Category Archives: Mountain Zebra National Park

More snaps from our summer days in the Mountain Zebra National Park

For the majority of local and international tourists the Mountain Zebra National Park is probably one of the country’s most underestimated protected areas. Conservationists and those visitors who have fell under its spell, however, can’t praise the place highly enough. But don’t give away the secret – we love Mountain Zebra National Park for its untrammeled wilderness feeling far from the madding crowds!

During our visit earlier in January I posted a few photographs on a daily basis to give those following along on our travels a glimpse of what we were experiencing. Let’s start this recap with those.

Of course, pride of place goes to the population of Cape Mountain Zebra, as saving these beautiful creatures from extinction was the reason behind the Park’s proclamation almost 90 years ago.

But of course, Mountain Zebra National Park is also home to an amazing variety of other wildlife that also finds a home in this beautiful landscape.

One of the most exciting sightings of our entire trip occurred early morning on our last full day in the Park, when we came across a herd of buffalo anxiously milling on the road at a precarious downhill stretch on the Kranskop Loop, just where it crosses a small stream. Only after some of the herd passed us, nerve-wreckingly due to the steep slope next to us parked off to the side of the very narrow roadway, we could go around the corner and saw the reason for the buffaloes’ distress – they were being stalked by two lionesses! The cats never went into a full blown attack while we were watching but seemed content to keep following the buffaloes and working on their nerves.

We ended our visit to Mountain Zebra National Park with a night drive. The Park is renowned for the quality sightings of otherwise rarely seen nocturnal creatures and our drive certainly did not disappoint!

DeWetsWild is proud to be a contracted reservations agent for the Mountain Zebra National Park, so whether you’d like us to assist you with a reservation to visit on your own or would like us to include the Park in a guided tour arranged specifically for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Trek – Mountain Zebra, 9 January 2025

Our final full day at Mountain Zebra National Park started with great excitement when we found two lionesses following a very nervous herd of buffalo. As per usual the Park delivered the goods all day long. We’re undertaking a guided night drive later tonight and looking forward to even more special encounters to conclude our visits to the national parks and nature reserves of the Western and Eastern Cape. Thank you to all those who joined us on our travels – I promise to respond to all your kind comments in the next few days.

Summer Trek – Mountain Zebra, 8 January 2025

The Mountain Zebra National Park is still delivering wonderful wildlife encounters! This is just a tiny selection of Joubert’s pictures taken today.

Summer Trek – Mountain Zebra, 7 January 2025

Mountain Zebra National Park is treating us to some very memorable sightings!

Summer Trek – Mountain Zebra, 6 January 2025

We arrived safely at the final stop on our Summer Trek itinerary: Mountain Zebra National Park.

Our 2024 in Pictures

Join us as we reminisce about the places DeWetsWild visited while exploring Southern Africa’s wild places in 2024!

May 2025 be a year to remember for all the best reasons. Happy New Year, everyone!

Our 2021 In Pictures

Take a look back with us at the wonderfully wild South African places we visited in 2021.

 

Summertide Diary: Departing Mountain Zebra

3 January 2021

Today we had to leave Mountain Zebra National Park early, for we had a long way to get back home to Pretoria and had to beat the government-imposed curfew at that. It may have been only 12km from the camp to the gate, but still there was loads to see!

Very near the gate there’s a nice waterhole where even this early in the morning a procession of game was already congregating. The serenity of the scene was shattered when a mountain zebra love triangle got out of hand, but calm soon settled again.

During our time in Mountain Zebra National Park we were very lucky to come across a Black Rhinoceros cow and calf. For their protection I won’t be able to share where or when it was that we saw them, but being able to see more of these magnificent creatures was a privilege we were very grateful for.

And with that our summertide ramble came to a halt, if temporarily, as I had important start-of-the-year work to attend to back in Pretoria. As it would be some weeks still before the schools were due to reopen we did have another reservation in the offing, but with South Africa in the midst of a serious second wave of COVID-19 infections we weren’t at all certain that we would be able to take it up…

We posted a special feature about Mountain Zebra National Park following a previous visit, if you’d like to learn more about this special destination.

Map of Mountain Zebra National Park from the SANParks website (https://www.sanparks.org/images/parks/mountain_zebra/mznp-map.jpg)

 

Summertide Diary: Exploring Mountain Zebra (part two)

2 January 2021

When dawn found the Mountain Zebra National Park under heavy skies this morning we were already underway along the Kranskop Loop.

When we arrived at the start of Rooiplaat Loop we found a male lion lying there, flat on its right-side. We sat there as the minutes passed, studying it through cameras and binoculars and finally coming to the sad conclusion that this lion was dead – there wasn’t even a twitch of an ear or any movement of its stomach to indicate a breath being taken. Disheartened, I started the car to drive off.

King Roy, fast asleep

The sound of the Duster’s engine had a miraculous effect. The lion lifted his head, sleepily. He rested his head on his paws for a while, then gave a mighty yawn before getting up, stretching his legs and then lying down again to look at us in irritation. He is magnificent, known as Roy, and despite his advanced age one of the ruling coalition of lion males here at Mountain Zebra National Park, along with Nomad whom we saw at a distance the day before .

When the next vehicle arrived at the lion sighting we moved of so that those visitors too could have a private audience with The King. The skies have cleared and it’s turning into a glorious day. On our way back to camp we passed Roy again, and he was fast asleep again.

With it being our last afternoon at Mountain Zebra we opted to visit all our favourite spots along the Ubejane and Rooiplaat Loops and the Link road between them again. There’s just something so indescribably peaceful about driving around wild Africa as dusk approaches.

We posted a special feature about Mountain Zebra National Park following a previous visit, if you’d like to learn more about this special destination.

Map of Mountain Zebra National Park from the SANParks website (https://www.sanparks.org/images/parks/mountain_zebra/mznp-map.jpg)

Summertide Diary: Bat-eared Fox puppies

Our new year got off to a great start when we encountered this lovely family of Bat-eared Foxes along the Link Road in the Mountain Zebra National Park on the 1st of January. At the den there were three very lively puppies and four adults who did everything they could to get the pups to hide away from the enamoured humans, without much success!