Category Archives: Free State Province

Our experiences in the reserves of the Free State, South Africa

Golden Gate Sunset

Just another sunset in beautiful Golden Gate Highlands National Park

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Duel at first light

Early this morning we were treated to the spectacle of two black wildebeest bulls locking horns over a disputed territory near Basotho Cultural Village in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

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We’ll share the whole sequence when we’re back home after the holidays.

What’s in a name?

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At long last our end-of-year holidays have started, and we find ourselves back at Glen Reenen Rest Camp in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park – a place that certainly deserved its name this evening thanks to a beautiful sunset setting the sandstone formations aglow!

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Sojourn to Golden Gate

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A quick working visit to beautiful Golden Gate Highlands National Park last month provided a few leisurely hours to enjoy the reserve’s exceptional scenery. Heavy skies and regular downpours provided some much needed relief from the drought that has even this mountain paradise in its grip.

Arriving from Clarens’ side

Pied starling

What would a visit to Golden Gate be without the hiking trails!?

Heavy clouds add to the dramatic scenery

Golden Gate Hotel & Chalets, February 2016

Speckled pigeons

Downpour coming along the valley

What would a visit to Golden Gate be without the hiking trails!?

Mountain cascade following the heavy showers

Blesbuck

View from Highlands Retreat

Black-backed jackal

Drakensberg view

Looking from the foot of Brandwag towards Clarens

Golden Gate Hotel & Chalets

Looking from the foot of Brandwag towards Clarens

At the foot of the Brandwag buttress

Eland cresting a nearby hill

Red-eyed bulbul

Mountain stream in full flow following the previous day’s good rains

Immature Cape Robin-Chat

A ray of sunshine illuminating the cliffs

Speckled pigeon

Crested Barbet

Rock Martins

Our 2015 in pictures

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Looking back at the marvelous places we stayed at while exploring South Africa’s wild places in 2015 😀

Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, December 2014

Comfortable log cabin accommodation at Forever Resorts Loskop Dam

Glen Reenen at night (April 2015)

Kamberg, May 2015

Camping at Kgaswane, May 2015

Cabin 18 at Cape Vidal, iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Mpila cottage 17

Lower Sabie Tent 26, July 2015

Sweni Wilderness Trail hut, July 2015

Thendele Chalet 23

Ntshondwe Unit 15, Ithala Game Reserve, September 2015

Mopani bungalow no3

Mockford Cottage, Pafuri Border Camp

Lower Sabie cottage 93, December 2015

Olifants Rest Camp, unit 14, December 2015

Shingwedzi Cottage 29, December 2015

> Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, January 2015

> Forever Resorts Loskop Dam, Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, April 2015

> Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, April 2015

> Kamberg Nature Reserve, uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, May 2015

> Kgaswane Mountain Reserve, May 2015

> Cape Vidal, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, June 2015

> Mpila, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, July 2015

> Lower Sabie, Kruger National Park, July 2015

> Sweni Wilderness Trail, Kruger National Park, July 2015

> Thendele, Royal Natal National Park, uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, August 2015

> Ntshondwe, Ithala Game Reserve, September 2015

> Mopani Rest Camp, Kruger National Park, October 2015

> Pafuri Border Camp, Kruger National Park, October 2015

> Lower Sabie, Olifants and Shingwedzi, Kruger National Park, December 2015 (trip reports to follow soon!)

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Seven colours make a rainbow

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A beautiful double rainbow following on a magnificent thunderstorm at Glen Reenen, in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

ROYGBIV

“ROY G. BIV” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge

48 hours in Golden Gate

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A public holiday long weekend in South Africa was just the excuse we needed to head back into one of our favourite South African wild places, Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

Glen Reenen Rest Camp, where cottage 25 was our abode for the two nights we spent in Golden Gate on this trip, was a festival of autumn colours. Two horses also made themselves right at home among the accommodation units, and provided loads of entertainment to us all, most especially involving Joubert either photographing them or inviting them over.

Autumn in the glen

Peek-a-boo

Beautiful horse in a beautiful place

Autumn in the glen

Glen Reenen at night (April 2015)

Autumn in the glen

Glen Reenen Rest Camp

Autumn in the glen

Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer

Of course we were not going to spend our time in camp only, as beautiful a place as Glen Reenen is, and we made sure we took in as much of Golden Gate’s spectacular scenery as we could fit into two days.

Sunrise over Golden Gate

Protea Corner view point

Eland from the top of Protea Corner

Freshwater crab in mountain stream

Walking in Golden Gate

Moss

In a place this beautiful, the plentiful animal and birdlife certainly is a special bonus!

Ground woodpecker

Female Red-winged starling

Grey-winged francolin

Black-backed jackal

Red hartebeest

Blesbuck

Speckled mousebird

Weaver

Red-eyed bulbul

Cape Grassbird

Black-backed jackal

Sunrise zebras

Sunrise zebra

Plains zebra

Grey rhebuck in flight

Grey rhebuck

Blesbuck

Springbok

Black wildebeest

Eland

Almost exactly two days after we arrived, we set off back home to Pretoria, convinced yet again that Golden Gate is a very special place. If you’d like to learn more about Golden Gate Highlands National Park, have a read through the special blogpost we did on the Park’s fiftieth birthday.

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

Autumn in the glen

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Glen Reenen Rest Camp in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, seen here this morning from the Mushroom Rocks walk, has been transformed into a feast of striking autumn colours.

Autumn at Glen Reenen

Joubert, the Golden Gate photographer

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Joubert really put in a lot of effort today to photograph two horses grazing among the cottages here at Glen Reenen Rest Camp, in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Here’s two of his shots!

Golden Gate photographer (1) Golden Gate photographer (2)