GENERAL INFORMATION & A FEW HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

• The Kruger National Park is an enormous wildlife reserve covering nearly 2 million hectares!
• Kruger is a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies.
• A safari in Kruger will bring you within touching distance of an impressive number of species: 336 trees; 147 mammals; 507 birds; 49 fish; 34 amphibians; 114 reptiles.
• Kruger runs from the far north of South Africa in the Limpopo Province (bordering Zimbabwe), down the length of Mozambique to its right, into South Africa's Mpumalanga Province, almost to Swaziland. This is a distance from top to bottom of approximately 350km!
• As Kruger covers such a vast area, the Park encompasses a variety of eco-systems from the open savannah plains in the southern and central parts of the Park, to the wooded, more densely vegetated north of the Park. Different habitats support a variety of wildlife and therefore your safari will be a varied experience throughout the Park.
• Kruger also contains and conserves other treasures of historical importance, from ancient Bushman rock art, to the archaeological sites of Masorini and Thulamela.  The Park boasts almost 254 known cultural heritage sites and nearly 130 recorded rock art sites of the ancient San Bushman.  There is evidence that pre-historic man roamed the area between 500 000 to 100 000 years ago.  Stone Age man also makes his appearance, with as many as 300 sites uncovered, as well as evidence of the presence of Iron Age man.
• The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is an exciting project, where the countries of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have joined forces in ecological co-operation, to bring the fencing down between Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou wildlife reserve, Mozambique's Limpopo National Park and northern Kruger in South Africa, to create a mammoth Transfrontier Park for the unhindered migration of wildlife.
• Proclaimed in 1898 as the Sabie Game Reserve by the then President of the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger.
• President Kruger first proposed the need to protect the animals of the Lowveld in 1884, his vision, which was revolutionary for his time, took another 12 years before it came to fruition and the area between the Sabie and the Crocodile Rivers were declared restricted hunting.
• James Stevenson-Hamilton (born in 1867) was the first warden of the Kruger National Park in the year 1902.
• In 1926 the Kruger National Park was proclaimed within the National Parks Act.
• The first motorists entered the Park in 1927 for a fee of one pound.
• Many accounts of the Parks early days can be found in the Stevenson-Hamilton Memorial Library.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST WITHIN KRUGER
that are worth a visit should you have the time and the opportunity...

NORTHERN KRUGER

• Masorini Ruins
  This late Iron Age site is found on a prominent hillside just 12km from the Phalaborwa gate on the tar road to Letaba Rest Camp.  In the 1800's Sotho speaking BaPhalaborwa were a sophisticated tribe who traded in iron, with other tribes as well as the Portuguese, Chinese and Arab merchants from the coast of Mozambique.  The site has been reconstructed by local BaPhalaborwa living on the borders of Kruger as truthfully as possible.  There is a small museum, picnic area and guided tours can also be taken.
• Thulamela
  This is a late Iron Age site in the far north of the Kruger Park, that dates back 450-500 years and was 'a part' of the great Zimbabwe culture at the time (originating at Mapungubwe), which declined possibly due to political break down. 

CENTRAL KRUGER

• tba

SOUTHERN KRUGER

• Albasini Ruins
  The remains of a 19th century trading post of a famous Portuguese trader, Joao Albasini, who arrived on the East Coast of Africa at the tender age of 17 and with great courage and determination established a thriving business and opened up trade routes from the Mozambique Port of the then Lorenco Marques (now Maputo) with the Boer Republic in the lowveld.  These ruins are found close to the new Phabeni Gate and a museum will soon be established.  
• Letaba Elephant Museum - tba
• Jock of the Bushveld Route - tba
• Stevenson Hamilton Memorial Library - tba
• Kruger Nursery - tba