Tag: leopard

Kruger Park Accommodations: Tamboti Tent Camp

This is the fourth in a series about Kruger Park accommodations. We travelled from north to south and booked accommodations in advance.  We spent our fourth night and really enjoyed our stay at Tamboti Tent Camp.

Night Four: Our Stay at Tamboti Tent Camp
Tamboti Camp Kruger Park
Tamboti is the star on the map of Kruger Park

Tamboti tent camp is one of the smaller camps in Kruger, remote and peaceful. It’s the only camp we stayed in which doesn’t even have a reception desk – to check in at Tamboti, we had to first stop in at the bigger Orpen Rest Camp a few kilometers east.

Tamboti is a type of tree, and it’s a poisonous tree. Fortunately we didn’t have any experiences with the Tamboti tree; just the camp named for it.

Lodging at Tamboti Tent Camp

Our lodging at Tamboti was a big tent with a bedroom and bathroom inside, and an outdoor kitchen on a deck, which we quite liked. We liked the natural beauty and the outdoor elements to staying there especially.

Besides being comfortable, Tamboti was a great location for spotting animals. In fact, just outside the gate on the way in we saw a leopard’s kill of impala hanging in a tree, and when we left the next morning, we saw two hyenas finishing off the meal.

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Spotting the Big Five in Kruger Park

Before I went to Kruger National Park – my first ever safari experience – I was excited to see ANY wild animals. I had heard of “The Big 5” but wasn’t even sure which animals were labelled within that group. We learned from a guide during one of the organized walks that this term originally comes from hunters. As a result, hunters considered the biggest animals the most important for their trophy cases and thus the Big 5 designation was created. We tried to spot the Big five in Kruger Park, with some success.

It is a goal for many safari goers to see all of “The Big 5.” While this wasn’t my goal, the whole park experience pushes that as a priority. Each campsite has a couple of boards where people can mark their daily sightings of these most wanted wild animals, plus some other rare and interesting animals. Except the rhino. Due to these beautiful animals being close to extinction, the park will not advertise sightings of rhinoceros as a way to protect them against poachers. Because of this, a rhino sighting is a tough find.

For the most part, we drove around, did a couple of game walks in the bush, and just enjoyed our sightings of all the animals and birds. But in the back of our minds, especially as the days passed, we did still hope to see all of the Big Five.

Here’s a rundown on our Big Five sightings in Kruger National Park:

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