About time we started telling you about our autumn holidays in the mountains in detail, isn’t it!?

Our first stop was an old and familiar favourite: Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the eastern Free State Province, with scenery so unique that photos from there are instantly recognisable. Here in the foothills of the Maluti and Drakensberg ranges, rugged rocks, hillsides green with waving grass and crystal-clear streams of fresh water all beckon to be explored, and the de Wets just can’t resist!

Golden Gate Dam

Golden Gate scenery

Brandwag Buttress seen from Glen Reenen

Brandwag Buttress seen from the Golden Gate Hotel

Brandwag seen from the Golden Gate Hotel

Scenery along the Mushroom Rocks Trail in Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Big sky country!

Mountain views

Golden Gate’s vulture restaurant

Scenery along Blesbok Loop in Golden Gate

Golden Gate photographer

Golden Gate scenery

Golden Gate scenery – the turnoff to Kestell

Golden Gate scenery

Golden Gate scenery

Impressive rock formations typify Golden Gate

Little Caledon

Poplar and Blue Sky

Clean Mountain Water

Oak Trees in the Meriting Picnic Site

Little Caledon River near Wilgenhof

9 years old: March 2019. Walking in the Mountains

Walking in the Mountains

Mountain stream

Little Caledon River flowing past Glen Reenen

View from Highlands Mountain Retreat

View towards the Drakensberg

Dolerite Dyke formation

Full Moon over Glen Reenen

Walking around Golden Gate is the best way to experience the variety of beautiful wildflowers adorning this special place.

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate: River Lilies

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

Beautiful wildflowers at Golden Gate

And then while taking in the floral splendour you are bound to notice the astounding diversity of insects, amphibians and reptiles that have made this highland habitat home.

African Monarch

Geranium Bronze

Common Meadow White

Table Mountain Beauty

Long-winged Orange Acraea

Yellow Pansy

Swamp Bluet

Unidentified Grasshopper

Maize Beetles might not be indigenous to South Africa, and actually they are an agricultural pest, but they still make a pretty picture!

Leprous Grasshopper

Wandering Wolf Spider with a fly it caught

Unidentified Grasshoppers, possibly from the genus Catantops

Raucous Toad (photo by Joubert)

Speckled Rock Skink

Golden Gate also boasts with a wonderful array of birds, many kinds of which are hard to find elsewhere in the country. During the 4 days we spent in the Park we identified 56 species of bird, just a small slice of the 180 kinds that have been recorded here since the Park was proclaimed over 50 years ago.

Banded Martin

Little Grebe with chicks

Greater Striped Swallows

Ground Woodpeckers

Amur Falcon (photo by Joubert)

Pied Starling

Cape Canaries

Cape Sparrow

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Common Fiscal

Grey-winged Francolin

Mountain Wheatear

Red-knobbed Coot

African Black Duck

White-rumped Swift

White-throated Swallow

African Stonechat

Cape Weaver

Crested Barbet

Hadeda

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Red-collared Widowbird

Yellow-billed Ducks

Cape Turtle Dove

Speckled Mousebird

Female Red-winged Starling

Male Red-winged Starling

Red-winged Starling pair

Golden Gate’s also home to a selection of mammals, both big and small, that are well adapted to the sometimes harsh climatic conditions of a mountainous abode, and these are often encountered while exploring the Park on foot, horseback or the comfort of a vehicle.

Black Wildebeest

Young Chacma Baboon

Blesbok in silhouette

Eland

Grey Rhebuck

Golden Gate’s rangers have beautiful horses with which to patrol

Red Hartebeest

Young Springbok

Black Wildebeest

Herd of eland on a mountain slope

Golden Gate’s rangers have beautiful horses with which to patrol

Red Hartebeest on the run

Black-backed Jackal

Glen Reenen is one of six SANParks-managed establishments offering accommodation to visitors at Golden Gate. On this trip we spent four nights in cottage 27, which has a lovely view from its veranda of the Mushroom Rocks and the glen from which the camp takes its name.

Mushroom Rocks from Unit 27 at Glen Reenen in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Cottage 27, Glen Reenen Rest Camp, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, March 2019

Golden Gate Photographer

Glen Reenen must have the most beautiful fuel station anywhere!

Glen Reenen

Glen Reenen Cottage 26

View from Glen Reenen on a misty morning

Glen Reenen Panorama

Golden Gate lies about 400km south of Pretoria. Our favourite route to the Park is over Sasolburg, Heilbron, Bethlehem and Clarens, though the quickest option is probably via Harrismith and the N3-highway.

Our favourite route to Golden Gate, via Sasolburg, Heilbron, Petrus Steyn and Bethlehem, a distance of about 400km from Pretoria (map drawn with Google Maps)

From Golden Gate we made our way to Royal Natal National Park in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, and we’ll be sharing some pictures from there in following posts.