Marloth Park

Marloth Park is a holiday township of about 3,000 hectares on the south bank of the Crocodile River, which is also the southern boundary of Kruger National Park. There are no internal fences, so giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, kudu, impala and warthog walk through the gardens. People stay here for a self-catering house with animals on the doorstep and Kruger a short drive away. It is a suburb in the bush rather than a wilderness, which is its appeal.

Getting there

Marloth Park lies between Malelane and Komatipoort, off the N4. The drive from Johannesburg or Pretoria is about five hours. By air, Kruger Mpumalanga International near Mbombela has flights from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and car hire desks. From Marloth, Kruger’s Crocodile Bridge Gate is 14 km east and Malelane Gate 35 km west.

When to go

The climate is humid subtropical, with hot summers and mild winters. June to August is the low season for malaria in the Lowveld, which makes winter the easier time to come.

What to do

The point is the game. Sit on the stoep and see who turns up, drive the roads slowly, and go to the lookout over the river at sunset to look across into Kruger. Lion, buffalo and rhino are kept inside Lionspruit, a separate section of about 1,500 hectares, so Marloth has four of the Big Five. Elephants are the missing one.

For more, Kruger is right there: many lodges run game drives and day trips into the park. There are a few restaurants, shops and a petrol station in the park itself.

Good to know

Marloth sits on the Kruger boundary, and Wits University’s guidance puts Kruger and the Mpumalanga Lowveld in the malaria risk zone, and SA-Venues says antimalarials are recommended from October to May in the high-risk parts. Take medical advice before you travel.

If you feed the animals, regulars ask that you drop approved game pellets on the ground, never hand-feed, never use troughs (they spread disease) and never put out crisps, bread or maize, the last of which can be fatal. Drive slowly, especially at night: speeding cars have killed animals here. Keep noise down, since animals are more likely to come close to a quiet house. The Kruger boundary is an electric fence, so photos across it mean shooting between the strands.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, SA-Venues, Chas Everitt (area profile), WorldWideWaftage (residents' blog), University of the Witwatersrand (malaria information), SA-Venues (malaria risk areas), Wikivoyage (Mbombela).