5-Day Sabi Sand & Kruger Big Five Safari, South Africa

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   

   Johannesburg to the Sabi Sand, Afternoon Game Drive

   You take a morning flight from Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport to Skukuza Airport inside Kruger, a flight of about one hour, or to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport near Mbombela. Our transfer driver meets you and takes you to your lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, a group of private properties of about 65,000 hectares on Kruger’s south-western edge. There is no fence between the two along a 50 km boundary, so the animals move freely. After lunch and a rest you head out at about four o’clock on your first game drive in an open vehicle, with a ranger at the wheel and a tracker on the front seat reading the ground for prints. Drives in the private reserve continue after dark with a spotlight, when leopard, hyena and genet become active. Dinner is served in the boma around the fire. Overnight at Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge.

   • Fly to Kruger, afternoon game drive
   • Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge
   • Lunch, dinner
2. Day2
   

   Morning and Evening Drives in the Sabi Sand

   A wake-up knock comes before dawn, with coffee and a rusk before the morning drive, which lasts about three hours. The Sabi Sand is known above all for leopard: the cats here have grown used to vehicles over decades and are often seen resting in a marula tree or walking a dry riverbed in daylight. Because this is private land, rangers can leave the road to follow a sighting, and lodges share sightings by radio but limit the number of vehicles at each one, so the scene rarely feels crowded. Back at the lodge, brunch is followed by free time at the pool or on the deck overlooking a waterhole, where elephant and buffalo often come to drink. If you would like to stretch your legs, ask about a guided bush walk with an armed ranger. The afternoon drive runs into sundowners and a spotlight drive home. Overnight at Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge.

   • Morning and evening game drives
   • Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
3. Day3
   

   Tracking Rhino and Buffalo in the Sabi Sand

   Today your ranger and tracker work on the animals still missing from your list. White rhino live in the reserve, but poaching has cut their numbers across the Kruger region, so finding them often means following tracks on foot for a short way before the vehicle moves in; a rhino sighting is likely over three days but never certain. Cape buffalo herds, sometimes several hundred strong, graze the open areas, and lion prides patrol the same ground. Between drives there is time to read, swim or sit in the hide by the waterhole. By the end of the third day most guests have seen all five of the Big Five, and many have also seen African wild dog, cheetah and hyena dens. The last evening drive ends with drinks at a viewpoint as the sun goes down over the bushveld. Overnight at Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge.

   • Game drives, rhino and buffalo tracking
   • Arathusa Safari Lodge or Elephant Plains Game Lodge
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
4. Day4
   

   Into Kruger National Park along the Sabie River

   After a final early drive and breakfast, our guide collects you for a day inside Kruger National Park. Proclaimed in 1898 as the Sabie Game Reserve and declared a national park in 1926, Kruger covers nearly two million hectares and records 147 species of mammal. You enter at Paul Kruger Gate and drive south along the Sabie River, one of the richest stretches of the park, where elephant herds come down to the water, hippos and crocodiles lie on the sandbanks and lions often rest under the riverside trees. The roads here are tarred or good gravel, and you will notice the difference from the private reserve: vehicles stay on the roads, and you see more of the park in a day. Lunch is at a rest camp, and the afternoon drive ends at your camp before the gates close at sunset. Overnight at Lower Sabie Rest Camp or Jock Safari Lodge.

   • Kruger game drive along the Sabie River
   • Lower Sabie Rest Camp or Jock Safari Lodge
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
5. Day5
   

   Kruger Morning Game Drive and Flight to Johannesburg

   The camp gates open at first light, and the early hour is the best time of day in Kruger: lions on the move, hyena returning to their dens and herds of impala and zebra on the open grassland around Lower Sabie. You spend about three hours on the morning drive, with a stop at Sunset Dam, a favourite spot for hippo and wading birds. After breakfast our guide drives you to Skukuza Airport for the flight back to Johannesburg, about one hour, in time to connect with an international flight or a domestic flight to Cape Town. If you have extra days, this route links easily with the Panorama Route and Blyde River Canyon or with a few nights in Cape Town.

   • Morning drive, fly to Johannesburg
   • Breakfast