The Kruger National Park remains one of Africa’s most beautiful safari destinations and one that draws in guests from all over the world. A rich a vibrant history meets a modern conservation effort once you start reading about the Kruger National Park.
The first tourists to see the Kruger National Park was back in 1923. The South African Railways implemented a tour that included the Kruger National Park on its way to Mozambique. Back then nobody thought that tourists would be interested in viewing the animals in the Kruger National Park. The train would have an overnight stop at what is now known as Skukuza. Stevenson Hamilton pleaded that the train travel from Komatipoort to Skukuza during daylight. He also arranged that a game ranger travel on the train for this leg of the journey. At that time there were no camps in the Kruger National Park, so tourist slept on the train. To make it interesting for the tourists, the game ranger would make a large campfire where he could share bush stories with the tourists. This attraction soon became extremely popular on the tour.
By the time the Kruger National Park was proclaimed in 1926 the tourist idea was already established. The first board meeting in September 1926 noted that tourism was a good way to source revenue for the Kruger National Park. With tourism now bringing in money, it was decided to build a main road with smaller roads off the main road to add to the game viewing experience. Back then guides were appointed to accompany the tourists on the roads and for that there was a fee. Should a tourist wish to take photo’s, that also come with a fee. To generate extra money, articles were written about the park and sold. The idea was that these articles would also attract foreign tourists.
It was the railways that once again stepped in and asked if they could put up some sleeping quarters for tourists in 1927. Through the mediation of Stevenson-Hamilton, a joint venture between the South African Railways and the Kruger National Park resulted in more roads, rest huts and other facilities being built by the Kruger National Park and the South African Railways provided all transport, by rail or road, and the advertising and catering services.
By 1928, the building of huts took off. The first of these were in Satara, Pretoriuskop and Skukuza. Letaba and Bulele followed soon after. Those first huts were designed by Paul Selby and consisted of a round hut, thatched roof and a gap between the wall and the thatch for ventilation and stable doors. Today these huts can still be found at Bulele. As the camps were not fenced in, the door had a peep-hole. Before leaving your hut you were to look out the peep hole to see if there were any wild animals about. These huts were updated in 1931 to rondavels with windows and in 1932 the first ablution block was built in Skukuza. 1932 also saw fences going up around the camps.
In 1928, the fee was 50 cents per person as an entrance fee and R2 per vehicle. The cost of the train tour was R10 a day, which included the services of a game ranger.
