Category Archives: Kwazulu Natal Province

Our experiences in the reserves of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Texture in Nature

For this week’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers, by online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com, themed “Texture in Nature“, we decided on submitting a collection of shots depicting the intertidal pools of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Few people fail to be fascinated by the wildlife hiding away in these seashore retreats – perhaps because it is a window into a world so vastly different from our own?

(click on an image to view the pictures in a carousel)

Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park

Cathedral Peak

2 Replies

Cathedral Peak is another beautiful part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (a World Heritage Site). Located in the central Drakensberg, the area is well-known for its dramatic scenery: Craggy peaks (Cathedral Peak itself rises to an altitude of over 3000 metres) and sheer rock faces, steep grass-covered slopes and deep valleys vegetated by indigenous forests and drained by crystal-clear mountain streams.

These magnificent surroundings make the Cathedral Peak area a favourite haunt for hikers with numerous trails ranging from a few hours to several days in length traversing the mountain range (with a large number of caves providing an interesting overnight camping option). Other activities on offer include trout fishing, bird and game viewing, mountain biking and a guided drive along Mike’s Pass for stunning vistas of the escarpment.

Accommodation is available at the privately-operated Cathedral Peak Hotel, the luxurious Didima Camp, and a neat camping area with modern hot-and-cold ablution facilities. Didima, like its sister-Drakensberg Resorts at Royal Natal further north and Giant’s Castle further south, is operated by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. The accommodation units have been built in a unique style reminiscent of the caves that the area is so well-known for. These caves were in years past used as dwellings by the nomadic San people, and the San Rock Art Interpretive Centre at Didima is an excellent place to learn more about their fascinating art and culture.

Thankful

4 Replies

We are extremely thankful to be living in a country so richly blessed with natural splendour – this picture taken at sunrise on the beach at Cape Vidal in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Giant’s Castle Game Reserve

5 Replies

The Giant’s Castle Game Reserve was established in 1903 and is named after a peak, 3314-m high, that towers imposingly over the valleys of the reserve. Located in western KwaZulu-Natal Province on the border with Lesotho, the reserve is today an integral part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, a world heritage site.

Specifically proclaimed for the protection of the last remaining free-roaming populations of eland (the biggest antelope in Africa) in Natal, the area where the reserve is located today was also home to the San-Bushmen, hunter-gatherers that were driven from the area by the middle of the nineteenth century and of whom the only remaining proof of their occupation is the vast number of paintings that adorn the walls of caves and rock overhangs in the area. Ironically so, for the San revered the eland as the most sacred of animals.

One hundred and nine years after the reserve’s foundation, the eland and a wealth of other animals, birds and plants all find protection here, but the magnificent mountain scenery still leaves the most lasting impression on visitors.

Green

12 Replies

A collection of images depicting the splendour of the natural vegetation found in South Africa’s wild places.

(click on an image to view the picture carousel):

Serene river pool in the Kruger National Park

Nkumbe viewpoint, Kruger National Park

a View over the Ithala Game Reserve

a Red Bishop in a reed bed in the Moreletakloof

The rolling hills of Giants Castle Game Reserve in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park

Waterbuck drinking from a small stream with dense riparian vegetation in the Kruger National Park

Nwanedzi viewpoint in the Kruger National Park

Looming thunderstorm over the plains of the central Kruger National Park

View across the Eastern Shores of Lake Saint Lucia (iSimangaliso Wetland Park)

Sunsets

8 Replies

We’re participating in LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s challenge is Sunsets and we are submitting this collection of sunset pictures taken in South Africa’s wild places.

(click on an image to view the picture carousel)

Sunset over the Kruger National Park (near Olifants Rest Camp)

Sunset over Marakele National Park

Sunset over Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Sunset over the Kruger National Park (near Shimuwini Bushveld Camp)

Sunset over Ithala Game Reserve

uMkhuze Game Reserve

4 Replies

Heaven to bird watchers and a paradise for photographers!

The uMkhuze Game Reserve, which celebrated its centenary on the 12^th of February 2012, is today an integral part of the greater Isimangaliso Wetland Park (a World Heritage Site) and is one of South Africa’s most ecologically diverse conservation areas. It is located in the north of Kwazulu-Natal province, roughly 500 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg or 350 kilometres north of Durban, very near the N2-national highway which makes it a very easy-to-reach destination.

The reserve is probably best known as a mecca for bird watchers, with over 400 bird species having been identified here.

This abundant birdlife is attracted to the reserve by the wide array of habitats, stretching from the slopes of the Lebombo Mountains through gently rolling bushveld and dense woodlands to thick riparian forests, swamps and the magnificent watery expanse of Nsumo Pan.

With the exception of lion, uMkhuze provides sanctuary to good numbers of almost all South Africa’s big game and large predators. (EDIT: Lions were reintroduced to uMkhuze in late 2013)

Photographers have been well catered for, with several hides and platforms available in which visitors can easily spend hours or even the entire day watching the continuous processions of animals and birds slaking their thirst at the water’s edge.

Mantuma is the main camp in uMkhuze. Here you will find a curio shop with basic items for sale, a swimming pool and the delightfully named “Rhino Dine-O” take-away kiosk catering to the needs of the reserve’s guests. The elegant nyala often make themselves at home amongst the huts in the unfenced Mantuma Camp. A spacious and very shady camping area at the Emshopi entrance gate accommodates up to 100 campers at a time.

uMkhuze Game Reserve offers so much to experience that there’s always something left to explore and that’s ample reason to return again and again!

Water

4 Replies

These are the fever-tree lined shores of Nsumo Pan, a vast wetland which is a central feature of the uMkhuze Game Reserve (which has recently been incorporated into the Isimangaliso Wetland Park).

We’re participating in LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s challenge is Water.

World Rhino Day 2012

1 Reply

South Africa is home to both species of African rhinoceros: the extremely aggressive black rhino and the much more placid white rhino. Encountering either species during our visits to our country’s wild places is always a thrilling experience and losing these beautiful beasts forever, due to human greed and superstition, is a thought too terrible to ponder.

As I post these images I cannot help but wonder whether the individual animals they depict are still alive and well?

The 22^nd of September 2012 is internationally celebrated as World Rhino Day. The message that rhinoceros horn holds no curative or aphrodisiac properties needs to be spread loud and clear so that the market for rhino horn can be wiped out, and it cannot happen soon enough. There are many people from all over the world and from all walks of life working tirelessly, and even putting their own lives in the firing line, to protect these magnificent creatures from savage poachers, but the onslaught from the organised crime syndicates continue unabated – so far this year we’ve lost at least 381 rhinoceros through poaching in South Africa alone (according to the official figures published in September 2012).

Please lend your support by spreading the message of World Rhino Day to the world.

Free Spirit

10 Replies

A White Rhinoceros, photographed in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in South Africa – feeling safe and free to laze around wherever it chooses for however long it cares to do so. Ironic, as these creatures currently face an immense threat from poaching.

More on our latest visit to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park.