People often ask me for advice about where to go on holiday in or around the Kruger National Park. I’m always unsure how to answer because the options are endless. But I usually present the options in two different categories: 1) DIY your experience — self-drive through the park and stay in the modest SANParks camps along the way; or 2) Hand your experience over to the professionals — book a more luxurious stay in a private concession outside the national park.
Giraffes crossing the road in the Kruger National Park.
Until our recent stay at Kruger Untamed, I didn’t realize it’s possible to have both experiences at once. The two Kruger Untamed camps, both in the center of the Kruger, are among a limited number of private concessions inside the park. Staying in these camps provides that unmistakeable “I’m in the Kruger Park” feeling, but with more luxury, more privacy, and longer hours inside the park itself.
The Blogitects (a.k.a. Thorsten and I) stayed for four nights (two nights at each place) at Kruger Untamed’s Tshokwane River Camp and Satara Plains Camp. The experiences and service were similarly great at both camps, but each one had its own unique vibe (see my comparison at the end). I’m really glad we got to stay at both camps.
Thorsten and I enjoying sundowners during a game drive with Kruger Untamed Satara. (Photo by another guest whose name I’ve forgotten.)
We drove ourselves to the Kruger — it’s about a seven-hour drive from Joburg to the busy Tshokwane Picnic Site. We left Greylene at a special parking area near the picnic site and met a guide from Kruger Untamed, Mishek, who drove us the rest of the way to the Tshokwane River Camp. Once we arrived at the camp, well off the tar road, we were plunged into safari fantasyland: twice-daily game drives with picture-perfect sundowner stops, gourmet meals with free-flowing drinks, and abundant bird calls and other animal sounds outside our tent.
Kruger sunsets hit different.
Two days later, we drove about an hour to the Satara SANParks camp parking lot, where we left our car again and spent two more days at the Satara Plains Camp.
Another iconic Kruger sight: a southern yellow-billed hornbill in a tree.
About Kruger Untamed
Beside the fact that they’re inside the Kruger, the Kruger Untamed camps are unique in a couple of other ways. Most importantly, the camps are only open for half the year: during the winter and spring months when the park is dry and cool. The camps are totally dismantled at the end of each season, to be raised again the following year. This is pretty amazing, considering how luxurious and comfortable the accommodation is. But the camps have a fleeting, impermanent sense about them that feels pleasantly romantic.
Our tent at Tshokwane (the tent at Satara was nearly identical). The bed is super comfortable, the floor is raised above the ground, and there is electricity (supplied by a generator that switches off at night). You feel much more connected to nature than you would in a unit with solid walls and ceilings. Each tent has a full bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower — the staff bring water for hot showers on request in either the morning or evening.
Thorsten, a.k.a. @theThinking_Hand, made a wonderful architectural sketch of the Kruger Untamed tent and shower system.
Sitting on the verandah of our tent at Satara. (Photo: Thorsten Deckler)
Entrance to the dining tent at Tshokwane.
The Tshokwane camp is built beside a dry riverbed, which you can see in the background of this sketch. The Satara camp is more spread out across the bush.
Another big selling point for staying at Kruger Untamed is the late-night access to the Kruger National Park itself. If you self-drive and stay in the SANParks camps, you have to be inside the camp gates by the park’s closing time, which is 6:00 p.m. at this time of year. Kruger Untamed vehicles can stay in the park long after dark, and this is when we had some of our best wildlife sightings.
We saw this group of lions — two adult females and seven cubs in total — hanging out under a full moon one night.
The last major selling point for these camps is the cost. A stay at Tshokwane River Camp or Satara Plains Camp isn’t cheap — no luxury safari holiday is. (Safari holidays have become a lot more expensive over the last decade or so — a topic for another post.) But Kruger Untamed’s rates are lower than other private lodges of this caliber. The daily per-person-sharing rate at Tshokwane for SADC (Southern African) residents is around R8000. At Satara, it’s around R5000. (If you’re gasping right now, check the rates for other luxury lodges near the Kruger — you’ll gasp a lot harder.) Rates for international visitors are slightly higher, but still less than what you’d pay at similar lodges. These rates are all-inclusive, including game drives/walks and all meals/drinks.
Lunch at Satara one day. The food was consistently delicious.
Game Drives and Walks at Kruger Untamed
Quick reminder (to both myself and you): No matter how hot it is during the day, it is ALWAYS much colder than you expect on morning and evening game drives in the Kruger. Bring more layers than you could ever imagine you’ll need, and for God’s sake don’t forget your beanie. (Photo: Thorsten Deckler)
“Wow, the Kruger is so hard-core,” Thorsten said to me, over and over, each time I informed him it was time to prepare for another game drive. And he’s not wrong. At Kruger Untamed Tshokwane, you’ll spend seven hours a day (about three hours in the morning and four hours in the evening) either driving or walking in the bush. (Only one game experience a day is included in the rate at Satara, so you might take the morning off there.) But this is what it’s all about. The Kruger Park has the best game-viewing in the world, and we had some of the best guides available to show it to us. So we made the most of it.
Our Tshokwane guides, Samukelisiwe (Sam) Mashigo (left) and Kunhle Ngwenya (right) at the start of a game drive.
Sam, a recent graduate of the prestigious Tracker Academy and an expert on spor (footprints), explains the difference between lion and hyena spor. Like many of the guides and other staff at Kruger Untamed, Sam grew up just outside the park.
Ndiene Mahafha, our fantastic guide at Satara, shared so many interesting facts about animals and plants. For example, zebras’ fat stomachs are not actually fat — they are usually filled with gas. This revelation led to vulgar speculation from Thorsten about what happens when a zebra gets shot…Does the stomach immediately deflate? How much gas would it take for a zebra to float up into the air? The three of us laughed a lot.
Action sketch of Ndiene by @theThinking_Hand.
Darren Walker (appropriately named) was one of our walking safari guides at Satara. I highly recommend doing at least one walk during a stay at Kruger Untamed — we learned a lot and it felt great to walk after so many hours of driving. The guides carry rifles for safety but they’re almost never used.
An elephant print that got preserved after the huge floods in Kruger earlier this year. I’ve seen hundreds of elephants in my life, but I was still floored by the size of this print up close. Apparently it’s not even from a “really big” elephant bull.
Our other walking guide, Gregory Behrens.
Greg shows us a beautiful spring flower called string of stars.
Animals We Saw
I’m always overwhelmed when it comes time to choose animal pictures for the blog — there are too many to share. Here are a few of my favorites.
I probably took 200 elephant pictures but for some reason this one — showing a feisty adolescent who wasn’t happy with our presence — is my favorite. There are TONS of elephants around both of these camps.
My favorite of Thorsten’s elephant sketches.
A Verreaux’s eagle-owl, the largest African owl.
Early morning hippo eyes.
I find buffalo exceedingly difficult to photograph, but I got a few shots that I liked during this golden-hour encounter with a large herd near Satara.
A saddle-billed stork in flight. We saw several of these beautiful birds around Tshokwane.
Lions! We spotted these teenagers on our second-to-last day at Kruger Untamed. Satara is in a part of the Kruger that is particularly known for apex predators.
Not shown: my first-ever honey badger sighting, which looks like a blur of white and black in my pictures but was super exciting IRL, and my first-ever closeup leopard sighting (it was very dark and I only got a fuzzy video clip).
Differences Between Kruger Untamed Tshokwane and Satara
If you’re trying to decide which camp to book, here are the main differences I noticed between the two:
- Both camps offer proper glamping experiences with basically all the amenities you’d expect in a brick-and-mortar room. The tents at Tshokwane have flushing toilets, while the tents at Satara have chemical toilets, but I didn’t mind the chemical toilet at all. Both camps have flushing toilets near the entrance that are available to guests during the day.
- The Satara Camp accommodates 60 guests total, while Tshokwane accommodates 40. Tshokwane has a slightly more intimate feel.
- A stay at Tshokwane includes two game drives/walks a day, while a stay at Satara includes one. You can book an extra daily game drive at Satara for an additional charge. (I think the cost was about R850 per person when we were there.)
- The tents at Tshokwane overlook a dry riverbed, where you might occasionally spot game. (We glimpsed a couple of elephants and a cute bushbuck.) Our tent at Satara didn’t really have a view but I liked the feeling of being in the middle of the bush.
- The Tshokwane camp has a small swimming pool, while the Satara camp has a few wood-fired hot tubs available for guests. We never found the time to try either one, unfortunately.
- The bushveld around Satara is more open, with richer soil that tends to attract more big game and predators than the denser landscape at Tshokwane. We didn’t see lions at Tshokwane but had two great sightings at Satara. So if you’re very keen to see big cats, your chances are better at Satara. But please remember that there are no guarantees. I personally find it more enjoyable to assume I’m not going to see any predators and just enjoy the game drive experience.
That said, I’m really grateful to have seen this beautiful lion family!
Thanks to Kruger Untamed for an amazing stay. Coming up next: a night at the glorious Kruger Shalati train hotel.
Our stay at Kruger Untamed was complimentary as part of a media invitation. Opinions expressed are mine.
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You got some beautiful pictures! And I love the elephant sketch. Keep them coming 🙂
Thank you!
Sounds like a great experience. Both camps are still way larger than I prefer (I like to stay in places with no more than 10 tents) but certainly better priced!! Love your photo of Verreaux’s Eagle Owl and saddle billed stork in flight!
Thanks Nancy. Yeah, I don’t think super small camps like that are in the budget for most people paying in rand! But Tshokwane in particular really didn’t feel like a big camp. 40 is the maximum capacity but I doubt they have that many people at once very often. (I’d say there were 20 or less when we were there.)
We are grateful for your blog 🙂
Thanks so much, Thula! x