Bushmans Wilderness Trail

About Bushmans Wilderness Trail

Start: Berg-en-Dal, Kruger National Park (the camp is a further 1 to 2 hours drive)
Finish: Berg-en-Dal, Kruger National Park
Duration: 3 days, 2 nights
Fitness: you need to be fit enough to manage 2 hikes a day (the evening one is gentler), but most of it is on the flat at a leisurely pace, and you don't need to be super fit
Our tip: the highlight of this wilderness trail is San rock art found in the rocky parts of the south western corner of the park, and the chance of seeing white rhinos, lions and large herds of antelope

Whilst you are more likely to see kudu, klipspringer and mountain reedbuck than any of the bigger game, the Bushmans Wilderness Trail has one of the more attractive camps, hidden in amongst a series of huge granite kopjes.

Watch the skies long enough and you could catch sight of a jackal buzzard or a redthroated wryneck, and at night listen out for spotted eagle owls and freckled night jars.

But there is also every likelihood that whilst on one of your early morning walks you will stumble upon a rhino, totally unexpectedly, and have to resist the temptation to run screaming for the hills, or risk endangering your life and the lives of the other seven people who share the camp with you.

Elephant too frequent this part of Kruger National Park and the walks often follow their well-trodden paths.

You are accommodated for the three nights in a rustic wilderness camp in one of four A-frame huts. The huts are basic, with two beds in each and not much room to manoeuvre, but they are perfectly adequate.

There is no electricity, and no cellphone reception but there are pole-enclosed toilets and hot showers, with a central fire area around which you commune at night, served food by the camp's cook.

One's days are divided up into early morning walks, followed by lunch and an afternoon siesta, and then another late afternoon walk. Although the group can decide the ratio of walking to relaxing.

All your food is supplied, although you might want to take your own drinks for sundowners.

If you do not want a three-day wilderness trail, consider the daily two-to-four hour ranger-led walks from the park's rest camps as an alternative.