Why do most people only travel to the southern section of the Kruger? We try to clear up this question.
Most people travel to southern Kruger National Park because it is more accessible to tourists
First of all, it is important to understand that many tourists do not have much time to visit the Kruger National Park extensively. The majority of visitors to the park are still foreigners and not locals, making this an important factor to consider.
Foreign tourists either drive by themselves (usually coming from Johannesburg or Pretoria) or take part in an organized bus tour.
Both the self-drivers and the buses will most likely take the safest, easiest and fastest route to Kruger. And this leads via the N4 towards Malelane Gate and Crocodile Bridge Gate. This means that the corresponding gates in the south are often very full and the surrounding towns are very busy.
In addition, this has created a larger infrastructure in the surrounding villages around the southern borders of the park. This is another magnet for tourists, as there is a large selection of vacation rentals as well as many supermarkets, pharmacies and all kinds of stores for daily needs.
As there are more accommodations around the southern borders of the park, many visitors choose to sleep outside the park and only book guided day tours into the park.
How one feels about this is another matter and the subject of another article. But as a result, many day tourists are added to the overnight guests in southern Kruger.
Such day visits make much more sense in the southern part of Kruger, as there is a larger road network here than in the central and northern parts of the park, including near the most important gates.
In total, there are more than half of the entrance gates to the park located in the south and the distances between rest camps, picnic sites, and viewpoints are quite small, compared to the northern areas of the park.
So, the southern part is just the most popular for first-time visitors or people who don’t schedule much time to visit the park.
And the fact that the southern Kruger gets more crowded can be quite convenient if you are not as experienced in game spotting yet, so you can just stop where other cars stop without the pressure to find some game by yourself.
Kruger National Park is more diverse and nutrient-rich in the south
In addition, there are simply a larger number of animals in the southern part of the Kruger. The game density is higher in this area because the landscape is quite diverse and your chances of spotting the big 5 are high.
This is due to the fact that water is usually constantly available here all year round. This naturally attracts many different animals. There is also more diverse and lush vegetation here, due to the nutrient-rich soil that can simply sustain more herbivores, and the predators will follow them.
It depends on how you feel about the fact that the southern Kruger is so heavily frequented. But there are definitely good reasons why this is the case. And at the end of the day, the park belongs to all of us and we should be happy that so many people are interested in the beauty of nature. Because we only protect what we are aware of.