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
Seven colours make a rainbow
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Tag Archives: Golden Gate Highlands National Park
48 hours in Golden Gate
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
Autumn in the glen
Autumn in the glen
Glen Reenen at night (April 2015)
Autumn in the glen
Autumn in the glen
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
Blesbuck
Speckled mousebird
Weaver
Red-eyed bulbul
Cape Grassbird
Black-backed jackal
Black-backed jackal
Sunrise zebras
Sunrise zebra
Plains zebra
Grey rhebuck in flight
Grey rhebuck
Blesbuck
Blesbuck
Blesbuck
Springbok
Black wildebeest
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…
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
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
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
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Joubert de Wet, Horse Whisperer
Autumn in the glen
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, the Golden Gate photographer
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!
Motion
Animals on the move at Golden Gate Highlands National Park. And guess where we’re heading tomorrow for the Freedom Day Long Weekend? 😉
Black wildebeest
Black wildebeest
Black-backed jackal
Plains zebra
Grey rhebuck
Eland
“Motion” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge.
Summer at Golden Gate
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.
Glen Reenen
Clean and crisp mountain water
Red hartebeest
Re hartebeest dwarfed by Golden Gate’s scenery b
Eland herd
Springbok
Springbok
Black wildebeest
Springbok
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Blesbuck
Black-backed jackal
Golden Gate scenery
Cape Bunting
Cape weaver (female)
Golden Gate scenery
Baboon acrobats
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.
Which way to go?
A trail with a view
Looking back out of the gorge
Looking up
Floral splendour at Golden Gate Highlands National Park
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.
Golden Gate 30122014
Golden Gate 31122014
Golden Gate 01012015
Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Rapid in Little Caledon
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)
Beneath the Mushroom Rocks
If the trail to the top of the Brandwag Buttress is the most popular of Golden Gate Highlands National Park’s walks, and the Echo Ravine trail the most spectacular of the short walks radiating from Glen Reenen, then the Mushroom Rocks trail is the easiest and least demanding. And that’s a good thing, because you can concentrate on finding the little jewels hiding among Golden Gate’s flowing green grasslands and gawk at the amazing scenery without using it as an excuse to catch your breath 😉 . The only challenging section of the trail is the crossing over the Little Caledon River, especially in summer when the Park experiences most of its rainfall and even more so when lugging a couple of cameras, binoculars and water bottles along…
Which way to go?
Looking back at Glen Reenen
Looking up at the Mushroom Rocks
Dwarfed by the massive cliffs
Heading straight into a wall of rock?
Looking up
Water dripping from above
Dwarfed by the massive cliffs
Looking back at Glen Reenen
Moss growing where water drips from above
The trail
Looking up at the Mushroom Rocks
Drakensberg Crag Lizard
The Mushroom Rocks towering over Glen Reenen
The Little Caledon far below
Heading into the mountains
Scenery along the Mushroom Rock trail
Scenery along the Mushroom Rock trail
Crossing the Little Caledon requires a steady foot
Crossing the Little Caledon requires a steady foot
Crossing the Little Caledon requires a steady foot
The Mushroom Rocks towering over Glen Reenen
Glen Reenen camping grounds in the foreground
The valley Glen Reenen is located in
Up and into the Echo Ravine
What better way could there be to ring in the first day of a new year than exploring new places? Especially after ending 2014 on a literal high atop the Brandwag Buttress? That’s why Marilize and I decided to undertake the Echo Ravine trail at Golden Gate Highlands National Park that day (Joubert was out exploring other pastures in Golden Gate with his grandpa), a walk we’ve not done before. We were not disappointed that we did, the scenery on the way to, and inside, the ravine is simply awe-inspiring and in our view this is one of the best short (taking an hour or two to complete) walks in the Park. It’s not an easy walk, requiring you to clamber over boulders at several stages, especially as you near the head of the ravine, but the rewards are entirely worth the effort.
Into a copse of Ouhout Trees at the start of the trail
Which way to go?
Scenery on the way
Upwards and onwards
Upwards and onwards
Romance in the ravine – Heady Maiden moths
The vegetation gets denser as the ravine’s walls come closer
The vegetation gets denser as the ravine’s walls come closer
The vegetation gets denser as the ravine’s walls come closer
Small mountain stream flowing through the ravine
The walls are closing in
The walls are closing in
Clinging to life
The walls are closing in
Small mountain stream flowing through the ravine
At the head of the ravine
Looking back out of the gorge
Looking back out of the gorge
Don’t lose the way
Small mountain stream flowing through the ravine
Clinging to life
Water falling from the overhanging rocks above
Getting to the top of the Brandwag
We wanted to do something special to end 2014. We couldn’t think of any better way to spend the last morning of the year than getting to the top of the Brandwag Buttress, the icon of the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, even if the weather did not play along as nicely as we had hoped.
The walk to the top of the immense Brandwag (Afrikaans for “sentinel”) formation is the most popular of Golden Gate’s trails. You can walk the Brandwag route in less than an hour, but to us that would be missing the point; you have to take time to appreciate the scenery along the way and the grand views from the top. There are two routes to choose from; one starting at Glen Reenen Rest Camp and the other at the Golden Gate Hotel and Chalets, and combining the two; going up one way and down the other, really is the way to go.
Which way to go?
The trail
Crossing a mountain stream
Enjoying the view
A trail with a view
Hiding from the wet weather under an overhang
Low clouds and scenery
Looking down at Glen Reenen from the top
Looking down at the Golden Gate Hotel and Chalets from the top of the Brandwag
The road westwards towards Clarens
The route down on the Hotel side of the Brandwag
The route down on the Hotel side of the Brandwag
Halfway down
A grey rhebuck coming to investigate the interlopers in his territory
Cape Rock-Thrush (male)
Crossing the Little Caledon
Crossing the Little Caledon
Walking back to Glen Reenen
Walking back to Glen Reenen
From the foot of the Brandwag Buttress
DeWetsWild 