THE PARK:
Kruger National Park covers 7,580 square miles (19,633 square kilometres), spanning the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, on the northeast of South Africa. It was the first National Park created in South Africa, receiving the designation in 1926. (it was first listed as a protected site by the South African Republic in 1898).
Kruger also enjoys other designations, being a part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) area called "Kruger to Canyons Biosphere", and also part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which is a designation created in 2000, creating a multi-province and multi-state agreement, connecting the Kruger park with parks in Mozambique (Limpopo National Park) and Zimbabwe (Gonarezhou National Park). with the ultimate purpose of removing fences between these parks to allow animals use of historical migratory routes.
Kruger has become a major tourist attraction and boasts great economic impact for the region. Major attractions are the wildlife, flora and fauna, and geology. Four main vegetation areas are located in the park and provide subject for a lifetime of study: shrub mopane veld, red bush-willow and Mopane veld, knob-thorn and Marula veld, thorn trees and red bush-willow veld. Birders eagerly arrive in search of elusive birds such as Pel's Fishing Owl, Ground Hornbill, Saddle-billed Stork, Kori Bustard, Martial Eagle, Lappet-Faced Vulture. Mammels lure thousands of tourists to the park where they may chance to glimpse the endangered African Wild Dog, along with elephants, lion, aardvark, jackal, baboon, rhino, leopard, Cape Buffalo, cheetah, giraffe, zebra, bushbuck, warthog, honey badger, hippo, hyena, eland, kudu, springbok, impala (locals call them "McDonalds", indicating how common they are), waterbuck, and wildebeest.
NUMBI GATE:
Numbi Gate is located in the south-western section of Kruger National Park, and the common entry park for visitors who are headed for Skukuza Rest, the biggest camp in the park. This gate is located about 240 miles from Johannesburg (391 km), and is the gate that visitors used when Kruger Park first opened in 1926. Records show that 3 cars paid the one pound entry fee at Numbi Gate in 1927, to gain entrance to Kruger Park. Today, the annual visitor count to all of Kruger Park exceeds 1,000,000.
Due to Numbi's location, it receives some of the highest rainfall in the Park, and this corresponds to some of the highest diversity of plant life and animal species. The park is located in a higher altitude region, with lowveld and granite foothills. The thick vegetation and shrub (called Pretoriuskop sourveld) makes spotting animals a challenge, and the animals tend to gather in smaller groups than elsewhere in the park.
Tourists can choose to drive their own vehicle thru the park, or join an established tour group. Tour groups visit the park in various types of transportation, from full coach busses to four-wheel drive vehicles that have been specially adapted for safari sightseeing, some with raised seating that allow better viewing of the park.
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