World Travel – South Africa – Kruger National Park – Lower Sabie

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Welcome to one of my favorite camps of the entire trip. Lower Sabie Rest Camp in Kruger Park is on the banks of the perennial Sabie River, which draws a wide variety of animals all year round. Lower Sabie has views over the Sabie River and the Lebombo Mountains, a highlight of the Kruger National Park. 

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Lower Sabie Rest Camp

Large numbers of game are attracted to the abundance of water, grasses, and foliage near Lower Sabie Rest Camp. The area is also rich in Lion, Cheetah, Elephant, Hippopotamus, Rhino, and herds of Buffalo up to 800 strong, and is known for its high density of Warthog. 

Lower Sabie Rest Camp has everything you need, including electricity, a fuel station (selling petrol and diesel), an expansive licensed restaurant called Mugg & Bean, a cafeteria (offering convenience foods and coffee), a laundromat, a well-stocked shop (selling groceries, wine, beer, and spirits, as well as an extensive selection of clothing, books and souvenir shopping in Kruger National Park), plus the addition of a swimming pool!

Various lodging options are available, from a luxurious guesthouse to family cottages, huts, bungalows, safari tents, and campsites. We chose to stay in the River Tents on the first night, then switched to the Bush Tents for the last night (due to availability when we booked). This is a view from our River Tent and what everything looked like in the “tent.”

Lower Sabie River Tents

We checked in to our River Tents, freshened up from the long drive from Olifants, and had dinner at the restaurant- Mugg & Bean – it was awesome! Mark and I then returned to our tent, sat on the porch, enjoyed a bottle of African wine, watched for shooting stars, and listened to all of the sounds of the wild. That was the most exciting part of this camp – you could hear all the sounds – both thrilling and terrifying, but knowing you’re safe inside the reinforced walls helped!

Here is a little iPhone photo dump from driving around and the signage that was around camp.

The following day, we had to move out of our River Tents and load everything into the car until we could check in to the Bush Tents that afternoon. That morning, we took a drive to the Crocodile Bridge area. We saw the Crocodile River, a new area of different vegetation and 1 of 9 entrances into the Kruger National Park. Crocodile Bridge Gate is the eastern entrance to Kruger National Park and is on the border of South Africa and Mozambique.

Lion Sighting in Lower Sabie

We were blessed with our best male Lion sighting of the entire trip in this park area. We first took a dirt road that had no one else on it and happened upon a male lion lying on the side of the dirt road. He let us admire him for a while and then got up and strolled right past us, crossed behind our vehicle, and then gave away the location of his brother lying in the grass next to us. 

They bumped heads as a hello and then strutted away together. His poor brother was missing his tail, and they were truly bonded. AH, it was incredible, and if you listen to the video below, you can hear me start to lose it at the end, lol! Plus, we had beautiful and rare sightings of a lesser spotted eagle, a pair of eagle owls, and two black-backed jackals! It was a thrilling morning!

While we continued to wait until we could move into the Bush tents, the group split up for the rest of the day. Some of us sat by the pool, and some enjoyed drinks on the huge wooden deck, which gave us an elevated view of the Sabie River. 

A trendy rugby match was playing on the TVs on the deck, and a large group of patrons got together to cheer on their teams. I immediately felt like I was back in Ohio watching a Buckeyes game at a local bar – it was such a fun atmosphere and unbelievable to look over to the river and see a herd of elephants passing by. 

We spent much time in the restaurant eating excellent food, enjoying stellar cocktails, and looking out over the river. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime view to see so many animals – I could have stayed there forever – especially because the US dollar goes far in South Africa, and this place knows how to make a great drink!

Lower Sabie Bush Tents

Finally, we could check into our new “tents” and relax a bit before the last night safari of the trip. This is a view from our Bush Tent and what everything looked like in the “tent.”

Our final sunset in South Africa led into a fairly uneventful night drive – we saw the most common animals like impala, hyena, giraffe, elephants, scrub hares, and some nocturnal birds… but no cats… until…. we spotted an African wildcat. They are so small compared to most of the cats in Africa (more significant than a house cat but not by much), and I thought it would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but there it was!

This was the night it started to set in, and the trip was almost over, and it would take a while even to comprehend all we had done and seen so far. We only had one more night to go and would spend that in another luxury guest house – back to Skukuza for my final Africa trip post!

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