Plains Camp @ Rhino Walking Safaris

Plains Camp is the home of Rhino Walking Safaris, an intimate trails camp on the 12,000 hectare Mutlumuvi private concession in the heart of the Kruger National Park, half an hour's game drive from Skukuza Airport, just inside the unfenced boundary shared with the MalaMala and Sabi Sand reserves. While some two million travellers visit the Kruger each year, very few experience wilderness areas closed to the public, let alone on foot: here, expert trails guides lead walks through Big 5 territory every morning and late afternoon, on land not previously open to the public.

The camp itself is built from canvas and wood, furnished with beautiful antiques and silverware that lend it the elegance of a bygone era, and positioned to overlook the Timbetene Plain and its active waterholes, so that zebra, plains game and daily elephants are visible from the swimming pool, lounge and dining tent without the animals ever noticing you. The main deck holds a fire pit, a dining tent laid with white linen and silver, and a lounge of deep leather couches with an honesty bar: water, soft drinks, beers and house wines are included in the rate, and cellar wines can be ordered from sister lodge Rhino Post.

For a totally unrivalled wilderness night, guests can walk out to the sleep-out decks over the Xiteveteve waterhole: four-metre-high elevated platforms where sundowners are followed by dinner cooked over an open fire and a night under the African sky, at no extra cost (weather dependent, and the first booking of the night sets whether the camp sleeps out). Walking is limited to eight guests, the minimum walking age is 12, and stays are a minimum of two nights. The camp operates under a concession model in which a percentage of every stay goes directly toward conservation; the Kruger is a malaria area, so precautions are recommended.