Adventure Travel in South Africa

　　South Africa is a very large and extraordinarily varied land, offering almost unlimited opportunities for adventure travel of all sorts--from diving and whitewater rafting to mountain-climbing and trekking. For most visitors, however, adventure travel in South Africa means safari travel, and the best-known safari area in the country is Eastern Transvaal, a continuous stretch of savanna extending for 400 miles along South Africa's northeastern border. The Eastern Transvaal is home to Kruger National Park, undoubtedly one of the finest game reserves in all of Africa. In addition to the Kruger--and its surrounding private game reserves--visitors interested in safari travel in South Africa are also frequently drawn to Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. A narrow tongue of land extending northward into the vast expanse of the Kalahari Desert, Kalahari Gemsbok is an area of rugged beauty, with shifting dunes, wide-open vistas, and great herds of springbok and gemsbok.

　　Kruger National Park

　　Stretching over 350 miles from north to south, and teeming with wildlife, Kruger National Park is justly rated as one of the world's finest game reserves. Kruger is home to more species of wildlife than any other game sanctuary on the continent, and is one of Africa's few remaining havens for big cats. Well over a thousand lions, and large populations of leopard and cheetah, roam freely here, along with substantial numbers of elephant, zebra, rhino, giraffe, hippopotamus, impala, and kudu--more than enough to satisfy even the most shutter-happy photographer. Kruger is also--like South Africa as a whole--an outstanding destination for birdwatchers, offering a scarcely believable diversity and abundance of species.

Founded in 1898 by Paul Kruger, the park has over the last century been well tended and carefully developed. Unlike many reserves and sanctuaries, it is blessed with an outstanding road network, and in recent years its perimeter fencing has been substantially reduced, allowing greater migration ranges and increased wildlife populations. Stretching