For the final challenge of 2012, we decided to submit a selection of photographs of the various accommodation units we stayed in while exploring South Africa’s wild places this year (you can click on the images for a clearer view).
Have a look here for more submissions in this week’s challenge.
Nature has sculpted a whole bunch of unusual rock formations – on both a large and small scale – from the sedimentary sandstone here at Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa.
(you can click on the images to see them enlarged in a gallery)
We’re participating in the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Unusual“.
A visit to a National Park is not always about the “hairies and scaries” – these photographs were taken while walking around the Golden Gate Highlands National Park today:
We arrived at another of our favourite South African wild places this morning: the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, located in the eastern Free State Province, where our base for the next three nights will be the charming Glen Reenen Rest Camp. Again we will give a proper report back soon, but for now we will try to post one or two pictures daily while we are here.
Today’s weather was overcast, rainy and cool but came sunset Golden Gate was lit in magnificently warm hues.
And so the sun sets on our last full day here at Ithala this time around. Of course, we are already planning our next visit!
Tomorrow morning we’ll take one last short drive before taking the road back home to Pretoria for Christmas. Luckily for us we are leaving for Golden Gate National Park, another favourite of ours, on boxing day.
We wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas!
Good evening again from Ithala Game Reserve!
On our afternoon drive today we came across this female white rhinoceros with her calf in dense shrubbery – we liked the shot so much we wanted to share it as our “pic of the day”.
Long may they and their kind have a home here in Africa!
This is a likely outcome when you surprise a temperamental elephant bull – he charges, kicking up dust as he goes!
(photo taken near Mopani Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park, South Africa)
For more of this week’s challenge: Surprise!
We got this picture of “Africa in the sky” this morning at Ithala – does this gap in the clouds also remind you of the shape of the African continent, as it did us?
We are blessed to be spending the next four nights at one of our favourite South African nature destinations: Ithala Game Reserve in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.
Having left Pretoria just before 03:00 this morning, and driving the 483 kilometres to Ithala’s entrance gate at leisurely pace , we arrived just after 09:00. The reserve is luxuriously green thanks to a lot of recent rain – it started raining again within hours of our arrival. Sitting here typing on the verandah of our chalet in Ntshondwe Camp, darkness has descended around us and the bush is alive with the sounds of the African night – it’s great to be back!
We’ll be posting a full report on our return to the city but here’s three of today’s photo’s as a teaser.
We arrived at Ithala Game Reserve this morning, and will be exploring the area along winding routes like this one for the next four days (you can click on the image for a clearer view):
We’re participating in the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Exploration“.
DeWetsWild 