prefers hiding in the shade during the hot afternoons, so we highly recommend joining us for the earlier safaris to get the most out of your trip.
Anything to do with the word “game” whilst on a safari—like game drives or looking for game—all refers to wild animals in safari context. you might also encounter “game” on the menus of some traditional restaurants, which basically means that you’re ordering wild buck meat, or even warthog.
Even though the knp falls in a malaria area, most foreigners are pleasantly surprised at how few mosquitoes are actually encountered whilst on a safari. these mosquitoes breed in water, and even in the middle of our rainy season in december, we don’t consider them to be a relentless menace. despite what you might have been told, mosquitoes are not a plague in the knp and although we are always cautious about malaria, the locals in and around the knp do not run around with repellents all the time.
If you’re really worried and consider yourself or anyone joining you on the safari to be particularly susceptible to this rare disease, be sure to consult your gp. there are many places in the park where you can buy mosquito repellent containing deet—this is the most vital ingredient in insect repellents as it has been proven to repel the malaria-carrying mosquitoes effectively.
Even though the kruger park is basically a giant protected bushveld and sparsely populated, there are many little “towns” and camps where you can find anything from grocery stores, souvenir stores, petrol stations and much more.
As mentioned before, there are many places in the knp where we can stop over for lunch where you can buy take-away food or choose to have a meal at the various restaurants. we usually have lunch at skukuza, but this is not set in stone.
Two words: comfortable and practical. seeing as you’re going to be driving around for the majority of the time on your safari experience, it is advisable that you wear clothes that are not too tight and not too hot. winters can be cold, so check the forecast beforehand, but summers are the opposite—just take a jacket with you in case it gets chilly, and stay away from high heels, ladies! we might stop on top of rocky mountains to give you an in-person taste of the spectacular views in the knp. trust me, it’s spine-chilling raw beauty.
You’ll be surprised at the true meaning of this term—it actually refers to the five most feared animals in the bush. they are extremely dangerous to hunt on foot and also rather rare. the big 5 consists of african lions, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. it really is a tourist attraction and many safari companies utilise this term as a major marketing strategy.
We cannot guarantee that there will be sightings of all five animals in the big 5, but we can guarantee that we will do our best to find them. elephants are massive, this is true, but in the lush untouched bushveld of the kruger, if they don’t want to be seen, they can easily disappear behind the trees mere meters away from you. they tend not to be too shy, unlike leopards. rhinos are extremely scarce, but our guides know where their usual grazing spots are, and a pride of lions would attract so much attention that our radios would notify us if there’s a sighting nearby. nevertheless, you are guaranteed to see a very diverse variety of animals in the kruger national park.
Children under 8 are more than welcome on privately hired open vehicles, yes. this is purely out of consideration for our other clients who do not have children and might not have the patience for their unique outlook and excitement about each wild animal we encounter. all children under 12 have discounted safari rates, as well as half-price conservation fees to enter the kruger national park.
You can visit our website to view the current prices for our safaris, make a booking online to receive an invoice, and then make an online payment before the safari takes place, or contact kurt safari for any enquiries you might have regarding other payment options.
I cannot even begin to list the most amazing experiences we’ve had whilst on safaris in the knp! there are too many to count, each encounter very different but equally remarkable. if you consider the size of the knp and how many animals call it their home, you can only begin to imagine the things we’ve seen—from a ride of lionesses to the birth of a brand-new baby giraffe. each time our jaws drop at the splendour of mother nature. you will have to come and see it for yourself.
Placing yourself in the middle of a nature reserve where there are numerous predators and dangerous animals could sound pretty intimidating, but rest assured, kurt safari guides all have in-depth knowledge about the behaviour of these animals and would never put your life in danger. elephants can be aggressive if they have young ones to protect and even lone elephant bulls have charged at cars that don’t know when to back away, but obtaining injuries from wild animals whilst on a safari is very rare and you need not be worried—just enjoy the ride.
