Today we celebrate a major milestone for us here at de Wets Wild – our 1,000th post!

A huge word of thanks must go to our all our friends and followers for their support and encouragement over the course of the past 6 years! Thank you for sharing our love and passion for South Africa’s wild places and the creatures that find a home there with us – we hope you’ll continue to do so for many years to come!

Seems fitting now to have a look at some of the most popular posts and other highlights we enjoyed on this journey. (Clicking on the links provided should open the posts in a new window without closing this post).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our “About” page (home page) is by far the most visited.

de Wets at Golden Gate Highlands National Park, July 2013

de Wet family at Ithala Game Reserve, December 2014

Wild de Wets

Giant’s Castle

But how and why the post about South African Hornbills come in second place, I have no explanation!? That they’re fascinating birds we won’t argue about.

Yellow-billed hornbill

Crowned Hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill

Trumpeter Hornbill

African Grey Hornbill

Ground Hornbill

South Africa’s vultures are getting some well-deserved attention as well.

Hooded Vulture

White-headed Vulture

White-backed Vulture

Bearded Vulture

Lappet-faced Vulture

Cape Vulture

Palm-Nut Vulture, Umlalazi Nature Reserve, March 2016

Another post about a bird that got a lot of attention is that about the black heron and its fascinating hunting technique.

Black Heron “canopy feeding”

Early into our blogging “career” we took part in a few photo challenges – the image we posted of dew droplets caught in a spider’s web was the best received of those.

The post we did on the Kruger National Park’s Selati Line, with thanks to my sister for the use of her photos, has been a perennial favourite.

Steam engine at Skukuza “station”

The features we did on Pafuri Border Camp (in Kruger) and Nyathi Rest Camp (in Addo) when they opened are still very popular – people are obviously very eager to explore new destinations and we’re glad that de Wets Wild could help so many of them plan their visits!

Addo’s new Nyathi Camp

Mockford Cottage, Pafuri Border Camp

But it is not only the new destinations that people are interested in, as the posts about familiar favourites like Skukuza in the Kruger Park, Loskop Dam and Golden Gate Highlands National Park prove.

Sabie Bridge at Skukuza

Loskop scenery

Brandwag Buttress in Golden Gate

Plains Zebras seem to be the most popular mammal featured here at de Wets Wild, as a few posts about these beautiful animals feature at the top of the charts!

Plains Zebra

Ithala fight for dominance

Plains Zebras

Pale-rumped Plains Zebra in Mokala National Park

Plains Zebra

Plains Zebra trying to trip an opponent

Plains zebra

Plains zebra

But the world’s cutest bouncing baby rhino will not be outdone!

You’ll never catch me!

Of course we cannot talk about highlights and forget how your support helped us feature in the honours at the SA Blog Awards – from finishing as runners up in both the Best Travel Blog and Best Environmental Blog Categories in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to finally winning in both in 2017!