The Big 5 National Parks Of South Africa

From The Kruger To Kalahari

Kalahari Gemsbok

The Big 5 National Parks of South Africa include 5 of the best game reserves in South Africa chosen by us. This is completely subjective and the list is made up exclusively of the SANPARKS reserves. This means that great game reserves like the Ezemvelo KwaZulu Natal parks miss out. Reserves such as the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, Ndumo Game Reserve and uMkhuze do not make this list. Don’t let that influence your decision to visit these places though, they are amazing.

Other reserves that miss out include the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, Shamwari Game Reserve and the Madikwe Game Reserve to name just a few from other provinces in South Africa.

The Big 5 National Parks According To Us

In no particular order, we have chosen 5 of the best National Parks in South Africa that make up this list. These Parks include:

• Addo Elephant National Park
• Karoo National Park
• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
• Kruger National Park
• Mountain Zebra National Park

Each of the above National Parks are special and unique in their own way.

Addo Elephants

Big 5 National Parks: Addo Elephant National Park

The Addo Elephant National Park is home to some special Eastern Cape vegetation and of course a huge population of African Elephants that were separated from the main population after heavy hunting for the ivory trade. When Addo was proclaimed a protected area, there were only 11 Elephants left. There are now around 600.

Big 5 National Parks: Karoo National Park

The Karoo National Park is a special place, home to many rare animals that can be seen fairly regularly here. The Karoo National Park is regarded as one of the best places in Southern Africa to see the Aardvark and the Aardwolf, during night drives. The reserve is also home to the endangered Riverine Rabbit and Smith’s Red Rock rabbit.

Springbok Herd

Big 5 National Parks: Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

The stars and sandstorms are a characteristic of the magnificent Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, formerly the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park before merging with the Botswana side of the Kalahari Game Reserve. It is well known for it’s huge herd of Springbok, Red Hartebeest and Eland, as well as the Black maned Lions and Brown Hyaena’s.

Big 5 National Parks: Kruger National Park

If you follow this website, you will know that it is dedicated to simply one of the best wildlife reserves in the World, drawing tourists from around the globe to visit this huge National Park, with some of the highest and densest animal and bird species and populations of any Park in the World. Not enough can be said about the Kruger.

Big 5 National Parks: Mountain Zebra National Park

The Mountain Zebra National Park gets it’s name from the reason it was proclaimed. To protect the rare Cape Mountain Zebra. They were too, almost hunted to extinction. In the 1960’s there were only 25 left, and just 2 stallions. The Parks numbers now hover around 700, and to protect them and further their range, about 20 Cape Mountain Zebra are relocated to other Parks each year.