Best Things to Do in Kruger National Park, South Africa

• • Spotting the Big Five: lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and Cape buffalo.
  • Checking off other species: Kruger is home to 147 different mammals, 507 types of birds, 49 species of fish, 36 amphibians and 114 varieties of reptiles.
  • Scanning the skies for the “birding big six”: ground hornbill, kori bustard, lappet-faced vulture, martial eagle, pel’s fishing owl and saddle-bill stork.
  • Keeping a close eye out for the park’s cleverly named “Little Five:” buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and rhino beetle.
  • Learning to identify Kruger’s five main tree species: baobab, fever tree, knob thorn, marula, and mopane.
  • Visiting the Letaba Elephant Hall, to learn about elephants and view the ivory tusks of six of the “Magnificent Seven,” so-called because they were among the park’s largest bull elephants.
  • Touring the park’s archaeological sites, including the remains of two 19th-century Portuguese trading posts, and the ruins of a stone citadel that dates back to 1250 AD.
  • Taking a drive along the waterfall-and-mountain laden Panorama route, with a foray through the Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest and deepest on earth.