Safari Camp Shawu

Camp Shawu offers first class luxury accommodation within The Kruger National Park. This is a resolutely old-fashioned safari camp where you get treated like a colonial overlord of days past. It is perhaps a guilty pleasure in these more enlightened times, but it is a pleasure nonetheless.

Of course the camp is not why we visit Kruger. We visit Kruger because of the animals. With a trusty Nikon a good zoom lens and plenty of odour-free sunscreen and a big floppy hat we are prepared to hunt some big game.

Nobody tells you about the buffalo. Those guys are huge and dangerous and just as impressive as the big five, if you are prepared to look past your prejudices.

Of course the elephants are spectacular and the little ones are very obliging when it comes to posing for the camera, but I admit the real frisson travels up the spine when you get close to the big cats. A pride of wild Lions crossing unconcerned, a few yards in front of your landrover is an experience to be savoured and captured on film.