Pafuri Camp
Pafuri Camp lies in the wildest and most remote part of the Kruger National 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 civilisations. 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.
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 triangle 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. For more details, visit the Pafuri website at www.pafuri.com
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. In May 2007 the biological significance of the area was recognised in its declaration as a Ramsar Site - a wetland of international importance.
Situated in the far northern sector of the Park and being so different from the rest of the Park, it complements the scenery, experience and game viewing offered at the lodges in the central and southern Kruger and the private reserves like the Sabi Sand on the western boundary of the Park. Travellers looking to experience the Kruger in its entirety should ideally combine Pafuri in the subtropical far north with any number of camps in the central parts of Kruger.
Accommodation consists of 20 tented rooms (including six family rooms for up to four people), each with en-suite bathroom facilities. These spacious, light 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, walks, hides are all part of the range of activities that are on offer. One of the most important aspects of this area is its palaeo-anthropological history, with its abundance of evidence of early human ancestors stretching back some two 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 artefacts - under many a baobab are Stone Age hand tools, such as hand axes, to be found
FAUNA AND FLORA
The Makuleke Concession is the extreme northernmost sector of the Kruger National Park and is located between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers in what is also known as the Pafuri region. To the north and east lies Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This area is destined to become the core of the new Greater Limpopo Transfrontier or "Peace" park that will straddle South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The Makuleke / Pafuri is one of the few true wilderness areas left in South Africa and the vegetation is so different to anything else within Kruger, that one might be forgiven for thinking one was in Central Africa! The large trees in this area are usually nearly 50% taller than most baobabs, and scenically, the area is diverse, with stunning mountains, shady, deep gorges, forests of yellow-tinged fever trees, monolith baobabs, mopane woodland, and open savannah grassland. The area is a true contrast to the rest of the Kruger National Park and a visit here truly rounds off the Kruger experience of the southern lodges.
Although this 24 000ha area comprises only fractionally more than 1% of the total area of the 2.2 million-hectare Greater Kruger National Park, 75% of all species in this region occur at Pafuri: nearly 400 bird species and over 100 mammal species make up some of the more visible aspects of this incredible biodiversity.
The Pafuri region is famous for the large herds of elephant and buffalo that are resident most of the year round, which concentrate in particular around the permanent waters of the Luvuvhu River in the dry winter months. Leopard have been sighted hunting the strong population of nyala and impala that live alongside the Luvuvhu system. On the easternmost boundary at "Crook's Corner" the Luvuvhu supports a large population of hippo and crocodile.
The Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers host the highest density of nyala in Kruger and species such as eland, Sharpe's grysbok and yellow-spotted rock dassie, which are difficult to find further south in the Park, are regularly seen here. A drive along the floodplain and riverine fringe of either of the two large rivers usually produces good general game in the form of nyala, impala, greater kudu, chacma baboon, waterbuck, warthog and perhaps grey duiker or bushbuck, while careful searching may yield the more elusive residents of the area such as lion and leopard. Other areas hold steenbok, the agile klipspringer and herds of Burchell's zebra. Recently, and excitingly, species such as wildebeest and white rhino have been relocated to the area, from which they have been locally extinct for almost a century.
The area has long been regarded as something of a Mecca for southern African birdwatchers. Some species are found nowhere else in South Africa and the serious birder will revel in being able to find Böhm's and Mottled Spinetails, Racket-tailed Roller, Three-banded Courser and Southern Hyliota. Other specials are Black-throated Wattle-Eye, Pel's Fishing-Owl, Yellow White-Eye, Meve's Starling and Tropical Boubou.
CAMP DETAILS AND ACTIVITIES
Safari and Adventure Co. Camp with 20 rooms
Pool
Family Rooms
- Guided morning walking and birding safaris ± 3 to 4 hours
- Guided morning and afternoon game drives. The afternoon game drive will include a night drive. ± 3 hours
- Shorter guided walks ± 2 hours
- Specialist birding walk/drive ± 3 hours
- Specialist safaris on the history and archaeology of the area ± 2 hours
- Makuleke Village outings including traditional meal, dancing and sangoma (traditional healer) visit.
- Outings to Thulamela: a 500-year-old rock-walled civilisation.
- Children's activities with guides, chefs and other lodge staff.