Lower Sabie is one of Kruger National Park's Main rest camps and is situated on the southern bank of the Sabie River, in the southeastern section of the park. It is connected to the main Skukuza camp by the H4-1 tarred

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

( apart), which is often considered to be the busiest road in the park.

History

When the Sabie Game Reserve was first proclaimed in 1898, the area around where Lower Sabie now lies was undeveloped. The initial road to the area was a two-track gravel road running up from

Crocodile Bridge Crocodile Bridge is the name of both a camp along the southern border of Kruger National Park and a gate to the park in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The gate is at a low water bridge crossing the Crocodile River and leads directly to t ...

and continuing to Skukuza, built in 1926 and 1927 after the park was re-established as the Kruger National Park. The Gomondwane Road (H4-2) and the Mativuhlungu Loop (S82) roughly follow this route today. In 1930, the quarters of ranger Tom Duke were converted into a five-bedroom wood-and-steel guest house, made available to tourists. Between 1928 and 1931, the Sabie River Road (H4-1) was built between Skukuza and the site of what is now Lower Sabie. This guest house was a financial failure and was demolished in 1932. A set of 3 six-bedroom units was built to provide replace the guest house and provide accommodation in this region of the park. In 1935 a portion of a £50,000 grant was used to expand Lower Sabie to accommodate 200 visitors, which included retrofitting the old huts to be made mosquito-proof. The first camp supervisor was appointed in 1936.

Facilities

As with all major rest camps in Kruger, Lower Sabie provides a park shop, restaurant, braai and communal kitchen facilities, a first aid station, laundromat, and filling station.

General facilities

Lower Sabie has a single restaurant, franchised by Mugg & Bean. The restaurant has a large seating area overlooking the river and is often the location of game sightings. Near the restaurant is a shop, which sells reference books, maps, food and drinks (including beer, wine and spirits), as well as a variety of clothing, collectables, and curios. Other general facilities include: *

Swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

Laundromat A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the Uni ...

* Public telephone, as well as cell phone reception *

Filling station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasol ...

Day visitor area

Lower Sabie has a designated day visitor area with picnic sites and a swimming pool.

Nearby facilities

250px, Sunset dam, situated just west of the camp Near to the camp, but outside of its gates, are the picnic areas at Nkuhlu (± ), Mlondozi Dam () and Tshokwane (). Sunset dam is a 1 km drive from the camp and often features large numbers of animals in the morning and evening. Nthandanyati Bird Hide is about 11 km from camp.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available on a self-

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and r ...

basis, in 30 huts and 62

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single- story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as ...

s, as well as one large

guest house A guest house (also guesthouse) is a kind of lodging. In some parts of the world (such as the Caribbean), guest houses are a type of inexpensive hotel-like lodging. In others, it is a private home that has been converted for the exclusive use ...

. Last, but not least, for visitors wanting to enjoy the outdoor, there are

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more natu ...

sites for 33 caravans or

tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using ...

s, all equipped with electrical power. The camp also has 25 fully-equipped safari tents, giving it an ''African bush feeling''. The camp is laid out on the Sabie River banks, visitors can be seated on the restaurant's wooden floor ''stoep'', having a cold beer and viewing the plenty game wandering in the river bed below.

Activities

Guided bush walks, game drives, breakfasts in the wild, and the Kruger Park "Bush Braai" (a barbecue-style dinner) are all available from Lower Sabie, but are subject to availability.

Game viewing

Lower Sabie is within the range of all of the big five game animals. Genet, serval, cheetah and

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethiz ...

also frequent the area. Hippos are often visible on the river banks, even from inside the camp.

Bird viewing

Kingfishers Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania ...

, storks and

cormorants Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven gen ...

are often visible from the restaurant deck, which overlooks the river. Southern masked weavers,

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical ...

Cape glossy starling The Cape starling (''Lamprotornis nitens''), also known as red-shouldered glossy-starling or Cape glossy starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Southern Africa, where it lives in woodlands, bushveld and in sub ...

Natal spurfowl The Natal spurfowl or Natal francolin (''Pternistis natalensis'') is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Taxonomy The Natal spurfowl was described i ...

and several types of

hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandib ...

can often be seen within the camp. Ntandanyathi Bird Hide is about 12 km southeast of the camp and offers good viewing, including marabou and

black stork The black stork (''Ciconia nigra'') is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Measuring on average from beak tip to end of tail with a wingspan, th ...

References

{{reflist, 30em Kruger National Park