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Photos from Kruger National Park, wildlife photos etc....

What sort of budget should one have for the types of trips descibed above.
It is not a matter of "If you have to ask you cannot afford it" but a matter of do I want to go there sufficiently enough to pay what ever it costs.
 
Really depends on where you want to visit. If you visit the private reserves the price is very high. You can stay in the public areas relatively cheaply. You can drive your own hire car are organise drives
 
To give you an idea our month long trip last year cost about £7k for the two of us. It included stays in Kruger in the standard type bungalows which cost about £100 a night without food. At Mkuze falls private game reserve we had the safari suite for 3 nights which is listed now for £320 per person per night. It is very luxurious, includes full board, a huge suite, personal chef, 2 game drives every day, guided walks etc. We also rented an SUV for the month and a large 3 bedroomed house with pool for a week at Zinkwazi on the Indian Ocean. Flights to Johannesburg can be had for a reasonable price if you look, with Air France being the cheapest. Currently you can get them for as little as £322.
 
Derek Wright said:
What sort of budget should one have for the types of trips descibed above.
It is not a matter of "If you have to ask you cannot afford it" but a matter of do I want to go there sufficiently enough to pay what ever it costs.
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Been going for 20 years now and prices have changed dramatically but contact a specialist agent such as Go2africa or Rhinoafrica. They will work with you and get a great deal that suits your wallet. Massive, reliable experience of everything out there. They really help and we have used both to great effect in the past. Minimum wage in SA is increasing soon to nearly £1 per hour so deals are always available.....

In the early days, we flew eveywhere internally, including light aircraft transfers into Sabi Sand and Ngala but now those prices have shot up. Return JNB to Kruger MPQ will skin you £250 each for 40 min flights as SAA Express have a monopoly. It was 1/3 of that not so long ago. Skukuza and Eastgate, even more. High end lodges can easily cost £1K per night per person in 2019 (or more) but their drives can go off road, unlike in Kruger itself with self drive.

As others have said, try Sanparks lodges in Kruger. We had a riverside chalet with Brai etc for around £100 per night. Fuel is cheap at around 80p per litre. Sanparks own game drives are ex vfm at under £20 per 3 hour drive. Food is fabulous and cheap. Wine is ridiculously cheap compared to UK. Great wine in a restaurant is usually around £7-10 per bottle. Stunning fillet steak, £10 or so.

Flights from UK. We always go first, business or premium as it's an 11 hour flight and Mrs C is not in best of health. Join one of the fare watch alert sites. We got 2 returns on Virgin Premium for £650 each. Shortly after we booked, economy was double that! Dialaflight got us BA business tickets for around £1500 each last time. Air France is great but 2 hour min at Paris changing flights. Various African airlines offer silly cheap but stop over flights.

Accomodation. Also look at the portfolio website. They have been highly recommended for years, offering B&B for peanuts. SA B&B is in a whole different league to UK B&B! Seriosusly high end establishments for unbelievable prices.

We 'only' spent around £6-7k all in this time, inc premium direct flights from LHR, for 2 weeks there but I reckon you could do it for half that or less if needed. Our first trips cost....well, don't go there! Lottery money.
 
Derek Wright said:
What sort of budget should one have for the types of trips descibed above.
It is not a matter of "If you have to ask you cannot afford it" but a matter of do I want to go there sufficiently enough to pay what ever it costs.
Click to expand...

I was pretty worried when my wife suggested going on a safari but in fact it has worked out very reasonably for us. For both our trips to Kruger we booked all the accommodation directly ourselves through the national park authority Sanparks.org .

I don't have the figures with me but the last trip was about 2 weeks and we paid between 70 and 110 GBP per night for self-catering chalets for two (incl kitchen). The main rest camps have bar and restaurants, a decent store for provisions / beer / wine, some have pools and most have great views of the park. There are also optional ranger-guided tours (vehicle or walking, morning and evening) which are not too expensive either.

This time we also stayed at a few of the Bushveld camps - similar price, quieter and very lovely - in those you take your own supplies in. I can highly recommend the Wilderness Trails too - more basic accommodation, groups of 8 (fun to meet people), expert rangers, and lifetime experiences to be had walking in the Park! Also through Sanparks. Sanparks also has a forum - loads of info there.

We hired a car from J'Burg airport at typical car hire rate.

Oh - you'll need a Wildcard National Park access pass too, assuming you'll be in the Park more than a few days. About 250GBP for a couple (assuming you're not South African) We went back within the year so saved that cost on our second trip.

Ian
 
Canonman that's extraordinary and sounds very dangerous. Good you both escaped to tell the tale. Reminds me of some of the Kruger Tales - a book of first-hand accounts of experiences people have had in the Park - some funny, some scary and some sad.
 
Heading back to South Africa next Sunday again for a month. First ten days will be in Kruger then down to Cape Vidal for two weeks and then back to friends in Swaziland before heading back to Johannesburg and the UK, so will be posting more pictures whilst there as I now have a core i7 surface pro with 16GB RAM in order to edit on our travels.
 
ian123running said:
Several PFM-ers have been to Kruger lately. This was my first trip and it was pretty awesome. It was suggested we have a thread for Kruger (plus maybe other wildlife photos but Kruger will probably keep us busy for a while...)

Here's a Southern carmine bee-eater juggling with a spider (I think) before swallowing it.
Bird_insect by Ian123_running, on Flickr

And an fabulous African hawk-eagle enjoying a feathery snack.

African hawk-eagle_eating side view by Ian123_running, on Flickr


Nikon D7200 / 70-300mm VR / Capture NX-D
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We're also heading back there in the new year, this time with a pro photography guide for a couple of weeks. Should be fun. Maybe this is better processing of the eagle in the original post ...
Eagle eating re-processed by Ian123_running, on Flickr
 
I will be interested to know how you get on with a guide as I have thought about doing that at some point too. Is that what you want the ff body for? I'm seriously thinking about buying a d850 body before we leave to use alongside my d500 as it can do a few things that the d500 can't and in crop mode it is pretty much the same in terms of resolution for those times when I need the extra reach with long lenses. Plus the higher resolution in ff mode will help with any minor cropping of images and better for landscapes.
 
Colinb said:
I will be interested to know how you get on with a guide as I have thought about doing that at some point too. Is that what you want the ff body for? I'm seriously thinking about buying a d850 body before we leave to use alongside my d500 as it can do a few things that the d500 can't and in crop mode it is pretty much the same in terms of resolution for those times when I need the extra reach with long lenses. Plus the higher resolution in ff mode will help with any minor cropping of images and better for landscapes.
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We're spending a couple of weeks in a group trip with wildlife photographer Samuel Cox / African Impacts - I like his photos. They are always tidy and gimick-free and hopefully will expand my range. My wife is joining us too though she will have binoculars, not a camera but she loves spotting all the wildlife there. The trip is based in Greater Kruger. Then we'll go independent, into the national park for another couple of weeks.

I may just stick with my D7200 - it's a great camera. The idea behind getting another body was to avoid the faff of changing lenses as I love using the 300 f/4 PF +1.4 tc prime but it's no good for more landscape / animal group types of shot. Anyway I may just stick with the DX camera to keep it simple. Unfortunately a D850 is beyond my reach but I totally understand your reasoning!
 
We've only been to a safari place twice, camping at Willipatu in Sri Lanka and a lodge at Etosha in Namibia. We stayed at a very nice place called Little Ongava that is on the fence and has a watering hole, so the rhinos and their friends all come along at night. Their private road comes out literally at the gate and you go straight in, no waiting.

https://www.ongava.com/little-ongava-gallery
Our little room:
https://www.google.com.na/maps/@-19...JKULAHsGy4_HDvB9Mr1A7!2e10!3e11!7i7036!8i3518

We then went on to see the Victoria Falls and stayed at an equally nice place, well recommended.
https://tongabezi.com
 
Wow that's expensive but no doubt a great experience. We pay about 1/20th of that in Kruger Sanparks accommodation ... in the interest of balance!!

Any pics to post?
 
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ian123running said:
Wow that's expensive but no doubt a great experience. We pay about 1/20th of that in Kruger Sanparks accommodation ... in the interest of balance!!

Any pics to post?
Click to expand...
We got a good day at Vic Falls
42097161560_4530ac7ebe_h.jpg
 
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