DUBAI: A 5 a.m. wake-up is far more bearable when there’s a black rhino sighting involved.
Such is the way around the southern tip of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, where the game is diverse and the viewing opportunities plentiful. Lions display their tolerance of humans by allowing their cubs to bound around in front of a Land Cruiser full of cooing tourists. Leopard sightings are common. Black rhino wander in front of your lodge during breakfast.
The area in and around Kruger’s south is where you’ll find the big five (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceros and Cape buffalo) without having to look too hard. But the park is a dramatically different place in its wilder and more dramatic northern areas, understandable considering the Kruger covers around 20,000 square kilometers. Our advice? Try and experience both.