Central Kruger – Gateway from the Lowveld and Mozambique

Central Kruger Park has a variety of rest camps to stay in, picnic sites to eat at and rivers and waterholes scattered around to watch wildlife in.

On top of this, there are some significant ruins in the vicinity, 12km (7 miles) from Phalaborwa Gate. The ruins are from the late Iron Age and are on a hill top site known as Masorini, where iron products were made and traded.

The central region is a good place to enter the park if you’ve been visiting the Lowveld scenic places, to the west of Kruger National Park, such as:

  • Mac Mac Falls, a 65m (213ft) high waterfall
  • Pilgrim’s Rest, a quaint Victorian village
  • Graskop – there’s a nice lunch place in Graskop called Harrie’s Pancakes that sells a huge variety of excellent pancakes – savoury, sweet or a combination thereof – you name it!

If you’re entering Kruger National Park from Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, you need to pass though one of the border gates.

Giriyondo Gate is the only border gate in the central region of Kruger Park. In fact, there is only one other border gate, Pafuri Border Gate, which is at the very top of Kruger National Park.

For quick reference, all the gates in the Kruger Park central region are:

Rest camps in the central region are:

Warthog

If you’re looking for luxury lodges in the central region, Imbali Safari Lodges runs:

  • Hamilton’s Tented Camp
  • Hoyo Hoyo Tsonga Lodge
  • Imbali Safari Lodge

The central region of Kruger National Park can be defined by the slim section of the park (click here to see a map) where there’s a concentration of rest camps as far north as Mopani Rest Camp. Beyond this, the northern region begins.

The central region of Kruger National Park will have a few less visitors in it than the southern region as most people enter the park in the south. If they’re only having a short safari, tourists may not have time to venture into the centre.