A natural “sculpture” in the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve east of Pretoria, South Africa
“Object” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge
Object
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Category Archives: Gauteng Province
Moreletakloof, 5 January 2014
Suffering from extreme wilderness withdrawal symptoms – yes, we know we’re only back in the city for a week now 😉 – we headed to our local nature reserve, Moreletakloof, this afternoon for a bit of a “fix”.
Out and about
Out and about
Out and about
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Springbok
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Moreletakloof scenery
Plains zebra
Blesbok
Guinea fowl
Face to face with nature…
Joubert and I spent the afternoon strolling through our local Moreletakloof Nature Reserve today, encountering a variety of animals along the way and accompanied by a most relaxing chorus of birdsong.
Ezemvelo Nature Reserve
We recently made our first visit to the privately owned Ezemvelo Nature Reserve, located just over 70 kilometres to the east of Pretoria, near the town of Bronkhorstspruit.
Unfortunately the last twenty kilometres to the reserve’s entrance was a bone-shaking, teeth-rattling gauntlet along an extremely corrugated gravel road and we suspect many visitors turn around before they reach the reserve because of it. That’s a real pity, as we quickly found out that Ezemvelo is a gem of a place.
The reserve protects a fairly sizeable piece (4000 hectares) of typical Highveld grassland vegetation interspersed with wooded “koppies” (hills), and is watered by the Wilge River and some of its smaller tributaries. This diversity of habitats allows Ezemvelo to host a wide variety of game, including leopard, brown hyena, and both black and blue wildebeest, and almost 300 bird species have been recorded here.
Ezemvelo scenery
Ezemvelo scenery
Blue wildebeest
Ezemvelo scenery
Plains zebra
Ezemvelo scenery
Blue wildebeest
Black wildebeest
Blesbok
Ezemvelo scenery
Warthog
Black wildebeest
Impala
Visitors can take on one of the many walking trails or cycle around the reserve to their heart’s content. Guided horse trails and day-or night game drives can be arranged, but the reserve also has an extensive network of roads that you can traverse in your own vehicle (though some sections are more suited to vehicles with high ground clearance). A swimming pool, dam (for fishing), putt-putt course and picnic sites are all available for visitors’ enjoyment. Chalet accommodation and a very shady and inviting camping area are available near the main reception complex, which also has a little shop with limited supplies. The two rustic hiking huts are beautifully located below a cliff and overlooks a pool in a small stream that is obviously a popular watering hole for many animals, while the three family huts nearby are situated in a rocky environment high above the river course below.
Shady picnic site
Hiking hut
Ezemvelo’s chalets
Camping area
Ezemvelo’s hiking huts have a beautiful setting
On the whole we were very impressed with Ezemvelo Nature Reserve. It offers a relaxing atmosphere, great facilities, a variety of experiences, good sightings of a wide variety of birds and animals and inspiring scenery. We will definitely return (but next time we’ll just phone ahead to hear what condition the access road is in).
Ezemvelo Nature Reserve, 13 October 2013
We spent our Sunday enjoying nature and each other’s company at Ezemvelo Nature Reserve, a new destination for us, located about 75km east of Pretoria.
We’ll share more photos and our impressions of Ezemvelo in an upcoming post.
Austin Roberts Memorial Bird Sanctuary
Austin Roberts was one of South Africa’s most acclaimed zoologists, best known for his authoratitive reference book on the birds of Southern Africa. Today, his legacy is honoured in the Austin Roberts Memorial Bird Sanctuary, located in Pretoria’s leafy Nieuw Muckleneuk suburb.
The tiny reserve covers only eleven hectares (about four city blocks), yet more than 170 bird species have been identified here – a consequence of the wide range of habitats that it provides: dense woodland, mixed bushveld, reedbeds and nine small perennial dams. In addition, a few small antelope and a couple of tortoises also occur here.
Blesbok
Cape Teal
Common Moorhen
Egyptian Geese
Fulvous Duck
Laughing Dove nesting inside the hide
Steenbok
White-faced Ducks
Yellow-billed Duck
Red-knobbed Coot with chick
The Blue Crane is South Africa’s national bird
Crowned Crane
Facilities at the sanctuary include a restaurant and photographic hide, both extremely popular, and both offering a very nice lunchtime break from the office!
A section of the hide at Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary
Our Neighbourhood
We’re very fortunate in that the housing complex where we live in Pretoria borders the “Serene Valley” – a section of the Moreleta Spruit (“spruit” is a South African term for a small stream) surrounded by natural vegetation right in the centre of our bustling suburb. Because of our proximity to this little nature area we’ve noted more than 70 species of birds in our garden, and we’ve even encountered the odd vervet monkey, bushbaby and slender mongoose from time to time.
Serene Valley
Serene Valley
While this week’s WordPress Challenge is specifically targeted at images taken with mobile phones, conventional camera photos aren’t excluded.
Lost in the Details
Every zebra has a stripe pattern as unique as a human’s thumbprint.
This week’s WordPress photo challenge is “Lost in the Details“
Rietvlei Nature Reserve – 3 February 2013
We’ve made mention before of how fortunate we are to live in Pretoria, where so many nature reserves are to be found in close proximity to the city. At 3600ha, the Rietvlei Nature Reserve is the largest of the nature areas within the city limits, and is located right at the southern edge of the metro.
Rietvlei is an important reserve in that it protects a variety of rare and threatened plants, animals and habitats. Visitors are drawn by a wide range of birds and animals that include lion (in a separate 100ha camp), white rhinoceros, buffalo, hippopotamus, cheetah, brown hyena and large herds of zebra and antelope. In addition, the Rietvlei Dam offers opportunities for fishing and sailing, with hiking, biking and horse trails being attractive alternatives to driving around or spending hours in one of the four photographic hides for exploring to reserve. Visitors can even overnight in the reserve, with camping and chalets being available next to the dam. There are two picnic sites in the reserve and a coffee shop where you can enjoy delicious baked treats.
Unfortunately, due to its urban setting, the reserve can hardly be described as pristine and its management has to contend with a lot of human impact, much of it totally unavoidable and irreversible. The encroaching city sprawl almost surrounds the reserve while electricity pylons, water pipelines and invasive alien plants are very much in evidence. These negative factors however shouldn’t deter you from visiting Rietvlei – it has so much counting in its favour and it certainly is a popular retreat, especially over weekends, for city-dwellers intent on spending some time in the outdoors, as we were last Sunday.
Green
These photographs were taken this past Sunday in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve in Pretoria, South Africa – more from Rietvlei coming soon, so watch this blog 🙂 !
A river runs through it
A herd of eland dot a green hillside in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Green“
DeWetsWild 