Northern Wilderness Walking Safari
THREE NIGHTS IN STUNNING PAFURI, $$$
Immerse yourself in the spectacular spoils of the far north of the Kruger, exploring on foot the vast, epic landscapes of the exclusive 24,000-hectare Pafuri concession.
Experience a wide diversity of landscape, flora, and fauna with the mighty baobab groves and fever tree forests containing some of the Kruger's largest elephant and buffalo herds. Approach the larger mammals under the instruction of your guide and get a real taste of the wilderness. You will be spending three nights under canvas at the delightfully luxurious Pafuri Camp.
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Itinerary details
NOTE: REQUIRES MIN SIX PEOPLE TO DEPART
Levuvhu River
Day One
As you arrive at Phalaborwa Airport, your professional Wilderness Guide will meet you. This guide will be your host for the duration of your adventure-filled African journey ensuring that your experience is all that you had hoped for and more.
The flight transfer from Lanseria (Johannesburg) to Pafuri is the start of the experience with some excellent game spotting opportunities en-route.
You will fly into the wildest and most remote part of the Park- the Pafuri region. It is well known for its fever tree forests, beautiful gorges, and Crooks Corner, where the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers and three countries— Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique— meet. This region is considered one of Kruger's biodiversity hotspots with some of the largest herds of elephant and buffalo, quality viewings of leopard and lion, and incredibly prolific birdlife.
It offers varied vegetation, great game viewing, the best birding in all of the Kruger, and is filled with the folklore of early explorers and ancient civilizations.
It is a fantastic area in which to conduct walking safaris and while we base ourselves in one camp, the diversity has such variation within close proximity of one another that by striking out in different directions each day, we can enjoy highly contrasting environments.
As you arrive in camp, you’ll have time to settle in and explore your surroundings before high tea is served. Bush cuisine is a factor many visitors marvel at, and Pafuri uses top quality fresh ingredients, despite its remote location, in innovative ways.
Pafuri Tented Camp
Pafuri Camp is situated between the Limpopo and the Luvuvhu Rivers in the northern sector of the Kruger National Park, in an exclusive 24,000- hectare concession called the Pafuri (or Makuleke).
Accommodation consists of twenty luxurious tented rooms, each with en-suite bathroom facilities. They all have outside decks looking out over the Luvuvhu River on which you can sit and watch elephant, nyala, waterbuck, or bushbuck coming down to drink.
After settling in, you’ll set out on your first guided walk to find out what the bush has in store for you. And as one of the few remaining true wilderness areas left in South Africa, Pafuri offers an abundance of nature. The vegetation is so different to anything else within the Kruger that you would be forgiven for thinking you are in Central Africa!
The amazing Baobab groves of the north contain specimens that are, on average, 50% taller than elsewhere. Scenically, the area is diverse with stunning mountains, shady, deep gorges, and forests of Yellow Fever trees, Mopane woodland, and open grass savannahs.
After a late afternoon walk, you’ll return to camp for a drink around the fire under a blanket of African Stars, dinner, and a night's sleep serenaded by the creatures of the darkness.
Pafuri Tent
Overnight: Pafuri Camp
Day Two
Your first morning will begin as the sun rises (or even earlier) to ensure that you capture all that morning brings. Hot bush coffee before you set out on foot is simply the best way to start the day.
A walk along the floodplain and riverine fringe of either of Limpopo and the Luvuvhu Rivers usually produces good general game. Nyala, impala, greater kudu, chacma baboon, waterbuck, warthog, and, perhaps, grey duiker or bushbuck, while careful searching may yield the more elusive residents such as lion and leopard.
K2C Guide Marius Swart
The Pafuri region, which comprises only fractionally more than 1% of the total area of the 2.2 million-hectare park, boasts three-quarters of Kruger National Park's wildlife and vegetative biodiversity with many large mammal species and incredibly prolific birdlife.
Nearly 400 birds species and over 100 mammal species make up some of the more visible players of this astonishing biodiversity.
Breeding herd of Elephant on foot
The area is well-known for the large herds of elephant and buffalo that are resident most of the year round. They concentrate in particular around the permanent waters of the Luvuvhu River in the dry winter months.
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 walk 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.
Leopards hunt the strong populations of nyala and impala living alongside the Luvuvhu system. On the eastern-most boundary at "Crooks Corner" the Luvuvhu supports a large population of hippo and crocodile.
Other areas hold steenbok, the agile klipspringer and herds of Burchell's zebra.
Return for brunch and a long siesta, cool drinks and endless dips in the beautiful big swimming pool.
The afternoon brings with it a cooling in temperatures and a chance to get back out there and see what you can see.
A walk into the savannah grasslands might yield herds of Burchell's zebra, giraffe or white rhino. The latter (amidst conservationist’s great excitement), have been recently relocated to the area along with giraffe, from which they have been locally extinct for almost a century.
Pafuri Rhino
After your walk, you’ll return to camp for dinner, exceptional food, good wines, and great company.
Overnight: Pafuri Camp
Day Three
An early morning start exposes you to the most exciting part of the day, and seeing the sunrise is a must! This morning we will take a packed breakfast with us, allowing a longer time tracking the previous night’s activities on foot.
One of the most important elements of this area is its palaeoanthropological history, with a plethora of early human ancestral evidence stretching back some 2 million years, through the Stone Age and into the Iron Age about 400 years when the Thulamela dynasty ruled the area.
This dynasty built incredible structures that are not dissimilar to that found in the Great Zimbabwe. Throughout the Makuleke concession, there is an abundance of evidence of pervious human inhabitants in the form of rock paintings and artifacts. Under many a baobab you can find Stone Age hand tools.
The area has long been regarded as something of a Mecca for southern African birdwatchers. Some species are exclusive to this region of 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.
Overnight: Pafuri Camp
Day Four
The final opportunity to immerse yourself in the northern wilderness comes in the form of an early start, seizing the moment and heading out for your last walk among giants. Return for a delectable brunch layout after which you will be transferred by air back to Johannesburg.
Exploration is more about depth than distance
