Greater Kruger Park
The Story of a bygone Africa, lived TodayAt StoryScape Travel we immerse our guests in a true safari experience. Glorious African landscapes come alive with its magical entourage of mammals, plants, insects, reptiles, and birds. And somehow, the need for excessive luxuries becomes a distant memory, replaced by the sounds, sights, and smells of a true African experience, a recollection of a bygone era. The beginning of a new story.
We have chosen small intimate, unfenced camps, areas with low densities of tourist vehicles, large wilderness areas and excellent wildlife.
Above all, we seek out experienced and passionate Game Rangers and trackers who will excel in making your encounters, either on foot or in an open Game Drive vehicle, exhilarating, educational and above-all safe.
When Scottish-born James Stevenson-Hamilton was appointed as the first Warden of the park in 1902, it was still known as the Sabie Game Reserve. The Sabie Game Reserve was merged with the Shinwedzi Game Reserve in 1927 (after the proclamation of the National Parks Act) and became the Kruger National Park. Motorists paid 1 pound entrance fee to the park. Accounts of these early days can be found in the Stevenson-Hamilton Memorial Library at Skukuza, which houses a collection of ecologically orientated books, paintings and memorabilia and is well worth a visit for the history-orientated traveler.
The surface area of the park is 19,633 square kilometers and plays host to more than 753 species of animal and 1982 species of plants in the park. There are 254 known cultural heritage sites in the Kruger, including 130 rock art sites.
Homo erectus roamed the area about 500 000 years ago and cultural artifacts from 100 000 to 30 000 years ago have been found and confirmed. More than 300 archaeological sites of Stone Age humans have been found, making the Kruger National Park a place of great history. Significant archaeological ruins can be found at Thulamela and Masorini and are well worth seeing, while there are numerous examples of San Rock Art scattered through the park and worthy of exploration.
In more recent times the San (Bushmen) and Iron Age peoples lived in the area about 1500 years ago making way for the Nguni people of further North and the European explorers and settlers who arrived in the 19th century.
In 1957 the first wilderness trails were pioneered by a Natal Parks Board game ranger named Ian Player (brother of legendary South African golfer Gary Player) and his friend and mentor Magquba Ntombela. Dr Player is well-known for his work in environmental fields and international involvement in wildlife conservation.
In 2002 visitor numbers to Kruger topped the one million mark for the ο¬rst time.
During this same year the dream of a transnational park was realized when an agreement was ο¬nally reached between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to merge conservation areas in their respective countries to form the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Once this process is complete the Transfrontier park will be the biggest game reserve in the world.
