Kruger National Park Rest Camps have rules to ensure your safety. This blog explains a bit more of these rules and why they are important to follow.

Rest camps are large enclosed areas for humans to overnight. These ‘rest camps’ as you would call them, even have restaurants and shops.

As a foreign visitor, you can rest assured that the rest camp will be safe from large big 5 animals, as it has an electric fence that surrounds it. Other preventative measures, however, need to be taken, for example, malaria. Click to read more about Malaria.

Here are some of the rules you have to follow when staying inside a National Park rest camp:

Do not feed animals in Rest Camp, because it can attract more animals looking for food, as they are in the wild. Most animals must hunt their own food or look it in trees (e.g. monkeys).

Human food has preservatives and sugars not normally found in nature, this makes the animals hyper-active.

Please only make fires at destined fireplaces, so that you can prevent huts or the bush from burning down.  When you are done with the fire, extinguish it. Also, make sure your fireplace is nice and tidy after your braai / BBQ.

Do not play with warthogs, monkeys and baboons in the rest camps! They can seriously hurt you, so be careful, they are wild animals after all. You can take beautiful photos, but do not get too close. Due to the instinct of animals, they will try to protect their young or protect themselves (as many small animals are scared of humans).

Do not play loud music in the Rest Camp at night, it disturbs other visitors who come for some peace and quiet.

Do not throw you garbage out the window, as an animal can pick it up and eat it, as this is very harmful to animals (they can eat it and choke).

Do not leave your food alone at the fireplace or easily accessible, as a troop of baboons or monkeys can steal it. Keep it inside until you go outside your accommodation or just let someone keep an eye on the food.

Do not leave young children alone in rest camp where you cannot see them. They could get hurt or get lost.