Tag Archives: Glen Reenen Rest Camp

Baboon antics in Glen Reenen

People will always find the primates entertaining, and the baboon troops in Golden Gate Highlands National Park is no exception. However, when they come foraging between the accommodation units and in the camping site at Glen Reenen Rest Camp they can really cause havoc. They’ll inspect every open window to see what’s inside a car, tent or hut, and will help themselves to whatever they find that even vaguely resembles food, while the naughty little ones can cause quite a lot of damage to property and structures with their rough-and-tumble play.

Preparing for their early morning raid on the camp

Acting all innocently while the witnesses are around

Walking nonchalantly into Glen Reenen

The big males are the most confident

Confidently walking among the huts

And then quickly grabbing a loaf of bread from an unguarded kitchen

Baby yelling as the campers retaliate

Roofing thatch apparently make wonderful toys for little baboons

King of the castle!

Ground Woodpecker

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Geocolaptes olivaceus

Glen Reenen Rest Camp in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park is one of the best places in the country to go searching for the Ground Woodpecker, a bird that occupies open, rocky hillsides in arid scrubland, fynbos and grasslands and occurs only in upland parts of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.

With a length of 30cm and a weight up to 130g, this is the largest woodpecker in South Africa. They can usually be found in pairs or small family groups, and unlike other, more well-known, woodpeckers search for food (mostly ants) on the ground and among rocks rather than in trees. They are always to be found near water, and usually very conspicuous thanks to their load calls and habit of using high vantage points to watch for danger. Most breeding takes place in early spring, when 3 eggs are laid in nesting chambers at the end of tunnels excavated in vertical soil banks. Some of these tunnels are occupied year-round and not only during the nesting season.

Ground Woodpeckers are common over most of their range and not currently considered to be under any threat to their survival, as their preferred habitat is mostly inaccessible and largely unsuited to human habitation or agriculture.

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points, such as the top of roofs in Glen Reenen

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker fighting his own reflection

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker searching for food

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker searching for food

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points, such as the top of roofs in Glen Reenen

Ground Woodpeckers

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpeckers

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpeckers

Our 2016 in pictures

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Looking back on another year of enjoying South Africa’s beautiful wild places!

Camping at Bakgatla, Pilanesberg National Park, February 2016

Golden Gate Hotel & Chalets, February 2016

Ntshondwe Chalet 34, Ithala Game Reserve, March 2016

Ntshondwe Chalet 15, Ithala Game Reserve, March 2016

Umlalazi Log Cabin, March 2016

Our camping setup at Bontle, Marakele National Park – April 2016

Bungalow 12 at Lower Sabie, May 2016

Olifants bungalow 23, May 2016

Satara Cottage 85, June 2016 (photo taken on a visit in 2012)

Mopani Cottage 43, July 2016

Haak-en-Steek Cottage, Mokala National Park, August 2016

Camping at Kgaswane, October 2016

Nyathi Camp unit #3, Addo Elephant Park, October 2016

OuKlip’s luxury safari tents (in Dinokeng Game Reserve)

Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Unit 27, December 2016

Thendele Chalet 27, Royal Natal National Park, December 2016

Mpila Chalet 21, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, December 2016

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!

golden-gate-17dec16

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)

How to lure a horse…

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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 😉 )

Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer

4 Years old: April 2014. Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer, at Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer

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)