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!
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.
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, 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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A beautiful double rainbow following on a magnificent thunderstorm at Glen Reenen, in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.
“ROY G. BIV” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge
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.
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.
In a place this beautiful, the plentiful animal and birdlife certainly is a special bonus!
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)
Joubert really had a lot of fun with the two horses that roamed Glen Reenen Rest Camp in Golden Gate Highlands National Park this past weekend. Having had his fill of equine photography on Saturday, the next day he decided to lure the horses to our cottage, with nothing more than handpicked pieces of prime grass-stalks. His efforts were quickly rewarded, to the point where they would have followed him INTO the cottage if he didn’t rudely slam the door in their faces…
We think “Horse Whisperer” has opened up as a new career option for our boy!
(you can click on the images to enjoy them in a larger format 😉 )
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.
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!
And this one of mine showing him in action. Yes, we’re very proud of our little five year old!
Animals on the move at Golden Gate Highlands National Park. And guess where we’re heading tomorrow for the Freedom Day Long Weekend? 😉
“Motion” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge.
Our New Year’s visit to Golden Gate Highlands National Park marked the final stop on our three-week long bush holidays. For this final leg, we were joined by Marilize’s parents and my sister and brother-in law at Glen Reenen Rest Camp.
Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, December 2014
This Park may have been proclaimed originally to safeguard the awesome mountain scenery, but the hills and valleys are also home to a pleasing variety of birds and animals. We found most of the game concentrated towards the east of the Park, around the Basotho Cultural Village.
Golden Gate’s magnificent scenery and hidden jewels are best enjoyed along the many walking trails traversing the area. Have a look at the posts we dedicated to the Brandwag, Echo Ravine and Mushroom Rocks walks, three shorter hikes that are ideal introductions to this mountain ecosystem.
Golden Gate Highlands National Park was another highlight of the trip and a perfect setting to conclude a wonderful holiday. Quality time spent with dear family saw us home in good spirits and strength for the year that lay in wait. And just to be sure the Park is still as beautiful as we remember it, we’ll return soon enough. We simply can’t stay away from a place this magical.
We didn’t think three weeks in the bush would fly past as quickly as it did. We started of with two nights at Chelmsford Nature Reserve, then three nights at Ithala Game Reserve, three nights at uMkhuze Game Reserve, three nights at Lake Saint Lucia, five nights in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, one night at Midmar Dam, and finally four nights at Golden Gate Highlands National Park. By the time we reached home back in Pretoria again, we had covered a distance of 4022km between and in some of our favourite South African wild places. An epic December bush holiday indeed.
Our route between 13 December 2014 and 3 January 2015 (map drawn from Google Maps)
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