Sabi Sands Game Reserve

About Sabi Sands Game Reserve

The Sabi Sand is a private game reserve of about 65,000 hectares on the south-western edge of Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga, and it is where to go if seeing leopard up close matters most to you. It takes its name from the Sabie River on its southern boundary and the Sand River that runs through it. The reserve shares a 50 km unfenced border with Kruger; the last fences between them came down in 1993, so animals move freely across. Game viewing is easiest in the dry months, May to September and into October. The grass is short, the bush is open and animals keep near the rivers, which makes tracking easier. Winter mornings start cold on an open vehicle, and the lodges hand out blankets for good reason. From November the rains turn everything green, the bush thickens and the first young animals appear. The reserve stays rewarding, it just asks a little more patience. Getting there is simple. Three airports serve the reserve: Skukuza for the southern sector, Kruger Mpumalanga International for the west and Hoedspruit Eastgate for the north, with a road transfer from each. Some lodges are reached by light aircraft on link flights to the reserve's own airstrips. By road from Johannesburg it is around 450 to 500 km, five and a half to six and a half hours, entering through the Shaws, Newington or Gowrie gate. Two nights is the minimum and three is better, because each night gives you two more drives and leopard sightings reward repeat visits to the same territory. We usually pair the Sabi Sand with a few nights on Kruger's public roads, or with the Panorama Route and a flight to Cape Town. The real difference from Kruger is how you go looking. In the national park you drive public roads, stay on them, and must be back in camp by sunset. In the Sabi Sand a ranger drives an open vehicle with a tracker on the seat at the front, reading spoor from the road. When they pick up a leopard or a pack of wild dog they can follow it off the road into the bush, and the afternoon drive carries on after dark with a spotlight. The rhythm is set: a wake-up knock before dawn, coffee, three hours out, brunch and a rest through the heat. Then out again in the late afternoon, with a drinks stop at sunset. Many lodges also offer a guided walk in the morning, where you learn the tracks and smaller life that a vehicle drives past. We list three properties here, each a different style. Leopard Hills sits at the luxury end. Umkumbe Safari Lodge and Nottens Bush Camp are smaller and less formal, and Nottens runs without mains power: paraffin lamps and candles light the camp at night, and camera batteries are charged at reception.