Sadly that horrible day arrived when we had to depart for home. Thankfully Mountain Zebra National Park sent a delegation of buffalo to wish us well on our journey as we reached the Park’s gate this morning.
This morning we were treated to a very special audience with the King of the Mountain Zebra National Park at his residence on the Rooiplaat loop road.
Happy New Year, everyone!
We kicked off 2021 by spending time with the most adorable family of Bat-eared Foxes here at Mountain Zebra National Park. We have lots more photos of the 3 cute pups and the 4 adults watching over them to share when we’re back home.
This morning it was a sad farewell to Marilize’s parents who joined us for the 4 nights we spent at Addo Elephant National Park. They headed home to Jeffreys Bay while we travelled in the opposite direction to the final stop of our 2020 summertide ramble – the beautiful Mountain Zebra National Park (please click on the image for a clearer view).
We spent a lot of time today at the various waterholes in the Addo Elephant National Park. Thanks to the summer heat they were all occupied by herds of elephants, whose antics are always fun to watch!
During our drive through the Addo Elephant Park this morning we were fortunate to encounter this confrontation between an elephant bull and two spotted hyenas who were trying to hide the remains of their prey in a water trough.
With it being a rather hot day in the Addo Elephant National Park today another of the Park’s star attractions – the Addo Flightless Dung Beetle – were out in their numbers gathering food for their progeny.
After three wonderful days lazing around Jeffreys Bay we’re back to our 2020 summertide ramble through some of our favourite national parks. Today, we arrived at the Addo Elephant National Park and already had incredible encounters with the grey behemoths.
We’re wishing all our friends here at de Wets Wild a Blessed Christmas!
Here’s just a few of the festive decorations we found in the past few days adorning the trees (and bushes and shrubs and grasses and all other manner of plants) in the national parks of the Western Cape. I can’t pretend to know even most of their names, but I’m sure you’ll agree that they’re all stunningly beautiful!
I think it’s more the inclement weather than the government-imposed restriction on beach-going in the Garden Route (an attempt at limiting crowds to curb the spread of COVID-19) that caused the beach at Nature’s Valley to be this deserted today.
We’ll be spending the next few days with close family in Jeffreys Bay but we’ll resume our summertide rambles through two of the Eastern Cape national parks on the 27th.
