2015/08/28 Berg-en-dal Rest Camp / Kruger National Park
Between our stay in the Gomo Gomo Game Lodge and the upcoming destination St. Lucia we had an overnight stay in the southern part of the Kruger National Park in the Berg-en-dal Rest Camp.
We came from the north over Hazyview and entered the Numbi Gate. It is also possible to come from the southern side over Malelane Gate.
After entering the Kruger at Numbi Gate we followed the sign with the direction to Berg-en-dal. The beginning was a bit difficult, because the sign was a little unclear, which was amend after a few kilometers.
There are tar roads as well as gravel roads. On the tar roads are 50km/h allowed and on the gravel 40km/h. The way we drove was mostly gravel road. But you can see a lot of animals if you are a bit observent. On our way we saw giraffes, ducker, impala, baboons, zebras, kudus and a white rhino.
The camp
After passing the gate of the camp, you will see a gas station (Total) to your right. Go straight on and you will reach the parking spot and from there you can go to the reception (follow the signs).
Next to the reception you will find a little shop with souvenirs, food, bottles with water and other drinks and something more. When we were there, they had a part under contruction, so maybe they will get a bigger variety in the future.
You will also find a cinema (we didn’t visit) and a restaurant. The restaurant offers breakfast, dinner and I think, lunch as well.
The area is huge, there are 90 cottages for guests at least. Between the houses are a lot of green and also some trees and bushes. There are different kinds of waste bins all over the area, to seperate the garbage. That is good and we didn’t saw this often until now. The most cottages have their own parking lot.
The room
The cottage was ok. We had 3 beds. Two besides eachother and one seperate. Directly after the entrance is a kitchen with fridge, toaster, sink and two cooking plates. The bathroom was quite small with a lavatory, toilet and shower.
The food
We had just an overnight stay and there was no food included. After the sunset game drive we had dinner in the restaurant and ordered 2 burger. On the departure day we had a quick breakfast – we had scrambled egg with bacon and a tea for each of one.
The burger was good, the breakfast ok.
The game drive
In the booking was 1 sunset game drive included. The drive started at 4:30pm, meeting point is the main parking area near the reception.
The car was a little bus with round about 20 passengers. The most people in our bus belong to a group. Normally this isn’t a problem. But with 20 people in the bus it was not really comfortable to sit and the people in the group talked the most of the time to each other and to their guide (he didn’t belongs to the Berg-en-dal camp). He was also the whole drive explaining things. On one hand this is good, on the other hand was there the guide from the camp, who explained things, too. We sat in the last row and we didn’t understand the explenations sometimes .
For this game drive is essentially the same point as I mentioned in the Gomo Gomo review: there is no guarantee, that you will see all animals you want. The problem on our drive: there were animals, but in some situations he stopped so impractically. He saw a huge white rhino which was sleeping. He stopped so, that all can see it, just the last row saw instead the rhino a little tree. I asked if it is possible to drive 1 meter further, but he ignored my question.
Two people in the middle of the bus und two from the back have to hold a flash for the part of the drive, when it’s getting darker. Holding the flash and want to take pictures is a bit difficult.
So the drive was ok, the guide was mostly funny and gave good informations about the animals (if it was understandable), but the drives in the Gomo Gomo Game Lodge were definitly better.
In this vlog you can see the game drive at Berg-en-dal:
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Internet connection
We had 2 vodacom prepaid SIMs with data plans. The connection was mostly ok. It switched between H and E. For E-Mail checking and a bit Twitter and Swarm it was ok.
Conclusion
We were not really happy with this camp. The guy at the reception was not really friendly and the drive was with too many people (in my opinion). The whole camp was made for a larger number of guests. We missed the personal feeling which we had in the other two lodges/camps.
For an overnight stay it is ok. If you have the chance, you have a look for other camps in this part of the Kruger National Park which maybe a bit smaller and more personal.
More informations:
trip advisor: tripadvisor.co.za
foursquare: foursquare.com
blogpost about our stay at Berg-en-dal Rest Camp
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All pictures in the article above are by Steve Rueckwardt under CC-BY-NC-SA licence. If you use one or more and it is technical possible, please link to this article. Thanks.
This text is posted in English. I’m not a native speaker and I know I have to improve my English as well. If you want to learn a language the best way is to use them as much as you can in your daily life. To publish tweets or blogposts in English it is a extra motivation for me. I’m sure I will do mistakes. Please give me a notice if you spot some of them. Mainly I create the most of them in grammar.