Lion caught in the spotlight, at Satara in the Kruger National Park
Illumination
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Monthly Archives: January 2013
Great to start 2013 with a blogging award nomination!
Our friends Marks and Joey, fabulous photographers and bloggers at mjculverphotography, have done us the great honour of nominating de Wets Wild for the “Very Inpiring Blogger Award” – thank you very much again Joey and Marks!
The rules for the award:
* link back to the person who nominated you
* post the award image on your page
* tell seven random facts about yourself
* nominate fifteen other blogs.
Seven facts about us:
1) Joubert is named after my (Dries) late father – is there any better way to honour someone who has been a profound positive force in your life? Miss you Dad.
2) Marilize is a qualified travel professional, and she operates a successful business making reservations for the public in a variety of wild places across South Africa.
3) I (Dries) work for one of South Africa’s premier conservation agencies – a childhood dream come true!
4) I (Dries) am colour-blind.
5) We’ve made our home in Pretoria, but we are open to any opportunities to move permanently to any of South Africa’s wild places.
6) Our home language is Afrikaans.
7) We are proudly South African!
In turn we’d like to nominate the following blogs for inspiring us!
We’re still very new to blogging and already we’ve come across so many inspirational blogs that it is very, very difficult to narrow it down to just 15 – please don’t feel unappreciated if we’ve not mentioned you!
Scary
If you are afraid of heights, the 80m long suspension bridge at the Lake Eland Game Reserve at the Oribi Gorge in southern Kwazulu Natal Province will have you trembling in your boots!
(you can click on any of the images for a clearer view)
Lake Eland suspension bridge
Lake Eland suspension bridge
Lake Eland suspension bridge
Lake Eland suspension bridge
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge was “Scary“ and we are thrilled to have received another honorable mention for our entry!
Ithala Game Reserve – December 2012
We left Pretoria in the dark of night on the 20th of December to arrive as early as we could at Ithala – it’s the kind of place where you want to be as long as you possibly can.
Ithala sunrise
Ithala Game Reserve must be one of the most scenic wild places in South Africa, and we have never seen the reserve as green and wet as we did on this visit – it is clear that good rains must have fallen in the weeks prior to our arrival.
In some places the grass on the verges of the narrow roads was higher than our vehicle!
Ithala scenery
Ithala scenery
Ithala scenery
Waterlilies in the pond at the restaurant
The Mhulumbela stream
It’s easy to understand why Ntshondwe Camp, our base for the four nights we had available to visit this beautiful reserve in the north of Kwazulu-Natal Province, has won so many awards: a beautiful setting beneath towering cliffs, comfortable accommodation tucked away into indigenous vegetation providing great privacy, a variety of well-maintained facilities (pool, information centre, shop, restaurant, ladies bar, coffee shop, conference centre, children’s play area and walking trails) and a staff-compliment intent on making every guest’s stay a memorable experience.
Ntshondwe’s chalets are spacious and private
Nice view from the jungle gym!
Small wildlife abounds in the camp and, being used to the human presence, make for easy photographic subjects.
Cicada
Agama lizard
Dassie (or Rock Hyrax)
Brightly coloured beetle
Joubert could also participate in a guided sunset drive here at Ithala for the first time – in most other reserves children under the age of 6 or 7 aren’t allowed on guided activities. We’ve been on guided drives in many reserves where the adults were much more poorly behaved than any three year old could be, and so we really applaud and appreciate the fact that here at Ithala they also allow younger children to enjoy the thrill of using a spotlight to search for nocturnal wildlife. Our drive delivered a variety of antelope and zebra, a vine snake and chameleon, nocturnal birds including a spotted eagle owl, hares, elephant, white rhino and a fleeting glimpse of a leopard and it was a real highlight for Joubert.
Not satisfied with his wildebeest picture
Three picnic sites are spread across the reserve, each exposing the visitor to a different facet of the reserve. It’s become a tradition of ours to enjoy a breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghurt at a different one of Ithala’s picnic sites every morning.
Ngubhu Picnic Site
The dense vegetation made viewing more difficult on this visit than on previous occasions, but we nevertheless enjoyed fine sightings of a variety of birds and animals.
Vervet monkeys playing along a small creek
Kudu bulls
Tsessebe – one of South Africa’s rarer antelope
We don’t often see nyala at Ithala, so this sighting was a special treat
Hilltop zebras
Pin-tailed whydah
Mountain reedbuck ewe and fawn
More kudus
Impala lamb
Nodding zebra
The blue crane is South Africa’s national bird
White rhinoceros
The stately giraffe is Ithala’s mascot.
This young elephant bull wasn’t as glad to see us as we were to see him!
He’s charging!
Ithala’s elephants aren’t as used to humans and their vehicles as their counterparts in many other reserves
We awoke one morning to find the reserve cloaked in a thick blanket of fog, which made for some interesting photographs.
Misty Ntshondwe
Zebra in the mist, Ithala
Kudu peering from the fog
Black rhino hiding in thick mist at Ithala
While at Ithala we posted some pictures on a daily basis – have a look if you’d like to see more:
Our four night stay was over in the wink of an eye and we had to head back to Pretoria to celebrate Christmas with our extended family. Will we be back? God willing we definitely will!
Eye-to-eye with a white rhino
Resolved
We’re determined to continue spending as much time as we possibly can in South Africa’s wild places, whatever dangers there may lurk!
Humorous sign at the Saint Lucia Crocodile Centre, iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Seen in the Giants Castle Game Reserve
At the entrance to Ithala Game Reserve
Playful elephants in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park!
Warning: haunted viewsite in Ithala Game Reserve
New Beginnings
Water cleanses, which is why a river in flood to me symbolises a new beginning; a clean slate, a fresh start, and getting rid of all the debris that clogs up life.
Depicted here is the Shingwedzi River and its tributaries in flash flood through the Kruger National Park, South Africa, following a cloudburst.
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “New Beginnings“.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
de Wets Wild would like to wish all our followers and readers everything of the best for 2013!
DeWetsWild 