Kruger for kids

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I haven't historically written informational blogs, preferring to simply write our travel stories. However, given the general lack of information about travel with kids, I thought I'd try to write a quick overview of each place we have visited in regards to children's activities and family-friendly accommodation. I'll start with Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Kruger for Kids

Kruger is a very family-friendly place to go on safari. It is much more affordable than its rivals, the Serengeti and Masai Mara in Tanzania and Kenya, and the facilities are far superior, at least on a budget. While park fees top $100/day in Kenya/Tanzania, making it unaffordable to the average family, South Africa National Parks offers a Wild Card deal. We got the international Wild Card and it cost just 4,130 rand (about $300) for unlimited entry to all parks in South Africa for a family of two adults and up to five children for a whole year. If you are going to be staying in the parks more than about a week, it quickly pays for itself. In addition, Serengeti and Masai Mara are generally done on a guided tour, whereas in the Kruger, it is most common to self drive. This makes much more sense for families as you need to be on your own schedule and it is much more economical at about $12/day to rent a small car. We rented from 1st Car Rental ( http://www.firstcarrental.co.za ) as they had a 200km/day limit, much more generous than Avis' 100km/day limit. They provided car seats for a small extra fee. They were not as secure-feeling as our seats back home in the US but once you are in the park, most families discard the car seats anyway. I lost track of the number of times I saw a small child riding on the driver's lap! The police inside the parks don't seem to care and the speeds are fairly low. We didn't feel quite this comfortable so came up with a compromise. They had to be in their car seats with the buckle fastened, but they could take their shoulders out of the shoulder straps to make it easier to lean forward to see animals. It worked for us.



We spent a whopping two month in Kruger. For the first month, the kids were really into it and had fun spotting the animals. I was surprised at how into it they were. It helped that we bought them cute kid binoculars before we went so that they felt the part! I also made sticker books with a picture of an animal on each page. Every time they spotted the animal, they got to put a sticker on that page. I'd also checked ahead with the car rental company about the music system in our car. We just had a CD player, so I spent time before leaving home making up CDs of their favorite songs. This really helped. After about five weeks, they started to get a bit bored, and mommy and daddy wanted to spend more time sitting still, watching cats hunt etc, which is super boring when you're 2 and 4. It was finally time to bust out the iPads! Up until now, I'd kept them pretty much under wraps as I knew there'd be no going back. They were an instant hit. While Scott and I watched elephants crossing the road in front of us, the kids were watching Dumbo on their iPads!



Now to the nitty-gritty:

ACCOMMODATION

We stayed inside the park the whole time. It is far cheaper than staying in the private lodges inside or outside the park, and it is much safer (in terms of crime) than staying anywhere outside the park. All of the camps are gated and fenced, meaning that animals can't get inside (at least in theory!) Our favorite accommodation was at Lower Sabie restcamp, where we spent about 5 weeks. We stayed in four-person or five-person rooms (labeled EH4 or EH5) for about $45/night. They were fairly basic but perfectly adequate. They came with four or five single beds, a fridge (extremely helpful for families!), a sink, and lots of pots and pans for in case you wanted to use the communal kitchen. They were also air conditioned, which was a huge bonus on those sweltering 43 degree celsius / 110 degree Fahrenheit days! The only catch was that it was a shared bathroom. I'd liken the bathrooms to those you might find on a campsite in the U.K. There was a row of hot showers, a row of toilets, and a row of sinks. There was also a small room with a bathtub, which was always in high demand by families with littles. There was also a separate bathroom designed for wheelchair users. This was our favorite bathroom as all four of us could go in and shower at the same time, making it easier and faster too.



We also stayed in Skukuza Camp for about three weeks in a "safari tent." Unless you want a much higher price tag, this is the only accommodation in this camp. The tents were fairly big and had four beds, a closet, a fan, and even that family essential, the fridge. They had no running water inside, though, which is a bit of a pain when you want to do a quick hand wash on your kids. The other difficulty with these was the hugely swinging temperatures. One night it would be freezing cold and I'd dress the kids in fleece footy pajamas, and the next night it'd be really hot, and they'd sleep in underwear/diaper in front of the fan! Of course, the temperature would drop later in the night. Whereas adults would simply reach for a blanket, the kids of course would wail out, "Mommy! I'm cold!" It was far easier in the Lower Sabie huts as the air conditioner meant you could create a constant temperature. Given that the safari tents were practically the same price as the rooms at Lower Sabie, we decided that they were not worth the money.



The only other restcamp we stayed in was Pretoriuskop. This had family huts similar to Lower Sabie but they were a little more expensive, and the camp isn't as nice in terms of facilities and location.



One other option for those of you more adventurous than us would be to take your own tent and reserve a camping site.



On the topic of reserving, you can book everything and pay on credit card through the South African National Parks website at SANParks.co.za. We booked all of our accommodation in March for the September/October, but family rooms are limited and they were almost booked out so we had to piecemeal it together. It is better to book as early as possible. Reservations open 11 months prior, and the South Africans are often waiting online to book, especially for school holidays. Book early!

PLAYGROUNDS

I feel the need to address this topic in detail. Our kids are 2 and 4 and are crazy about playgrounds. Where we live in California we have dozens of excellent playgrounds, and I knew that our kids would adapt more easily into life on the road if only we could locate some decent playgrounds. If you are planning a trip and have similar kids, read on...



After a lot of googling and scouring the SANParks website, I came to the conclusion that only Satara restcamp had a playground. Unfortunately, we didn't plan to stay there as prices were higher for accommodation, and there were supposed to be more mosquitoes in the north (I'll come to that later). However, as soon as we got into Kruger, we started to ask around and actually found several playgrounds. Here's the lowdown:



* Indigenous Plant Nursery Playground - This was hands down the best playground we found, and the kids referred to it as their "favorite playground." It had only been built three months prior to us getting to Kruger and was therefore in perfect condition. It was nice and shady and had lots of soft sand underneath and, most importantly, was gated from animals. If you check it out, be sure to say hi to Meurel for us. She runs the nursery but would always take a break to greet us and play with the kids. The indigenous plant nursery was located about four kilometers from Skukuza Camp on the road to Phabeni gate. Even when we were staying at Lower Sabie Camp, we'd make the two hour drive to this playground every other day as the drive was along one of the best game viewing roads anyway!

* Skukuza Camp Playground - this was our second favorite playground. It is much smaller than the plant nursery playground and has a few areas that you have to watch small ones on quite carefully due to big drops above wooden stumps. Still, it gave our kiddos another place to play. The advantage for the adults was that it had views over the Sabie River and it was owned by the Cattle Baron restaurant, meaning you could piggy back off their wifi (the only wifi we found in the park!) while watching the kids if you stood in the right spot!

* Golf Course Playground - The golf course is located next door to the Indigenous Plant Nursery and there was a small playground associated with the restaurant. However, it was old and quite dangerous for little ones so we avoided it. Hopefully it will get updated though, so worth checking out.

* Satara Restcamp Playground - As I already mentioned, this was the only playground that I could find a picture of when researching before we went, so we had to check it out. It was a day trip out of Lower Sabie or Skukuza Restcamps but had some good wildlife viewing along the way. From a distance (and in photos) it looks great, but unfortunately it is quite run down with certain parts broken. It definitely needs as adult to scout it out before letting your littles play. Our kids had fun there because of the novelty of a new playground, but it was definitely necessary to hover to avoid injuries!

* Berg-en-Dal Restcamp Playground MAYBE - We visited this small camp on a day trip and did not find a playground, but we heard afterwards that they do in fact have one. I'm not convinced, but it's worth checking into if you are there!



WARNING! Vervet monkeys would often invade the playgrounds. If this happens, get your kids off immediately and don't have food around, or they could get aggressive (both the monkeys AND the kids, depending on the food type!) We never had a problem with them, but we always made our kids leave as soon as they arrived, even if it created a screaming meltdown!



In addition to all of the playgrounds in Kruger National Park, it's worth noting that the gateway town to Kruger, Nelspruit, has lots of fun play areas for kids located inside restaurants. The Crossing Center Mall (on the corner of Madiba Drive and Samora Machel) had a Wimpy with a fun children's play area. The i'Langa Mall was our favorite, though. It's a huge indoor center with enclosed playgrounds with supervision located at Panarrotis Pizza Pasta, and at Mountain Spring Spur restaurant, conveniently located right next door to one another. You can find it on the corner of Bitterbessie and Flamboyant Street, right off the R104.

SWIMMING POOLS

For those afternoons when it's just too hot to do anything else, the pools are your best bet. Skukuza Camp, being the largest camp, had two swimming pools, both with shallow baby pools. Lower Sabie had one pool but no kiddie pool. There were several wide shallow steps to play on though. The most unique pool, and the most fun for little children, is the one at Pretoriuskop Restcamp. It's the first pool to ever be built in the Kruger and was built into a natural rock slope. There's a shallow baby pool at the top of the rock slope and the water forms a stream running down the rock face. It's surprisingly very grippy on your feet so it's fun for kids to walk up and down the stream. It's worth noting, though, that the pools are not heated and get very chilly in the winter (June, July, August). In fact, when we first arrived in the park in early September, the pool at Lower Sabie had not even been cleaned and opened for the season. The pools seem to be open from about mid-September, but don't expect them to warm up enough to not take your breath away until at least early October. But there again, I'm a California wimp!

EATING

Most of the rest camps had a restaurant, and most had a shop selling basic food supplies. We stocked up on a few cooking things in Nelspruit but found that the huts (but not the tents) provided adequate cooking supplies such as pots, pans, wooden spoons, plates, cups, utensils etc. All had boiling water in the shared kitchens, handy for early morning instant coffee making. We did quite a lot of cooking in Skukuza Camp as we didn't like the Cattle Baron restaurant there. It was much too quiet and romantic to take a two- and four-year old to! A national pastime in South Africa is braai'ing. Every tent, campsite, and hut comes with its own braai, the South African word for BBQ. They absolutely love them and most people braai every night. We hated them. They burned wood and were really smoky, and they were at head height for our two year old, an accident waiting to happen! At Lower Sabie camp there were about 15 braais right outside our front door so it was like a minefield. For that reason, we didn't even want to use the nearby shared kitchen, instead eating at the restaurant most nights. It was hard not to. Lower Sabie has, in my opinion, the best restaurant in Kruger. It's a chain restaurant, the Mugg & Bean, and the food is mostly coffee shop food - wraps, salads, burgers... I liked the food and the prices were totally reasonable. What made this restaurant hard to stay away from, however, was the location. It is built up on stilts overlooking the Sabie River in one of the areas with the highest animal density. While downing your sunset beer, you might see a herd of elephants crossing the river, warthogs, various gazelles, hear hippos grunting and see baboons galloping past. There was always some form of animal entertainment! Oh, and there was a resident Black Mamba snake in the restaurant rafters. Yes, I'm serious!

MEDICAL FACILITIES & MALARIA

After Kruger park we headed to Addo Elephant Park. There were a lot of families there that said they'd avoided Kruger because of the risk of malaria. It was a shame as Kruger is far far superior to Addo in terms of wildlife viewing, and the risk of malaria is very low if you go at the right time of year.



Mosquitoes need water to breed, so avoid going in the rainy season (or right after it) if you want to avoid the mosquitoes. May to September is considered the dry season. We were there from the second week in September until mid-November and saw very few mosquitoes. Still, we took malarone pills with us just in case. When we arrived at Skukuza Camp, we went to see the doctor there. He confirmed that, due to it being well into dry season, the risk was extremely low and it wasn't worth taking the pills. If there were any outbreaks after the rains came, we might need to reconsider. However, because of the drought, we only saw about a week of rain at the end. Not enough time for the mosquito population to explode thankfully. Oh, and in terms of wildlife spotting, September and October are excellent months, at least in the Lower Sabie/Skukuza area. The lack and rain means that the animals are forced to congregate along the river and watering holes, and the short grass leaves them nowhere to hide!



As far as I know, Skukuza is the only camp with a doctor. Other than that, the nearest hospital I believe is in Nelspruit, a 45 minute drive from the nearest exit gate. We had bought malaria test kits in a pharmacy in Nelspruit. If one of us came down with a high fever in the middle of the night, the plan was to use the test kits so that we knew whether to panic about malaria or not. If it was malaria, symptoms can progress quite quickly so we would have had to call the Skukuza Camp doctor to hopefully get permission to be let out of the locked camp gate so as to get to the hospital in Nelspruit. At least that was the plan. We never could quite get a straight answer about what would happen if there was a medical emergency after gate closing time. Thankfully we didn't have the need to find out!





Well, given the lack of information about Kruger for Kids when I was researching, I hope this has provided someone with a little bit more information to get started on planning. Kruger really is the only way to do safari with children! Please write a comment if you have any questions!



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Photos

Play time!
As Jake is still only little and slept in a crib up until we left home, we'd always stack the bed bases and put the mattresses on the floor. The kids loved their "jump platforms."

Swinging the day away at the playground in Skukuza Camp
(Scary candlelit restaurant wasn't as intimidating during the day, but cheese sandwiches were cheaper!)