Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Well we are back from a week in the Kruger. We camped at Lower Sabie and Balule, but i must say the Lower Sabie is not my scene. Lots of game including a huge pack of very relaxed wild dog, but the campsite is horrible IMO. Small stands, close to each other with very dirty ablutions Complained about ablutions, but nothing was done.

Balule was very nice, not so much game, but nice stands and small but fairly descent ablutions. We were able to hear lions every night as well as hyena and hippos, and also had hyenas right next to the camp fence. We also saw lions every day, two females, who seem to be resident in the area. Also very tranquil to sit on the low water bridge over the Olifants river and watch the birds and the sunset. Will definitely go there again!

Speeding seem to be the thing now in the park and the gravel roads are all corrugated, some more than others. We saw no officials monitoring behavior or speedsters, only workmen who also speed. As always there are people getting out of cars, being very stupid and inconsiderate at lion, etc sightings. Case in point: just south of Satara two leopards were seen below a bridge. People were parked at all angles on the bridge blocking it. We were on our way from Balule back to Lower Sabie, and could not spend an hour there to get a turn to spot them ,we just wanted to get past. Someone, think it was maintenance crew, shouldered their way through, even getting out to ask people to move and were able to follow behind them. We experienced this type of behavior of blocking the road completely more than once. Look, everyone has a right to sit and stare at sleeping lions for as long as he wants, but is it so difficult to just leave a gap for people that has seen enough sleeping lions and just want to pass?

Ohter than that, the Pajero was a pleasure. Towing the Echo 3 over Schoemanskloof twice was effortless. Both the vehicle and trailer very stable, even accelarating to pass slower traffic. No "smelly fish" behavior

We prefer to go up North. Much less people around. We had a lovely time at Tzendse and Punda in July this year.

Spend 2 mornings in a row at Klopperfontein Dam watching a pride of 8 lions......... and we were only 2 cars for most of the time!

Great, but If time allows, we rather head for the Kalahari!

Johan

Sad to hear about the bad response you got from lower sabie. I can live with small stands but dirty ablutions is not on in my book. It does not have to be the most modern but being dirty is not on. Having had no response to your complaint is the second unacceptable situation and I would take this further even if it just to prevent this from happening to other campers. You can elevate your grievance by posting it on the sanparks forum using the links below where it will be forwarded to high level management for response If no response from this go to compliments and complaints on the sanparks forum.http://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=78 In other words the camp manager WILL have to respond and explain his apathy.Guest feedback form
feedback form for complaints

It is a great pity. I was at lower sabie about 2 years ago with bunch of friends, and it was neat and tidy, and clean. I swore I was going to go back there, but obviously things have changed.

Lower sabie however always has some of the best game in the Kruger (IMHO). Some of the best natural sights I have seen have been within that sort of area.

I did send a complaint via e-mail and received a reply the next day that my complaint will be investigated within 14 days. Blah, Blah. I agree that Lower Sabie has very good game-viewing, but if I had to choose I would go for less people even if it means less game. At Balule, we saw lions every day and lots of big birds.
In Laer Sabie's favour is that the campsites are clearly marked and level. It gets confusing if campsites are not marked or even not numbered. In my complaint I did not push the point of the dirty bathrooms to much, because fellow campers are also to blame not just the park. Again in Balule a clean dry mop was supplied every day and most people dried the floor when finished in the shower. The response at Lower Sabie was that they supplied a mop that was worse than the floors.

My main gripe is that something has to be done to all the transgressors on the roads. We saw so many people out of vehicles and speeding, yet not one park official in five days in various parts of the park. They have to put more officials on the road, especially for the soccer tourists. These people are not used to Africa and the law of the bush, there will be some that will get out of the vehicle and walk up to a pride of lions. I know tourists has been attacked like this before. A suggestion I made is not just to fine culprits but to capture their registrations numbers in a database and link this to the main system at the entrance gates. Sanparks computer system seem to be quite good, and my suggestion could surely be implemented by a very simple programme and very little cost. Then, after say three trangressions, you will not be allowed back in for a certain period of time.