Tag Archives: Marakele National Park

Surprise Weekend at Marakele; Saturday 12 June 2021

Round about 04:45am on Saturday, the territorial rasping of a leopard really close lured Joubert and me out of our cosy tent into the cold winter morning air at Tlopi Tented Camp. Try as we might using our spotlight and headlamps the big cat remained unseen, so we warmed ourselves with hot drinks, waiting for the first rays of sunshine to appear. It was the morning of Marilize’s milestone birthday, and unfortunately this coincided with South Africa experiencing a “third wave” of Covid-19 infections precluding any big commemoration with the extended family and friends. It was up to me and Joubert to make the event memorable, so we surprised Marilize with a weekend breakaway to Marakele National Park.

First light made an appearance around 06:20 and a stream of birds started arriving at the dam – first a few double-banded sandgrouse, then a hadeda and a pair of egyptian geese, waking up the arrow-marked babblers in the tree shading our tent. It was only at 08:10 that the sun first peaked over the cliffs of the Waterberg towering over Tlopi and started heating up the crisp air. Somewhere in between Marilize joined us on the deck of our safari tent.

One of the most active actors on the dam stage was a pied kingfisher that regularly made attempts at dive-bombing fish in the shallow water, and was very successful at it too, providing us excellent views and photographic opportunities from very early on in the day.

Pied Kingfisher diving into the water at Tlopi (photo by Joubert)

Pied Kingfisher diving into the water at Tlopi

Pied Kingfisher with its catch

Pied KIngfisher hovering above the dam at Tlopi

There appears to be a very healthy population of bushbuck in the thickets around Tlopi. They regularly ventured out into the open to drink and feed in and around the dam.

Bushbuck Ram just outside the entrance into Tlopi Tented Camp

Bushbuck ewe

Bushbuck ewe (photo by Joubert)

Bushbuck ewe wading into Tlopi’s dam to feed on water plants

Bushbuck ewe

Bushbuck ewe crossing the shallows of Tlopi’s dam

Bushbuck ewe and lamb

Throughout the day a family of tawny-flanked prinias put in regular appearances:

Tawny-flanked Prinia

Tawny-flanked Prinia (photo by Joubert)

Tawny-flanked Prinia

The vervet monkeys had us laughing. As soon as they spotted anything on our deck that appeared to be food they could steal – and seeing as we were celebrating a birthday it must have seemed like a feast to them – they’d arrive from all corners, including from across the dam, to come and try their luck, in vain.

Vervet monkey waiting for a gap at our tent in Tlopi Tented Camp

Vervet monkey jumping across the stream feeding into Tlopi’s dam

Vervet monkey waiting for a gap at our tent in Tlopi Tented Camp (photo by Joubert)

There truly is no need to venture out of Tlopi Tented Camp to go and look for Marakele’s wild inhabitants – there is a constant queue of animals and birds arriving at the dam in front of the camp, and around your tented accommodation, that would keep any nature lover enthralled all day long.

Reed Cormorant (photo by Joubert)

Hamerkop

Egyptian Geese (photo by Joubert)

Three-banded Plover

Emerald Spotted Wood Dove

Black Crake

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Dark-capped Bulbul

Bushveld Orange Tip butterfly

Egyptian Goose

Speckled Rock Skink

Cape Wagtail

Blue Waxbills

Yellow Pansy butterfly on dry rhino dung

Brown-veined White in what I think is an Albizia (False Thorn) bush

Cape White-eyes and Dark-capped Bulbuls sharing a drink

White-fronted Bee-eater in flight

Long-billed Crombec

Jameson’s Firefinch

Green-winged Pytilia taking refuge from the midday sun

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Black Stork (photo by Joubert)

Grey Go-Away Bird

Hamerkop

Common Dwarf Gecko

Yellow-fronted Canary

White-browed Scrub Robin

Natal Spurfowl

From about 14:00 in the afternoon, two herds of elephants made their way past the camp to the dam. They spent quite a while enjoying the water and the greenery around the dam, allowing us to take photographs of them to our hearts’ content. The little ones were especially endearing. Be sure to catch our next post to see what drama erupted next to the dam thanks to the elephants!

Big elephant bull in musth

Joubert eyeing a bull elephant at Tlopi Tented Camp in Marakele National Park

Elephants arriving at Tlopi’s dam

Elephant

Cute little elephant testing the air

Helping a reluctant friend cross the stream

Learning by imitating the grown-ups

Shaking off the dust from his ears (photo by Joubert)

This grass is so soft to lie on!

Young elephant trying to chase away the birds at the water’s edge

Practicing her balance! (photo by Joubert)

Making a splash

Elephant cow that’s had enough to drink now

Arriving at the water’s edge

The second herd of elephants were much bigger than the first

Matriarch of her herd

Ears peaked in irritation (photo by Joubert)

Ears peaked in irritation

Ears peaked in irritation (photo by Joubert)

Taking that first step across the stream

Big Bull

Big Bull (photo by Joubert)

Tiny youngster crossing next to mom (photo by Joubert)

Tiny youngster crossing next to mom

At the end of a beautiful and happy day, with the sun setting to the west of Tlopi while the smoke from our evening braai (barbeque) wafted on the slight breeze, Joubert set up his camera for a few night shots after it went dark.

Sunset at Tlopi, with the smoke from our braai fire wafting over the dam

Sunset at Tlopi

Early evening at Tlopi (photo by Joubert)

The Milky Way above our tent (photo by Joubert)

To be continued…

Hardworking Wasp

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Just to prove that a visit to a game reserve isn’t all about the “hairies and scaries”, one of the most memorable sightings of the trip we took to Marakele National Park last weekend wasn’t of one of the “Big Five” or another large mammal, bird or reptile. Instead, we watched in awe as a wasp carried (sometimes through the air, but mostly along the ground) a large, paralysed caterpillar to a specially prepared tunnel. In there, the wasp’s young can grow to adulthood by feeding on the hapless immature insect.

Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele

Thread-waisted Wasp closing up the nesting tunnel after depositing the caterpillar and laying the egg (at Marakele NP)

Back from Marakele

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If you thought we were a little quiet the last few days, you’d be right. We spent the Heritage Day long weekend enjoying our natural heritage and the company of good friends at Marakele National Park. Here’s just a little sample of some of what we experienced, with a promise of more to come later in the week.

White Rhinoceros

Baby scorpion

Giant spider

Baby elephant show-off

Old buffalo bull

Marakele scenery

Elephant mock-charge

Marakele sunrise

Lion

Lioness and mate

Thread-waisted Wasp and prey at Marakele National Park

Exploring Marakele

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A “Place of Sanctuary”; that Marakele National Park certainly is. As its Tswana name suggests, this Park of around 650km² in size offers protection not only to some of the most awe-inspiring scenery one could hope to find, but also to an impressive variety of fauna and flora. Humans too can find a safe and peaceful haven here in the malaria-free Waterberg range, as we were reminded again on our recent visit.

A public road splits Marakele into two sections. Kwaggasvlakte in the south-western corner is much smaller than the main portion of the Park lying to the east. Kwaggasvlakte is where the Park’s entrance gate and Bontle Camp is located, and is characterised by flat, sandy plains on which mixed bushveld is the main vegetation type.

Marakele scenery

Blue wildebeest

Plains zebra

You’ll often see troops of banded mongoose crossing roads in the Kwaggasvlakte section of Marakele National Park

Female ostrich

Acacia seedpods

Sickle Bush seedpods

Black-backed jackal

Black-backed jackals

Little sparrowhawk

Young impala

Young giraffe

Overlooking a waterhole in the northern corner of the Kwaggasvlakte section, Bollonoto Hide offers a great place from which to enjoy the constant stream of game and birdlife arriving to quench their thirst.

Well-hidden Bollonoto Hide

Impala ram near the hide

Young nyala bull near the hide

Bollonoto waterhole

Blue wildebeest drinking from Bollonoto

Blacksmith Lapwing at Bollonoto

This impala with a malformed right horn is a regular at Bollonoto

A subway connects Kwaggasvlakte to the bigger, eastern portion of the Park. It is in this more mountainous section of the Park where elephants, buffaloes and lions also occur, just some of the 91 species of mammals that the Park hosts. Tlopi Tented Camp is available to guests who’d like to overnight in this section of the Park, which is dominated by a wholly different type of vegetation, described as “Waterberg Moist Bushveld”. A good network of roads allows visitors to explore widely – some of Marakele’s roads are only accessible to 4×4 vehicles, but most of the Park’s 80km road network can easily and comfortably be traversed in a sedan.

Marakele scenery

Waterbuck bull

Tlopi Tented Camp in its waterside setting

Seen from Mbidi Loop, Tlopi far below seems tiny next to the grand mountain shadow

Marakele scenery

Kudu calf

Crested francolin

Kudu bull

Natal spurfowl

Impala bachelors

Plains zebra stallion

Roan antelope trying to hide

A very narrow tarred pass leads to Marakele’s most impressive attraction, the Lenong View Point on top of the Waterberg massif. Lenong lies at an altitude of 2050m, over a kilometer higher than Bontle on the Kwaggasvlakte below – a fact you become well aware of when your ears pop on the very steep and winding ascent. From the viewpoint you normally have fantastic views over the plains below and the mountains around, and perhaps get a close-up glimpse at Marakele’s prized colony of Cape Vultures soaring on the thermals. Unfortunately the weather didn’t play along when we went up to Lenong on our latest visit, the top of the mountain being cloaked in a thick and teeth-chatteringly cold fog. However, dipping below the clouds on our way down we did get glimpses of the wonderful views to be had from up there.

Lenong viewpoint is up there, at the towers, in Marakele National Park

Halfway up

Lenong shrouded in thick fog

Lenong viewpoint marker

Lenong shrouded in thick fog

Klipspringers are plentiful up at Lenong

Descending the pass

Our latest visit to Marakele was just 3 nights long, and honestly we found that too short to fully savour all the Park had to offer. The broken terrain does make game-viewing a little more challenging than in many other parks and reserves, especially if you are mostly after the “Big 5” (which we luckily aren’t, we just enjoy being “out there” and enjoy anything we find along the way), but as far as spectacular scenery and serenity is concerned Marakele has few equals.

Marakele National Park is managed by South African National Parks, and the access gate is located just 12km outside the town of Thabazimbi, which offers most of the modern conveniences. Thabazimbi is easily accessed from Gauteng along the N1 and R516 via Bela-Bela or via the R511 through Brits.

Marakele Monkey Business

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This troop of vervet monkeys kept us thoroughly entertained on the last morning of our recent visit to Marakele National Park. While the adults just wanted to warm their old bones in the first rays of golden sunshine, the boisterous youngsters had a lot of pent up energy to get rid of!

Warming up in the early morning

Family portrait

Squabbling family members

Peace made

Energetic youngsters

Beautiful Bontle

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It seems only fitting that we should start the report back on our recent visit to Marakele National Park at Bontle, the beautiful little bushveld campground set on the plains below the imposing Waterberg mountains, and that we called home during our three night stay.

Bontle actually means “beautiful” in Setswana, and surveying the place from beneath a shady tree you can’t help but agree. Just outside the camp a waterhole attracts a constant stream of birds and animals, with a range of low hills to the south forming a beautiful backdrop to the scene.

View from Bontle

Wildlife has open access to Bontle, which is unfenced. While you don’t have to be concerned about being trampled by an elephant or eaten by a lion (these species occur elsewhere in Marakele, but not in the Kwaggasvlakte-section where Bontle’s located) you may well find yourself at close quarters with a variety of birds, various species of antelope, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, bushbabies, springhares, jackals, ostriches and even white rhinos when you pop your head out your tent!

Better safe than sorry

Female Golden Orb Web Spider

Warthogs at home in Bontle

Ostrich at home in Bontle, Marakele NP

Southern White-crowned Shrike

White-browed Sparrow-Weaver

Ostrich at home in Bontle, Marakele NP

Well camouflaged Agama

Bontle’s also home to other beauties – this is a Brown-veined White butterfly

Bontle’s also home to other beauties – this is a Wandering Donkey Acraea

Bontle’s also home to other beauties, like this African Monarch

Green, or Red-billed, Wood-Hoopoe

Warthogs at home in Bontle

The campground accommodates 36 tents and caravans (all the campsites have electric plugpoints) around three communal ablution blocks (one of which is accessible to campers in wheelchairs). Ten safari tents are fairly recent additions to the offering at Bontle. Four of them sleep 4 guests each and the others 2 each. One of the two-bed tents have also been built with the needs of guests in wheelchairs in mind. The little kiosk at the entrance gate and reception office, about 1.5km from Bontle, conveniently stocks firewood, ice, sweets and cold drinks. Stock up on fuel and groceries in the nearby town of Thabazimbi.

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

Bontle Campground

Bontle ablution block

Bontle Safari Tent

This was our first stay at Bontle (managed by South African National Parks); on previous visits to Marakele we stayed at Tlopi Tented Camp in the bigger portion of the Park where the “Big-5” roam. But now that we’ve had a taste of Bontle’s beautiful tranquility it is hard to imagine that we’ll be able to resist the urge to return for very long.

Welcome to Bontle!

More on Marakele in upcoming editions of de Wets Wild!

Hiding from an ostrich, like an ostrich…

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Wildlife moves freely through the campsites at Bontle, in the Marakele National Park. Here Joubert demonstrates just how to hide from an inquisitive female ostrich…

Marakele_30Apr-2Mei2016 (2)

We’ve come to the end of our long weekend at Marakele, and will share some of this wonderful Park’s sights with you in upcoming editions of de Wets Wild – stay tuned!

Marakele breakaway

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It is the Workers’ Day long weekend in South Africa, and we’re spending it camping at peaceful Bontle Camp in the Marakele National Park.

Marakele National Park

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The aptly named Marakele National Park is most certainly a “place of sanctuary” to much of South Africa’s indigenous wildlife, as the translation of the Tswana name suggests.

Located in the Waterberg mountain range in the Limpopo Province, there are two main reasons for the park’s extraordinary diversity of plant and animal life. Firstly, it is located in the transition zone between the country’s drier western and wetter eastern climatic zones. Secondly, it has an impressive altitudinal range between 980 and 2100m above sea level. Thus the park has a rich variety of habitats housing a wide variety of fauna and flora – many of which is endangered or unique to the area, and as a result it forms a core area of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve.

The Waterberg cycad (Encephalartos eugene-maraisii) is one example of a rare plant species finding sanctuary here at Marakele. This plant was named in honour of naturalist, author and poet Eugene Marais who spent much of his life here in the Waterberg, his work inspired by the beautiful landscapes, fascinating wildlife and warm people of the region.

Marakele may be home to Africa’s Big Five, but pride of place certainly goes to the population of Cape Griffon vultures that have made their home among the towering cliffs – at 800 breeding pairs it is one of the biggest colonies of these endangered birds left on the planet.

The best place to see the vultures are from the Lenong viewpoint located high on a cliff edge, where they soar by in breath-taking proximity. The very narrow road leading up to the viewpoint may be one of the steepest and most hair-raising drives in South Africa, but the spectacular views from the top is a sight to behold and treasure.

The Park was originally proclaimed in 1986 (then named Kransberg after a prominent peak in the Waterberg range) and has been continuously expanded to its current size of almost 650km². Accommodation is available at Tlopi Tented Camp while the Bontle Camping Area provides decent facilities for caravanners and campers. Guided activities are on offer, and other facilities include a hide next to a waterhole that provides excellent opportunities to photograph birds and game, and two rustic picnic spots.

Visit Marakele National Park and you will soon realise that humans too can find sanctuary from the humdrum of everyday life here.

Sunset over Marakele National Park

Sunsets

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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)