Timbavati Lodges Reservations

The Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It extends across the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, reaching to the border with   Zimbabwe in the north and Mozambique in the east. In 1898 it was known as the Government Wildlife Park; later it became the Sabi Game Reserve and in 1926, the Kruger National Park. Timbavati offers impressive wildlife watching in the Dry season, from May to September, when animals share the local waterholes and rivers. The landscape is green and lush in the wetter months (October to April), and this time is best for bird watching.

EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE BIG 5 SAFARI IN THE TIMBAVATI

An important milestone in the history of the reserve was the dropping, in 1993, of the fences between itself and the Kruger National Park and other adjoining privately owned conservation areas. This expansion of the open system initially included Timbavati, Klaserie, and Umbabat Private Nature Reserves, and later the Balule Nature Reserve, adding some 184,000 hectares to what is today referred to as the Greater Kruger National Park. More recently the fences between the Timbavati and its neighbor to the west, Thornybush, were also dropped, which opened an additional 14,500 hectares, further encouraging natural species migration.

The reserve also finances an outreach body, the Timbavati Foundation that runs a series of programs that help neighboring communities in areas such as boreholes, sustainable shaded vegetable farming as well as environmental awareness programs for schoolchildren. The human incursion into this part of the Lowveld has always been temporary and brief, from the stone age down to the early 20th century. Large tracts of land in the northern part of the Lowveld were never permanently settled by people. The lands now comprising the Timbavati were barely touched and are still only sparsely inhabited. This part of South Africa's bushveld region may therefore be regarded as truly pristine and unspoiled; it is genuine wilderness, different from the "restored" and "restocked" lands commonly found elsewhere.

Since its humble origins in the 1950s, the reserve is now a highly professional organization, that protects sustainable populations of many endangered species such as black and white rhinoceros, pangolins, saddle-billed storks, southern ground hornbills, and many others. The Timbavati is home to a number of Safari lodges that cater to local and international tourists, bringing a thriving tourism economy to the region, and promoting employment within the reserve and in the neighboring communities.