Skukuza has not catered for campers as has other Kruger Park camps. Those with tents and caravans are relegated to sites in the centre of the camp; anything on, or close to the fence on the perifery has been allocated to either camp chalets or prefabricated tents. As a result campers are stuck in the middle, between the roads traversing the camp, and exposed to passing cars, buses and trucks. What makes matters worse is that all the tour buses are parked behind the camping sites and thus passing traffic starts early in the morning and continues well into the night. Due to the bad layout, gaining access to the ablution and laundry blocks is also a problem - one cannot get there without cutting through other people's camping sites.
However the single biggest problem with the location is that the staff quarters are also located at the back of the camp sites. Skukuza camp staff, who are possibly the most unfriendly of all in the Park to the degree of being surly and rude, insist on walking through the camping grounds on their way to and from work. Rather than sticking to the tarred roads, they weave their way through camp sites, brush up against tents, and cut through hedges, which we found to be extremely invasive. Their working day starts early, even before the sun rises, and their anti-social habit of talking at the top of their voices creates a disturbance and makes it impossible to sleep in.
This lack of consideration towards their camp guests was also reflected in the quality of the work being produced by the staff. There are a lot of staff at this camp, but very few seem to be doing anything. There is a lot of sitting around and talking taking place, and a noticeable lack of supervision and attention to detail. The ablution facilities were very poorly maintained - with broken toilet seats, smelly urinals and toilet paper strewn across the floor. Unlike most camps, we didn't see any daily register recording the frequency of claning the toilets. Our braai disc was not cleaned until the third day, but our dustbins were visited at least four times each day by an assortment of people who seemed more interested in looking into our tent. Of greatest concern to me was the electrical supply box, which was hanging open on one broken hinge, and the inner distribution board which was partially falling out. We were required to cover the distribution box with plastic bags to protect the electrics from the rain. However that didn't last long due to some character, not in Parks Board uniform, we saw wandering through the camp digging out all the plastic bags from the dustbins. When he tried to remove the bags covering our electrical box we challenged him, and even called across one of the uniformed staff to put a stop to this This had little effect because on returning from our game drive, we discovered that our bags had been removed anyway, and our electrical box was once again exposed to the elements. Not surprisingly the power went off in the camp later that noght when the rain started.
I give the Skukuza Camp and Staff a Triple A Rating - Anti-Social, Apathetic and Appalling
John Maxwell (South Africa)
Disclaimer
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy