Lower Sabie Rest Camp - Kruger National Park - Campsite Review

 Lower Sabie Rest Camp - Kruger National Park - Campsite Review

• Lower Sabie Campsite
• Kriger National Park 
• Mpumalanga Province
• South Africa
• SanParks

Date Visited - January 2022

Lower Sabie is one of the popular camps in the Kruger National Park. Nice campsites, some with shade. All are paved and have a braai, electricity as well as a tap (nearby). Be aware that some of the campsites are small and it's first come first served. So, look around if you have a big rig! The ablutions were clean neat and tidy. The rest camp has a big shop as well as a restaurant. The restaurant has a lovely deck overlooking the Sabie River. Unfortunately, none of the campsite have a river view. The rest camp does also have a swimming pool.

The rest camp is also near the Sunset Dam, a popular place for birdwatching as well as viewing the many animals that come down to drink.

 See our review here:  

Pretoriuskop Rest Camp - Kruger National Park - Campsite review

 Pretoriuskop Rest Camp - Kruger National Park - Campsite review

• Pretoriuskop Rset Camp
• Kruger National Park
• Mpumalanga Province
• South Africa
• SanParks

Date visited: January 2023

Pretoriuskop is situated in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The camping sites are ok (some are along the boundary fence - nice!) and the ablutions were really nice and clean. There is electric power, water and a braai. The rest camp also has a shop, a restaurant as well as a lovely swimming pool. There are some nice drives near the camp and we were lucky with our game viewing (also see our Kruger vlog on our YouTube channel!). All in all, a nice composite.

 See our review here: 

Punda Maria - Kruger National Park - Campsite Review

 Punda Maria - Kruger National Park - Campsite Review

• Punda Maria
• Kruger National Park
• SanParks
• Limpopo Province
• South Africa

Visited:  May 2022

Punda Maria in the far northern section of the Kruger National Park is a lovely campsite. Nice ablutions and the campsite hide overlooking a waterhole.

Nish shop and there is also a fuel station.

The campsite also has a lovely swimming pool for the hot summer days.

Some sites have electricity (need to book those) and all sites have a braai.

See our review here:  

 

Shingwedzi Campsite - Campsite Review

• Shingwedzi Campsite
• Kruger National Park
• South Africa

Date Visited : April 2021

This campsite is situated within the Kruger National Park, in South Africa. Its quiet a big campsite and the ablutions are a long way from some of the campsites (depending on where you set up camp). All the sites ahve electric power points. There is a nice swimming pool. When you book you book either sites along the fence or "inside" sites. We had a site along the fence (paid for it) - but did not see any animals from our site. There are camp kitchens where you can cook on gas and get hot water as well as wash your dishes.

What we liked about this campsite:

• Situated within Kruger
• Lovely drive across the river
• Nice clean ablutions
• The swimming pool

What we did not like about ths campsite:

• Nothing

See our video here :

Punda Maria Campsite - Campsite Review

 Punda Maria Campsite - Campsite Review

• Punda Maria
• Kruger National Park
• Campsites with and without electricity

Date Visited: April 2021

This campsite, situated within the Kruger National Park, is in the very Northern section of the Kruger. It has sites with and sites without electricity. There is a lovely hide/viewing deck overlooking a waterhole (when  the renovations are complete the waterhole will be refilled) and you can see a variety of game at from the hide.

The camp does have a swimming pool (lovely and clean) and there is a shop as well as a restaurant. In addition, the camp has a fuel station where you can fill up on diesel and petrol. There are a number of self drive routes near the camp and we found these to be very usefull for late afternoon drives.

This is one route option:

But we prefer to keep on the N1 and enter the Kruger at the Pafuri gate:

What we liked about Punda Maria:

• The hide/viewing deck
• The restaurant
• The easy access to lovely short drives
• The Northern Kruger (Crooks Corner)
• The swimming pool

What we did not like about Punda Maria:

• The fact that when it's busy the staff do not check if those that have booked sites without electricity are in fact not using the electricity plugpoints. When you arrive in the busy season, it's unlikely that you will get a plugpointy even if you have booked and paid for one!
• The ablutions were very old and in need of updating. (this may have been done by now)

See our video here:

Pine Lake Resort and Kruger National Park - 2016

Pine Lake Resort and Kruger National Park

My brother, John and his wife, Anne, have some timeshare. So, the mid term break (they are both in the teaching profession) in February 2016 was a good time to visit Mpumalanga and in particular the Kruger National Park.
Anne had booked time at Pine Lake Resort, near Hazyview. This was about 37.3km's from the Numbi gate into Kruger. But because of the problems that were reported on the road to Numbi, we chose to use the Phabeni gate instead.
Sue and I were going to be only staying for the weekend, leaving Randpark Ridge on Friday afternoon. According to the Garmin, it was about a 4 hour drive. We would be travelling back on the Monday morning, leaving Pine Lake very early. The drive over went well and it took us 4 hours and 5 minutes

We were travelling light this trip, with no caravan or trailer ! The car was packed with a fridge, dual battery system and one bag containing our cloths for the weekend.

The chalet. has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lounge, dining room and kitchen. very nice.

The view is over a dam/lake.

Pine Lake Resort is stunning and we had a lovely chalet (3 bedrooms) overlooking the lake. Good braai area as well, which we used on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

We departed early Saturday morning for Kruger. Leaving at 05h00 we arrived at the Phabeni gate just after they had opened.

 There was already a queue and the processing was slow, with only one of 3 booths manned and open !. Anyway, we made it in !

Its always nice to be in the Kruger.
We had the opportunity to see 4 of the big 5, and only missed out on the Lion !!

It was exceptionally hot. The forecast for Skukuza was 44c and we stopped for lunch at Lower Sabie where it was, according to the parks-board, 45c. But there was a very hot berg wind and it felt more like 54c.
Even the monkeys and baboons were feeling the heat !

We stopped off at a stretch point, but it was too hot to have a good look around !

It was very dry and most of the grass has died and there is really just a lot of sand. The water situation seemed dire, and even the warthogs were batting to find mud to cool off in

We exited at the same gate at which we had entered the park. We left at 18h00.

On the Sunday we had decided to have a later morning and a decent breakfast.

It was very good.

The rest of the day was just lazing around with a short drive into the nearby attractions at White River where we spent about 3 hours milling around the local craft stores. Some had excellent local crafts.

Sue and I left Pine Lake Resort very early Monday morning as I had to get back to work.

It was an excellent relaxing weekend.

According to Garmin, the following are the statistics :

• Total Km's - 1,207
• Moving average  - 62km per hour
• Overall average  -  53 km per hour
• Moving time was 19 hours 31 minutes
• Total time was 22 hours 59 minutes.