Itinerary
Day 1 — Johannesburg to Kruger National Park | First Game Drive
Your guide collects you from OR Tambo International Airport at 07:00 for the overland transfer east. The five-hour drive takes you through Mpumalanga's changing landscape — the highveld plateau giving way to the Drakensberg Escarpment, then dropping into the warm, flat lowveld where Kruger country begins in earnest. You reach Hazyview by midday, check into Tembo Guest Lodge, and have time to settle in before the afternoon game drive.
You enter Kruger through Phabeni Gate in the afternoon — your first drive of the trip. Southern Kruger is prime Big Five territory: lion prides are regularly tracked along the Sabie River corridor, elephant herds move between the mopane and the water, and leopard are a genuine daily possibility in the dense riverine forest. This first drive sets the baseline for the next four days.
Destination: Southern Kruger National Park Accommodation: Tembo Guest Lodge, Hazyview (4-star) Meals: Dinner included
Day 2 — Full Day in Southern Kruger | Morning & Afternoon Game Drives
The alarm goes before dawn. You are through Phabeni Gate at first light — the most productive window of any safari day. The southern section of the park, between the Crocodile River and the Sabie River, supports the highest concentration of lion, leopard, white rhino, elephant, and buffalo in Kruger. Your guide reads the terrain constantly: fresh tracks in the road sand, alarm calls from impala, vultures descending in the distance.
After a midday break at one of the park's picnic spots — where hippos work the river and Nile crocodiles hold the banks — the afternoon drive resumes as the heat of the day subsides. Animals return to waterholes, predators start to move, and the light drops to the deep golden tones that make late-afternoon game viewing in Kruger one of the great photographic experiences in Africa. Return to the lodge for dinner.
Destination: Southern Kruger National Park Accommodation: Tembo Guest Lodge, Hazyview (4-star) Meals: Breakfast & Dinner included
Day 3 — Southern to Central Kruger | Satara Plains & Open Savanna
Day three pushes deeper into the park. The central Kruger zone — centred around the Satara area and the open savanna grasslands of the Lebombo plains — is a completely different wildlife experience from the dense south. The terrain opens up, sightlines extend, and the open grassland supports large concentrations of zebra, wildebeest, and the lion prides that hunt them. Satara consistently produces the highest lion sighting rates of any area in Kruger.
Your guide works the central zone's network of roads and waterholes — the Nwanetsi and N'waswitsontso rivers, the Satara waterhole loop, the open pans that draw game in the dry season. Return to Tembo Guest Lodge in the evening.
Destination: Central Kruger National Park (Satara region) Accommodation: Tembo Guest Lodge, Hazyview (4-star) Meals: Breakfast & Dinner included
Day 4 — Central Kruger Exploration | Extended Game Drives
A full fourth day in Kruger. By day four of any extended park stay, the bush starts to reveal its rhythms — you recognise animal pathways, your guide anticipates where the herds will be, and your eye has calibrated to the landscape. This is where extended safari time pays off in ways shorter trips simply cannot deliver.
The morning drive covers the central zone's most productive terrain. The afternoon can extend south again to revisit the most rewarding sighting areas from earlier days, or push north toward the Olifants River — one of Kruger's most scenically dramatic river systems and an outstanding area for buffalo, elephant, and the raptors that patrol the cliffs. Return to the lodge for a final evening at Tembo Guest Lodge.
Destination: Central Kruger National Park Accommodation: Tembo Guest Lodge, Hazyview (4-star) Meals: All meals included (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)
Day 5 — Final Morning Game Drive | Return to Johannesburg
One last early morning game drive before breakfast. After four days in the field your guide knows exactly how the animals in each area are moving — and final drives consistently deliver strong sightings precisely because of that accumulated knowledge. After breakfast, check out of Tembo Guest Lodge and begin the return transfer to Johannesburg, arriving at OR Tambo International Airport or your city accommodation in the late afternoon.
Destination: Return to Johannesburg Accommodation: None (end of tour) Meals: Breakfast included
