101 Kruger tales collected by Jeff Gordon

101 Kruger tales and extraordinary stories from ordinary visitors to Kruger National Park, collected by Jeff Gordon.

Jeff Gordon, editor of the book Extraordinary stories from ordinary visitors to Kruger National Park, has, supported by countless witnesses, collected 101 Kruger tales which form an exceptional composition of lucky, tragic, thrilling and humorous events that have occurred in the South African favourite destination.

Introduction to 101 Kruger tales

Stretching almost 400 kilometres along the low-lying north-eastern border of South Africa, and covering an enormous two-million hectares, larger than many small countries, the Kruger National Park is one of the greatest game reserves on earth. No park in Africa can boast quite as many mammal species: an astonishing 147 in total, including all the usual safari suspects. The birding tick-list exceeds 500 species, ranging from the world's largest to one of the world's smallest. An embarrassment of botanical riches, throbbing with insect life, cover the Park's 14 distinct ecozones. There are well over 100 types of reptile, more than half of which are snakes. And with the so-called Big Five - lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, in such abundance throughout much of the Park, even a first-time visitor could, with a bit of blind luck, tick them off before lunchtime. Perhaps less well known internationally than its northern cousins like the Maasai Mara and the Serengeti, the Kruger National Park has been attracting South Africans (and increasingly, foreign tourists) from as far back as 1926, when it was first declared a national park. Since then, Kruger visitors - now numbering over a million a year and largely using their own cars - have traversed and explored the 2500 kilometres of gravel, dirt and tarred road criss-crossing the park like a capillary system, racking up enough extraordinary sightings, close encounters and gobsmacking stories to fill a mountain of postcards home. This is perhaps what makes Kruger unique amongst its game reserve counterparts in Africa. Whereas the safari experience north of the Limpopo is overwhelmingly confined to those with the thickest wallets and a Big Five checklist, Kruger allows anyone to experience true African wilderness for themselves, in the comfort of their own cars, at their own pace and choosing their own routes. And all of this at a fraction of the cost of a private safari. That is not to say the top-end market is not catered for; it most certainly is. Open-topped guided safaris and luxurious lodges straight off the pages of a glossy magazine are a part of Kruger too, they just don't take precedent over the time-honoured do-it-yourself method of enjoying the Park. But Kruger is no theme-park or tourist trap. Yes, a good 850 kilometres of the Park's roads are tarred; some rest camps in season can feel overwhelmingly busy; and big cat sightings, particularly in the busier southern sections, can cause 'traffic jams'. But it shouldn't be forgotten that Kruger is first and foremost a conservation area of world renown at the forefront of global ecological and scientific research steered by an army of dedicated and skilled personnel. Tourism is the handy byproduct that keeps much of it ticking along. If there is any doubt, consider this astonishing statistic: if you drove every kilometre of accessible tourist road in Kruger, and were able to see for 100 metres on either side the entire way, at the end of it all you would have only seen just over two-and-a-half percent of the entire Park. Yet in that two-and-a-half percent of largely untouched Africa, incredible things happen. A long and twisty food chain, from microbes to elephants, plays out in front of your eyes - and you need not be an expert, game ranger or safari guide to find it. With a bit of luck (sometimes good, sometimes bad) and a sprinkling of common sense (or lack of it), the extraordinary behaviours of wild animals, the hair-raising adventures, the close shaves and the nature-documentary sightings are there for the average visitor to savour, to shriek about, to wonder over and to share. That is what this book, 101 Kruger tales: Extraordinary stories from ordinary visitors to Kruger National Park, is all about.

Jeff Gordon

101 Kruger tales: Extraordinary stories from ordinary visitors to Kruger National Park (ISBN 9780620611329 / ISBN 978-0-620-61132-9) may be ordered with Namibiana Buchdepot, Importer of books, maps and media from Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.

'101 Kruger tales collected by Jeff Gordon' is a press release by Namibiana Buchdepot.