One of my favourite South African safari camps.

Tanda Tula sits in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve on the edge of Kruger National Park and captures the essence of the safari camp, transporting visitors back to an earlier age of wildlife vacations. 

The camp is small and the feel is intimate, with each staff member personally introducing themselves and joining you for meals, drinks or a game of Jenga in front of the fire. There are no TVs, neither in the tents nor the communal area – instead there’s a library of South African books, a big box of games and a permanently-manned bar well-stocked with two of the most important ingredients for any safari break – gin and tonic!

And then there is the wildlife.

There are now no fences between Timbavati and the Kruger so you stand an excellent  chance of seeing any one of the Big Five as well as plenty of other, equally interesting animals – and with the camp unfenced, it’s not unusual to see some of them wandering near your tent.

Naturally, animal sightings are always different, but camp guide, Scotch, ensures that he always has something to talk about, memorising the page numbers or every bird regularly sighted in the area to wow you with, in between glimpses of the mammals most people come to see.

Guests have tracked wild dogs on a hunt, spent time with litter of hyena pups sniffing at the  tyres, witnessed a leopard saving its kill from a marauding hyena and seen a two-month-old elephant attempting to see them off with a trumpet and an ear-flap that was more adorable than alarming.

Tanda Tula is a top destination – no wonder our clients keep coming back for more!