Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 square kilometres (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 kilometres (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere")
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
Numbi Gate is one of the loveliest entrances into the Kruger Park because its higher altitude gives you a sweeping vista over the lowveld to the east and the granite foothills to the north and south.
The first guests at Kruger National Park arrived in 1926 through Numbi Gate, after Kruger Park had been open to public for a year. Only 3 cars were recorded in 1927, each one was charged one pound as an entrance fee.
In that period Pretoriuskop Restcamp was the only overnight accommodation for tourists in Kruger National Park. After a period of 2 years, once initial road network had been established, a few more camps were built, which made it possible to travel as far as the Olifants River, and 850 cars entered Kruger Park.
Despite this being a very small amount if you compare it to the current annual visitor figures of over one million people, the authorities were surprised by the Kruger Park's popularity.
The Park's first warden, Stevenson-Hamilton, remembers there was insufficient guest accommodation to cater for the demand, and that safari rangers had to give up their own quarters to tourists and sleep outside on many occasions.
Numbi Gate is one of the loveliest entrances to the Kruger Park because its higher altitude gives one a sweeping vista over the lowveld to the east and the granite foothills to the north and south. Like Malelane Gate, the Numbi area enjoys some of the highest rainfall in Kruger Park and, therefore, has a high diversity of plant and animal species.
