Kruger Main Gate Lodge

Kruger Main Gate Lodge (29 images)

Kruger National Park, the third oldest national park in the world after only Yellowstone and Hluhluwe, is in the South African province of Mpumalamga. Located just outside the Kruger Gate, the Kruger Main Gate Lodge is a four star hotel just outside and across the river from the Kruger Gate.

The architecture of the hotel makes you really feel as if you are in Africa. All of the hallways are outdoors, and the entrances to the rooms are located on wooden walkways. The reception lobby is open air, the breakfast room, the area for evening dinner, and the lobby sitting area are all open air. In fact, the gift shop, the bar and the buffet line were the only parts of the hotel open to the puclic that had walls and doors.

Our room was very large with a sitting room. We were warned not to leave the door open during the day when we weren't in the room because monkeys and baboons had a habit of going into the rooms and tearing them apart looking for something edible.

Among the really unusual and beautiful things at the hotel were two wall hangings that were of animal skin. One very wide horizontal one hung in the bar, and another, a vertical one, hung on the outside wall by the breakfast area.

One afternoon while we were sitting at an outside table enjoying a soft drink, I noticed a spot between the limbs of two trees. While I watched, the spot moved. Upon closer inspection, we realized that it was a spider spinning a web between the two trees. Farther down on the web was another equally large spider. I would have to say that the upper spider had to be at least six inches in diameter. Since I'm not afraid of spiders, it didn't bother me, and watching it work was like a television documentary.

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The Entrance to the Hotel