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Kruger National Park, South Africa

Pafuri Camp

This is a gorgeous property that still offers good value. The camp is beautiful and well run by the local community. The wildlife at this end of the park is rebuilding but increasing so it is a nice complement to the Sabi Sands and Timbavati, but do not contest a visit.

Similar to Garonga, we recommend this property as a complement to a 'Big Five' focused camp. Here guests can hike, walk and explore this gorgeous wilderness area. They can relax at the pool watching animals come to drink in the river or take interesting Paleo walks as a complement to traditional game drives.

Wilderness Safaris and the Makuleke community have commendably entered this project together with a forward thinking attempt to see wildlife populations thrive in this region of the park. It may be profitable to both groups in the coming years, but only at the success of the surrounding ecosystems. This is exciting.  — Mango's view

Pafuri Camp is situated between the Limpopo and the Luvuvhu Rivers in the northern sector of the Kruger National Park, in a 24 000-hectare area called the Pafuri or the Makuleke. This area is the ancestral home of the Makuleke people and is one of the most diverse and scenically attractive areas in the Kruger National Park.

This area is certainly the wildest and most remote part of the park and offers varied vegetation, great game viewing, the best birding in all of the Kruger, and is filled with folklore of the early explorers and ancient civilizations. It is well known for its fever tree forests, beautiful gorges and Crook's Corner, where the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers and three countries; Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique meet. The region is considered one of Kruger's biodiversity hotspots, with some of the largest herds of elephant and buffalo, leopard and lion and incredibly prolific birdlife.

Pafuri Camp caters to the traditional Kruger Park visitor and is the only camp accessible to self-drivers in the extreme northern sector of the park. Being so different from the rest of the park, it complements the scenery and experience offered at the lodges in the southern Kruger and the Sabi Sands. Travelers visiting the lodges or camps in the south can experience the Kruger in its entirety by including the Pafuri/Makuleke region in their itineraries.

Accommodation consists of 20 tented rooms (including six family rooms for up to four people), each with ensuite bathroom facilities. The tented rooms all look out over the Luvuvhu River; guests can sit on their decks and watch for elephant, nyala, waterbuck or bushbuck coming down to drink - to name but a few!

Activities in the Makuleke/Pafuri area are extremely varied and interesting. Game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, night drives, game walks, and game hides (including some that will cater to sleep-outs) are all part of the range of activities that are offered.

One of the most important aspects of this area is its palaeo-anthropological history, with its plethora of evidence of early human ancestors stretching back some 2 million years ago, through the Stone Age and into the Iron Age about 400 years ago when the Thulamela dynasty ruled in this area. This dynasty built incredible structures that are not dissimilar to that found in the Great Zimbabwe. Throughout the concession, there is evidence of its human inhabitants, in the form of rock paintings and artifacts - under many a baobab are Stone Age hand tools such as hand axes to be found.

Includes: All meals & safari activities (Paleo Walks are extra)