Pafuri Camp is situated between the Limpopo and the Luvuvhu Rivers in the northern sector of the Kruger national park, in a 24,000 hectare area called the Pafuri or the Makuleke; it is the largest private concession in the Greater Kruger National Park. This area is the ancestral home of the Makuleke people and is one of the most diverse and scenically attractive areas in the Kruger national park. This area is certainly the wildest and most remote part of the park and offers varied vegetation, great game viewing, the best birding in all of the Kruger, and is filled with folklore of the early explorers and ancient civilisations. It is well known for its fever tree forests, beautiful gorges and Crook's Corner, where the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers and three countries, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique meet. The region is considered one of Kruger's biodiversity hotspots, with some of the largest herds of elephant and buffalo, leopard and lion and incredibly prolific birdlife.
Pafuri Camp caters for the traditional Kruger park visitor and is the only camp accessible to self-drivers in the extreme northern sector of the park. Being so different from the rest of the park in terms of scenery and species, it contrasts with and complements the experience offered at the lodges in the southern Kruger, Timbavati and Sabi Sands areas. Travellers visiting the lodges or camps in the south can experience the Kruger in its entirety by including the Pafuri region in their itineraries.
Pafuri Camp was designed by the same renowned architects as North Island, Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens. Accommodation consists of 20 stylish tented rooms (including six family rooms for up to four people), each with en-suite bathroom facilities. Children over four are welcome and a full range of children's activities are available. The rooms at Pafuri all look out over the Luvuvhu River; guests can sit on their decks and watch for elephant, nyala, waterbuck or bushbuck coming down to drink - to name but a few! There is also a large and lovely swimming pool at the camp.
Wilderness Safaris who owns the camp has spent over three million Rand on anti-poaching and the reintroduction of game since 2003. There has been an enormous increase in prey populations and predator sightings. There is a resident lion pride of one male, six females and two sets of cubs. The concession has been transformed and game viewing continues to improve, with occasional cheetah sightings. Pafuri is most famous for its big herds of elephants and for special, rare birds like the Pel's fishing owl.
Activities in the Pafuri / Makuleke area are extremely varied and interesting. Game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, night drives, walks, and hides (including some that will cater for sleep-outs) are all part of the range of activities that are on offer. One of the most important aspects of this area is its palaeo-anthropological history, with its plethora of evidence of early human ancestors stretching back some two million years ago, through the Stone Age and into the Iron Age about 400 years ago when the Thulamela dynasty ruled in this area. This dynasty built incredible structures that are not dissimilar to that found in the Great Zimbabwe. Throughout the concession, there is evidence of its human inhabitants, in the form of rock paintings and artefacts - under many a baobab are Stone Age hand tools, such as hand axes, to be found.
Access to Pafuri Camp is possible by road so it is ideal for self drivers (driving time from Johannesburg is roughly six hours), or it is easy by air with scheduled flights from Johannesburg, flying time is approximately one hour and fifty minutes.