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Jo, that map is a treasure. Hold onto it.

Jo , I have saved it , ok with you ?

No problem Ndloti, I have the rest of it scanned (i think ), pm me if you would like the rest!

Yes... Caught my mom throwing out maps from when my dad and grandad went to the park, many, many, many, many moons ago... Lucky i stopped her.

Hi Glen

I have some information, which I cannot find at the present moment. Anyhow as far as I can recall this was the scenario:

1n 1985 Kruger was supposed to get a 'facelift'. The Park's board had planned and even started work on this 'facelift'. It was quite a radical plan and had already begun to be implemented. ±14 new camps were to be built or were already being built. A couple of years earlier Gus Mills did a calculation that based on the existing road network + 50m on either side the road network only covered <1% of the park, therefore the road network could handle the traffic. From the north to the south these camps would have been:

Lanner Gorge
medium camp situated on the southern bank of the Luvuvhu River at Lanner Gorge. Abandoned altogether.
Mountainview
Small camp situated on the hill just north of Babalala (later replaced with Sirheni Bushveld Camp but not in the same spot)
Silver Fish
Small camp later replaced with Bateleur Bushveld Camp
Pioneer
Medium camp later replaced by Mopani in 1992 (Boulders, not planned as of this time)
Lonely Bull
Medium camp on the banks of the Letaba River east of the present day H14. Later replaced by Shimuwini Bushveld Camp.
Outspan
On the northern bank of the Oliphants River more or less in line with the site marked Ga Bogareng [As to what this is I do not know]. Later abandoned altogether.
Ngotsamond
Presumably at the mouth of the Ngotso River where it enters the Oliphants River. North or south bank not specified. Later abandoned altogether for a revamped Balule.
Roodewal
On the north bank of the Timbavati River. Later becomes a Private Camp on the southern bank.
Nwanetsi
Still on the cards at this point in time. Later to become a Private camp and now part of a luxury concession.
Doornplaat
Not sure whether this was intended to be medium or small but it would have been ± in the region of the present day Imbali Safari Lodge. Replaced by Talamati Bushveld Camp which was placed further to the north-west.
Narina
Not sure if this was built. Intended to be a super-luxury camp. Very close to Skukuza.
Jock of the Bushveld
This small camp was build. Not sure as to when. Now a Private Lodge.
Riverside or Afsaal
Downgraded and/or abandoned altogether. Now Afsaal is only a picnic site. Biyamiti Bushveld Camp was not planned as of yet.
Berg-en-Dal
Opened in 1984 as the first of these new camps.

These camps were replaced by the bushveld camps, which have accommodation only. I think this indicated a major strategic shift in thinking from the list of camps above, some which could not exist as stand-alone camps without the "restaurant and shop" facilities.

Some of this is taken from a map and its accompanying article in The Motorist from an article called "Facelift For The Kruger National Park" Second Quarter, 1985, p.4-8.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find the accompanying article but it deals mostly with Berg-en-Dal and only mentions the others.

MV

Thanks for that info Mountainview.

I remember when we went on our first Kruger trip after moving away from CT. It was 1989 and we chose Berg n Dal out of curiosity to see what the "new look" Kruger camps were like.

Nerina on the southern banks of the Sabie river was built but was totally destroyed in the floods of Feb 2000 as was Jakkalsbessie on the northern bank .
I think a concession lodge was subsequently built to replace Nerina .

Thanks Mountainview

Some of those names look familiar as i recall seeing some of them on earlier maps (my maps date back to 1978), marked as proposed camps.

I have only seen one, on one other occasion, and that was Lonely Bull. A vagrant scrap on a map at least a decade or two after the the 1985 map that I have. 1978 would sound about right if you consider the a relatively large camp with roads was completed by 1984.

Although I recall driving with my family in Kruger during the period that they built H3. As you probably know, H3 replaced the sand road to Malelane (can't remember its original name). This originally was a sand road and was the road to see AWD.

MV

Thats correct, before the days of Berg-en-Dal and Afsal.

The S1 was also sand road and the H10 and H14 never existed. (mind you neither did half the camps we have today)

How many other roads are new/newish, or have been tarred over?