Whether it's the Kruger or the Kalahari...

That's because we have been visiting famous African game reserves since 1995 - actually we have spent over 24 months in various Southern and East African wildlife parks!

Our favorites are the Kruger National Park, Kalahari (Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park) and Pilanesberg, in South Africa...

and Etosha in Namibia...

We have stayed in every main camp, bushveld camp and wilderness camp during all four seasons of the year in the above four parks.

We have stayed in huts, cottages, bungalows, chalets, safari tents, family cottages, log cabins, dune cabins, rooms and guest houses, been on day walks, 4X4 adventure trails, eaten in all the restaurants and photographed all our favorite animals and places…

Fish eagle at Sunset Dam near Lower Sabie

Olifants Camp, Kruger National Park

The Kruger, Kgalagadi, Etosha and Pilanesberg parks are magical places – we simply cannot get enough of them because they have so much to offer visitors. They are our four favorite destinations. So in terms of advice on 'where to go', we recommend the Kruger National park, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Pilanesberg Game Reserve and Etosha National Park.

Kruger-2-kalahari.com is a Southern African Wildlife Photography and Safari Information site owned by real people, Mario & Jenny Fazekas, who have 'been there and done it' - many times. We have experienced over 100 self-drive African photo safaris.

At Kruger-2-kalahari.com the advice we provide you is from our more than sixteen years of visiting African National Parks and having spent over 500 days and nights in these parks.

We only recommend places that we think are worth recommending and we don't sugar-coat our reviews - if we like/dislike something -- you will know about it!

We have had experiences of friends or acquaintances offering us advice or making statements like the following:

• ‘Why do you visit the Kruger Park – it has horrible government rondavels and is expensive?’ I then asked this person when last they had visited the park to which the reply was ‘I have never visited the Kruger Park’! So here is a person criticizing a place they have never visited!

• ‘My favorite camp in the Kalahari is Twee Rivieren ’, to which I asked the person why they did not like the wilderness camps? The reply was that they have only visited Twee Rivieren – hence it’s their ‘favorite’! Do you want to accept recommendations from this person?

• We have spoken to people who say that a guided safari is better than a self-drive safari - we then ask them where they have been on a self-drive safari and the answer is that 'we have never been on a self-drive African safari! They are simply assuming that their experience is better than the alternative and dishing this out as ‘advice’!

• We have also seen web sites offering photographic advice and the first point is that ‘you should put your rolls of film into a heat-proof canister’! How current is this advice? Would you feel comfortable following this web site’s advice?

A big-five African safari is a dream holiday for many people and the bottom-line is that whether you are a tourist from another continent or a local visiting our game reserves, you want to return home having enjoyed the safari experience. That enjoyment is a collective experience from when you make the booking, travel to the park, your stay in the bungalow or tent, eating and then of course looking for and photographing animals.

When you return home you hope to show friends and family photographs such as this...

We spent a full day photographing these two Leopard cubs!

or this...

Wild dog with impala head

...yet we know people who have been bitterly disappointed as their holiday accommodation was not up to scratch or the food was lousy or their photographs turned out terrible.

This need not be the case if you do a bit of research beforehand. If you are going to spend your hard-earned money on a wildlife safari it makes sense to also invest in some research to make sure you return home with some great memories!

Kruger-2-kalahari.com has a simple and logical navigation structure. Just use the main site menu to your left (the black navigation bar containing site buttons) to navigate around the site.

The site focuses on the four main Southern African self-drive game reserves and national parks of Kruger, Kgalagadi (Kalahari), Etosha and Pilanesberg.

There are four pages for each park – there is a page explaining the park, then a Gallery page showcasing some of our photographs taken in these parks, a page containing Maps relating to each park and the relevant camps and then a page where You can share Your stories and photos for each of the four parks.

On each page explaining the parks there are links to each camp in these four parks. These pages contain photographs of the bungalows in the camps and also have photographs; uploaded by visitors to this site, on what animals they have seen at or near these camps. This will give you a better idea of what to expect when staying at each camp in the four parks.

We then have section on Nature Photography that covers photographic gear, photographic vision, interviews with professional nature photographers and many other photographic hints and tips.

The next section focuses on Safari Tips. Here we discuss Game Viewing tips, The Big-Five, Safari Myths, Dangerous Animals, Safari Gear, Self Drive Safaris, Safari Dining and much more.

Under Share / Community YOU ahve an opportunity to share your photographs and experiences with visitors and to read our Trip Reports.

These pages have links to other related pages providing advice that we have gained during our more than 500 days of staying in these four African game reserves.

If you ever get lost, just click on "Home" in the site menu and you'll return right here where you can reorient yourself. Other options would be for you to click on the Site Map button or to click on the SiteSearch button.

If you’ve visited any of these parks and game reserves we would love to hear about it, and so will our visitors of this site. You have the opportunity to share your photographs and experiences – either click on the Share Your Stories button under 'Share / Community' on the main site menu or you can go to the Your Kruger Stories, Your Kalahari Stories, Your Etosha Stories, or Your Pilanesberg Stories buttons on the black Navigation bar where you can upload your pictures and stories relating to the four parks.

If you enjoy this site, then please help other people to find it as well. If you have bookmarking or social networking space (Google, Facebook, etc.), a blog or a website you can use the bookmarks at the bottom of this page to link to this site.

Do you have your own website or blog? You can place articles written by me on your site. All the material on this site is copyrighted, but I posted a set of articles on Ezinearticles.com that you can reprint anywhere providing you give credit to the source - EzineArticles.com and myself. Just click here:

So, after more than 16 years of visits, which parks and camps are the best?

Well, they are all unique and have their own charm. No two camps are alike, but this web site will provide you with answers based on our experiences in regard to:

• Our favorite camps

• Our favorite bungalows and tents

• Cheap vs expensive lodges and reserves

• Pros and cons of eating out or braaing (barbeque)

• Most rewarding hides, waterholes and dams

• Shops and restaurants

• Self-drive safari or guided safari

• Where to find animals

• Best Photographic equipment for safaris

• Photographic tips

• More to come on these and other Kruger-2-Kalahari bests...

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