Let’s take a moment to size up some of the parks and reserves around the world to put Londolozi, the Sabi Sand Wildtuin and the Kruger National Park into perspective.
Londolozi Private Game Reserve, at 100 km², forms part of a group of privately owned reserves collectively known as the Sabi Sand Wildtuin. The name derives from the Sabi and Sand rivers, two prominent rivers in the area. “Wildtuin” is an Afrikaans word that directly translates to “wild garden”, but its English equivalent is game reserve.
Bordering the Kruger National Park (KNP), the Sabi Sand Wildtuin was officially established in July 1948 by 14 landowners to form the first private game reserve in South Africa. At this time it was separated from the Kruger National Park by a fence. However in 1993 this fence was finally removed, joining this 650 km² private reserve to the KNP.
Today, the Kruger National Park at roughly 19 500 km² has joined up with the Limpopo Nation Park (10 000 km²) in Mozambique and the Gonarezhou National Park (5 000 km²) in Zimbabwe to form the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park at just under 35 000 km².
The Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park and proposed expansion areas (lighter green). Londolozi is right down in the bottom left corner, to the right of where it says “Private Game Reserves”
The largest national park in the world is the Northeast Greenland National Park at 972,000 km². This is massive, and is in a mostly uninhabited part of the world. The Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park at 35 000 km² could be compared with the likes of the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve at 36 740 km² or the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve which is 34 287 km², both in Alaska.
Some of the largest national parks of America are Death Valley National Park at 13 628 km², Yellowstone National Park at 8 991 km², Everglades National Park at 6 106 km², Grand Canyon Nation Park at 4 926 km² and Yosemite National Park at 3 027 km² that could all be compared with the 19 500 km² of Kruger National Park. Banff National Park in Canada encompasses 6,641 km² (2,564 sq mi).
The world famous Yellowstone National Park is not even half the size of the Kruger National Park…
Down under in Australia the Kakadu National Park sits at 19804 km², about the same size as Kruger National Park.
Wales is also about the same size as the Kruger National Park at 20 735 km², whereas Belgium (30 688 km²) and the Netherlands (33760 km²) are almost as big as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (35 000 km²).
To perhaps bring it even closer to home for some of our guests from the USA, the Kruger National Park sits somewhere between the size of New Jersey at 22 591 km² and Connecticut at 14 357 km².
The Kruger Park would fit neatly inside New Jersey, with a little breathing room on the side.
Londoloz’s area is roughly 100 km². It was a little tricky to find comparisons for this one. Central Park in New York’s size is 3.41 km² whereas Hyde Park in London is 1.42 km². A better size comparison may be San Francisco at 124 km². And, for a group of guests I had from Spring Island, your roughly 12 km² of beautiful island could also be comparable.
I hope this has put the size of the wilderness areas into some sort of perspective for your next visit. We are so fortunate to have this land set aside for nature to thrive. Let’s hope more and more land can be reserved for conservation of our planet’s beautiful natural habitats.
Interesting facts. We are fortunate to have such a large conservation area on our doorstep.
Hi Rob. Don’t know about the overseas guests, but we MacNicols in Randburg here in S.A. found your blog today very, very informative and interesting! Thank you very much! Wendy M
Hi Rob, I know that the sea level is rising and that if our dykes break we will loose some km2, but at the moment the Netherlands still has a surface over 40.000km2, so that is about twice the size of KNP. Thanks for writing this post. Kind regards,
Jos
Rob, great blog today, comparing the size of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and the size of Londolozi. Can’t wait til we return in 2020, it will be our 50th wedding anniversary🤗
Rob, really appreciate your putting this into a comprehensible perspective. Londolozi is like the perfect slice of private land for the animals to roam freely.
That really is fascinating. Thank you for putting all of that into perspective (literally!)
We agree with your hope that more land/habitat can be set aside for the future but enforcement of the boundaries is equally important. When mankind chooses to ignore boundaries, they become inconsequential.
What an interesting blog, filled with so many facts that we don’t think about when visiting. Prior to my next trip I’ll be in Timbavati Reserve so will get a different perspective. I’m so glad to know these reserves exist and hope man will continue to honor and protect these precious resources.
Rob,
This is excellent analysis. I am originally from INDIA and has been living in The United States for the last 20 years. So comparisons with Yellowstone, Yosemite etc. gives a good idea how big Kruger is. 4400 Sq. Km where you can observe Snow Leopards among other exotic species. There is also Gir only abode of the Asiatic Lion at 1400 Sq. Km. Thanks for the info.
Regards,
Hari