South Africa: Kruger and the Panorama Route

1. Day 1: Arrive in Johannesburg

   O. R. Tambo International Airport to the Apartheid Museum, then your hotel in the northern suburbs

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Johannesburg
   Day 1 details

   Fly into O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB), east of the city, where a driver meets you in arrivals. If you land by about noon, your See Sight Tours guide takes the group to the Apartheid Museum at 2 pm. Its rooms follow the country from the gold rush that founded Johannesburg in 1886, through the apartheid laws and the 1976 Soweto uprising, to the first democratic election in 1994. Allow about two hours; it is a heavy visit, so the rest of the day stays light. The museum is closed on Mondays, so on a Monday arrival we visit Constitution Hill instead, the old prison that now houses the Constitutional Court. We drive back over the Nelson Mandela Bridge as the city lights come on, to a hotel in Rosebank or a similar walkable northern suburb. In the evening the group meets for a short briefing on safari routines, early starts and what to wear in an open vehicle, then sits down to a welcome dinner nearby. Land later and you join us at dinner.

   Included

   • Pick-up at O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)
   • Guided visit to the Apartheid Museum (Constitution Hill on Mondays, when the museum is closed)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the museum visit, or until dinner if you land later

   Activity: Land by about noon to join the museum visit; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

2. Day 2: Up to the escarpment and God's Window

   Johannesburg to Dullstroom, over the Long Tom Pass to Sabie and Mac Mac Falls, then Graskop and God's Window

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Graskop
   Day 2 details

   This is the one long road day, about 400 km and five hours of driving, broken into stretches of about 1.5 to 2 hours between stops. There is no shorter road to the escarpment, and flying to Kruger Mpumalanga International would still leave more than an hour's drive up to Graskop, so we take the road and make the stops count. We leave your hotel at 8 am and head east on the N4 across the flat highveld, with a coffee stop after about ninety minutes. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Dullstroom, a trout-fishing town at around 2,000 m. In the afternoon the road runs through Lydenburg and over the Long Tom Pass, down through pine plantations to Sabie, and we stop at Mac Mac Falls, where the river drops about 65 m into a wooded gorge. We reach Graskop, a small town on the edge of the Drakensberg escarpment, by mid-afternoon. In the late light we drive the short loop to God's Window, where the cliffs fall hundreds of metres to the lowveld. Dinner is your choice in town.

   Included

   • Drive from Johannesburg to Graskop with your guide, via Dullstroom and the Long Tom Pass
   • Sit-down lunch in Dullstroom
   • Mac Mac Falls
   • God's Window in the late afternoon, with entry fees

   Free time: Evening free in Graskop

   Activity: The longest road day, over the usual 4 hour cap: there is no shorter road to the escarpment and a flight saves little once the drive up from the airport is counted; three stops break it up. Short paved paths and steps at the viewpoints.

3. Day 3: Blyde River Canyon, then into the bush

   Graskop to Bourke's Luck Potholes and the Three Rondavels, then down the Abel Erasmus Pass to a private reserve near Hoedspruit

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Private reserve near Hoedspruit
   Day 3 details

   We leave Graskop at 8 am and reach Bourke's Luck Potholes at about 8:30, ahead of most coach groups. Here the Treur River meets the Blyde, and swirling water, sand and stones have drilled deep round pools into yellow and red rock; footbridges cross right above them. About 30 to 40 minutes' drive north, the Three Rondavels viewpoint looks across the Blyde River Canyon to three round, grass-topped peaks above the water of the Blydepoort Dam. Morning is the clearest time here, before the haze builds. From the canyon rim we drive down the Abel Erasmus Pass and through the J. G. Strijdom Tunnel onto the lowveld, several hundred metres lower and noticeably warmer, and on past Hoedspruit to a lodge in a private reserve, where we stay three nights. Lunch is at the lodge, then a rest. At about 4 pm the first game drive leaves in an open vehicle with a ranger and a tracker, stops for a sundowner as the light goes, and comes home in the dusk, with a spotlight after dark where the reserve allows it. Dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • Bourke's Luck Potholes in the morning
   • The Three Rondavels viewpoint over the Blyde River Canyon
   • Panorama Route entry fees
   • Lunch and dinner at the lodge
   • Afternoon drive with a ranger and tracker, with a sundowner

   Free time: Early afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: We leave Graskop at 8 am, like every road day; only the dawn drives and the Kruger gate start earlier. Short walks on paths, steps and footbridges at the viewpoints. Open vehicles get cold after dark for much of the year; keep a warm jacket to hand.

   

4. Day 4: Dawn and dusk in the private reserve

   A full day at the lodge and in the reserve

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Private reserve near Hoedspruit
   Day 4 details

   Coffee and rusks are at about 5:30 am, and we are out at first light, the coolest hours, when animals are most active. The ranger reads the night's tracks in the sand and decides where to go. Unlike in the national park, vehicles here can leave the road to follow a sighting, and the few vehicles on the reserve share news by radio instead of queueing. We look for elephants, buffalo, rhinos and giraffes, and the tracker watches for fresh signs of lions and leopards; nothing is promised, but time in the bush helps. We are back at about 9 for a full breakfast, and the middle of the day is yours: sleep, read, or watch the lodge waterhole as the heat builds, if the lodge has one. Lunch is at the lodge. At about 4 pm we head out again, stop for a sundowner on a rise as the sky colours, and drive home in the dusk, with a spotlight after dark where the reserve allows it, looking for owls, genets, hyenas and hunting cats. Dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • Dawn drive with a ranger and tracker
   • Afternoon drive with a sundowner
   • All meals at the lodge

   Easier option: Sleep in and skip the dawn drive; breakfast waits for you at the lodge.

   More active option: Swap the dawn drive for a walk of about two hours with an armed ranger, learning to read spoor, dung and birdcalls at an easy pace on uneven ground.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at the lodge

   Activity: Walks usually have a minimum age (often 16) set by the reserve; we confirm it when we name the lodge. Waterholes, night driving and walks depend on the reserve and are confirmed with the lodge.

   

5. Day 5: A full day in Kruger National Park

   The private reserve to Orpen Gate, east across the plains to Satara rest camp, and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Private reserve near Hoedspruit
   Day 5 details

   Today we go into Kruger National Park itself, nearly 20,000 square kilometres of lowveld and a national park since 1926. We leave the lodge at about 5:30 am with coffee and a packed breakfast and drive about an hour to Orpen Gate, entering soon after it opens. You ride in an open safari vehicle licensed for the park, with a qualified field guide at the wheel and your See Sight Tours guide alongside. Inside Kruger vehicles keep to the roads, and the scale is the point: we head east past the dams along the way to the open grassland plains around Satara, good country for zebra, wildebeest and the lions that follow them. Breakfast is at a picnic site, and lunch is a proper sit-down meal at Satara rest camp. In the heat of the middle day animals rest, so we wait at waterholes, then work back west in the softer afternoon light and leave before the gate closes. We are back at the lodge for a drink by the fire and dinner.

   Included

   • Full-day drive in Kruger National Park in an open safari vehicle with a qualified field guide
   • Kruger conservation fees
   • Picnic breakfast in the park
   • Sit-down lunch at Satara rest camp
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Stay at the lodge for a slow day and join its afternoon drive in the reserve instead; tell us when you book.

   Activity: About eleven hours out with stops, two of them on public roads to and from the gate. In the national park you stay in the vehicle except at rest camps and picnic sites. Gate times change by month and are confirmed with your final itinerary. If Orpen Gate is closed on your dates, we enter by Phalaborwa Gate instead and adjust the route north of Satara.

   

6. Day 6: Last dawn drive and fly to Johannesburg

   The private reserve to Hoedspruit Eastgate Airport, then a flight to O. R. Tambo International Airport

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   One more early start: coffee at about 5:30 am and a last dawn drive, the best chance to find whatever the group has not yet seen, with the ranger following the night's tracks and the vultures and raptors lifting off as the air warms. We are back at about 9 for a full breakfast and time to pack. Late in the morning we drive about half an hour to Hoedspruit Eastgate Airport, a small airport on the edge of the lowveld, and fly to Johannesburg in about an hour and ten minutes, instead of spending six hours on the road. Your See Sight Tours guide flies with you and sees you to the terminal at O. R. Tambo International Airport, where the trip ends in the early afternoon. Book an onward flight leaving after about 5 pm. If you are going on to Cape Town, a connection that afternoon puts you there for dinner, and this trip runs straight into our Cape Town itineraries.

   Included

   • Dawn drive with a ranger and tracker
   • Breakfast at the lodge
   • Transfer to Hoedspruit Eastgate Airport (HDS)
   • Flight from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg (JNB), with a checked bag

   Easier option: Skip the dawn drive and have a slow breakfast at the lodge before the airport transfer.

   Activity: Book an onward flight leaving Johannesburg after about 5 pm; the Hoedspruit flight usually lands around 1 pm, and the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

Wildlife and weather: The dry winter, May to September, thins the bush and draws animals to water, so sightings are easier, but dawn drives can be near freezing in June and July. Summer, November to March, is hot, green and wet, with young animals and migrant birds but thicker bush, and afternoon mist can hide the Panorama Route viewpoints.

• Johannesburg1 night
• Graskop1 night
• Private reserve near Hoedspruit3 nights