Satara Restcamp

Satara rest camp owes its bustling demeanour to its 200+ person accommodation, a community of campers set out in a series circles in the middle of the Kruger National Park. Diverse and rich, the wildlife in the area is not difficult to spot, the night time restless noises of fruit bats, cicadas and crickets being met by owl calls, hyena whooping and the roar of the lion.

Rustic and communal, the camp borrows much of its ambience from the natural, close quarters vegetation into which it is burrowed.

Accommodation

• One hundred tent or caravan camp sites are available with electricity points, communal bathrooms, and cooking facilities with twenty-four hour boiling water, electric hotplates and washing up facilities. Sites accommodate a maximum of six persons per site.
   
• Seventy-five two or three-bed bungalow units are also offered, complete with communal kitchen, and bungalow ablutions including a shower, WC and wash basin, as well as air-conditioning in all the units. Utensil boxes (cutlery, crockery, frying pan etc) are available in limited supply from reception.
   
• Fifty-seven two or three-bed units are available with kitchens.
   
• One luxury bungalow is available with two beds and one sleeper couch. An open air kitchen is complete with a cooker plate, microwave oven and outside braai (barbeque) area, fridge/freezer combination, sink, cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery.
   
• Nineteen two-bedded bungalows are situated on the perimeter fence, and provide stunning views of the surrounding veld. En-suite bathrooms are complete with showers, WCs and wash basins, and the open air kitchen has its own cooker top, fridge/freezer combination,cutlery, crockery and utensils.
   
• One five-bed and nine six-bed guest cottages with en suite bathrooms are also available, the bathrooms complete with baths, WCs and washbasins. Kitchens have gas stoves with ovens, fridge/freezer combinations, sinks, cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery.
   
• Guest Houses are large, luxury units in prime positions around the camp. Kitchens are equipped with microwave ovens, and the unit itself has multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as limited channel DSTV televisions. Wells House sleeps six people in three bedrooms, and Stanley, nine in three bedrooms. Frankel House sleeps ten people in five bedrooms.

Activities and Facilities

Satara camp offers adventure in the form of guided bush walks and game drives, all under the supervision of well informed and keen professional field guides. Important to note is that children under the age of six are not permitted on game drives, and children under the age of twelve are restricted from game walks.

Pre-booked, overnight activities include the Sweni Wilderness Trail. Trails like this must be booked up to evelen months in advance to allow the camp sufficient time to coordinate and plan group sizes.

Guests can also take in the Sweni and Patel Bird Hides, the weather sensitive Mananga 4 x 4 Adventure Trail, and screenings of wildlife films every evening bar Sundays. Seasonal kids educational programs are also available.

Facilities at the camp include activity information at the reception area, public telephones, post box, restaurant, deli, shops, laundromat, filling station, communal kitchens and bathrooms, basic on-site first-aid assistance, cutlery and plate hampers available from reception, a day visitor picnic area and boma on the perimeter of the camp, an eco information centre and amphitheatre, and a swimming pool with a children's playground. Cell phone reception is also fully available, as well as limited channel access DSTV televisions in the guesthouse.

Important Info and Warnings

Park officials warn that certain creatures which inhabit the park could prove dangerous if not approached or handled correctly. These may include bats, spiders, snakes, and scorpions.

Satara has a designated day visitor area where day visitors and visitors from other camps can braai (barbecue) and picnic. As one enters the gate, it is reached by turning to the left.

Wildlife and Vegetation

Particularly noted for its selection of the big cats (lion, leopard and cheetah)Satara also offers a view of more general game, including rhino, buffalo and elephant, blue wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, giraffe and the ubiquitous impala. Night time residents on the camp's perimeter include spotted hyena, with fruit bat sonar and the chirp of cicada and cricket adding to the relaxing evening ambience.

Surrounding vegetation on the basalt soils around the camp includes knob thorn and marula savannah . Westlying intrusions of ecca shales soil host very sweet grass, as well as Delagoa thorn thickets. Nwanetsi in the east lies in Lebombo Mountain Bushveld, on rhyolite soils, with prevailing tree euphorbia and red bushwillow.

Particularly prominent birds in the area are Red-billed Buffalo Weaver, Burchell's Starling and Mourning Dove, the nighttimet Verreaux's (Giant) Eagle, Barn, Scops Owls and Pearl-spotted Owlet, as well as the Square-tailed ( Mo za mbique ) Nightjar . Northwards, the open plains offer premium opportunities to view Montagu's and Pallid Harrier.

Most Recent Sightings - Baboon, Crocodile, Buffalo, Elephant, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Impala