Tag Archives: nature

A walk in the Park

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There’s no doubt that hiking is the biggest pastime enjoyed by visitors to the Royal Natal National Park. Walking through the mountains allows access to so many beautiful spots. We particularly enjoy the easy trails that lead from the Mahai campsite and visitor centre, like Otto’s walk and the trails to the Cascades and Fairy Glen.

The beautiful campsite at Mahai
Bushbuck are commonly encountered along the trails
Bushbuck are commonly encountered along the trails
Looking up at the mountains
Looking up at the mountains
Looking up at the mountains
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
The cascades trail
Crystal clear mountain streams
Crystal clear mountain streams

This was the last installment on our December visit to Royal Natal National Park in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg. From here we travelled to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in Zululand, and from tomorrow we’ll be sharing some of what we experienced there.

Drakensberg Birding

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The varied habitats of the Royal Natal National Park provides excellent habitat for a wide range of bird species. We’ve already introduced you to the rare Bush Blackcap, which is often recorded in the reserve, and the Lesser Striped Swallows that shared our accommodation unit, but there’s so many other feathered inhabitants in the Park that we can dedicate a whole blogpost just to them – in fact, this gallery contains just a few of the more than 60 species we ticked during our December visit!

Groundscraper Thrush
Southern Masked Weaver
Southern Masked Weaver attacking his own reflection
Cape Wagtails
Cape Robin-chat
Cape Robin-chat
Chorister Robin-chat
Malachite Sunbird
Male Greater Double-collared Sunbird
Female Greater Double-collared Sunbird visiting a Common Sugarbush
Male Violet-backed Starling
Female Violet-backed Starling
Helmeted Guineafowl
Fiscal Flycatcher
Cape Crow
African Dusky Flycatcher
White-throated Swallow
Sickle-winged Chat
Cape White-eye
Hadeda Ibis
African Hoopoe

Breathtaking Mountains

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Come rain or shine, and no matter which way you look, the mountain scenery at Royal Natal National Park, dominated by the magnificent cliff face of the Amphitheatre, will take your breath away!

Mahai Picnic Area
Mahai Dam
Tugela Falls
Thendele view
Highveld Cabbage Tree
Thendele rain
Tugela River Valley
Tugela River Valley
Thendele storm
Mahai Dam
Golden Everlasting
Thendele view
Thendele view
Thendele view
Thendele view
Mountain reedbuck ewe in Thendele
Mahai Panorama

Bush Blackcap

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Lioptilus nigricapillus

Our December 2016 visit to Thendele in the Royal Natal National Park afforded us our first opportunity to photograph the Bush Blackcap, a rarely seen endemic South African bird with a very limited distribution along the Eastern Escarpment.

Bush Blackcap in Thendele
Bush Blackcap in Thendele
Bush Blackcap in Thendele

These small birds occur singly or in pairs in the dense canopy of mountain forests and their verges, moving down to coastal forests (and lush gardens) during winter. Breeding takes place in summer. They feed on fruits, berries and insects. The IUCN considers them “near threatened” due to a small population size (estimated at most around 5,000) and threats to their forest habitat.

Squatters at the lodgings

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From the moment we arrived at chalet 27 in Thendele Camp in the Royal Natal National Park in December, we just loved the unit’s setting. And we were not the only ones, as a pair of Greater Striped Swallows were diligently building their mud-walled nest on the veranda, quite unconcerned about the humans sitting below them and watching them go about the task.

Thendele Chalet 27, Royal Natal National Park, December 2016
Greater Striped Swallow bringing mud to build its nest on the veranda of Thendele’s unit 27
Greater Striped Swallow bringing mud to build its nest on the veranda of Thendele’s unit 27
Greater Striped Swallows bringing mud to build their nest on the veranda of Thendele’s unit 27
Greater Striped Swallow bringing mud to build its nest on the veranda of Thendele’s unit 27
Proud builder
Departing to get some more building material

Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon

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Bradypodion dracomontanum

Just as we arrived at Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg for our visit in December, Joubert noticed this laid-back little chameleon resting an elbow on a fence post in the campsite at Rugged Glen.

drakensberg-dwarf-chameleon

Turns out he (or she) is a Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon, a species found only in the Drakensberg mountain range in Kwazulu-Natal Province, where they inhabit sheltered forests and bushes in alpine vegetation at altitudes of between 1,500 and 2,500m and feed on small insects. They grow to a length of only about 14cm. Interestingly, dwarf chameleon females give birth to between 5 and 20 live young that develop in eggs inside the female (known as ovivivipary).

Rainbows in the mountains

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While enjoying our December 2016 holidays in three of South Africa’s wild places, we experienced rainfall in varying degrees on a daily basis. In a country currently suffering through one of the worst ever recorded droughts, this was a real blessing, made even more special when the sun broke through the clouds at the end of a downpour to reveal beautiful rainbows, like this one at Golden Gate Highlands National Park (the photos really don’t do it justice).

The sun breaking through the clouds
Golden Gate Rainbow
Golden Gate Rainbow
Golden Gate Rainbow

Exploring Golden Gate

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As wonderful a place as Glen Reenen is, and as terrific as the trails that lead into the mountains from there are, to really experience all the Golden Gate Highlands National Park has to offer you also must take a drive along the Lichens Pass road that leads through the Park all the way between the eastern and western boundaries, the gravel road to Kestell to the northern boundary, and the Oribi and Blesbok loops that meanders up and over two plateaus near the camp. Along the way you can appreciate magnificent scenery and you could encounter some of the almost 200 species of birds and 60 species of mammals that occur here, including the bald ibis, crowned crane, guineafowl, secretarybird, cape and bearded vulture, blesbok, eland, hartebeest, oribi, grey rhebok, springbok, black wildebeest and plains zebra. Here’s just a few of the photographs we took while exploring the larger Park area during our December 2016 visit.

Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Black-headed Heron
Black-backed Jackal trying to hide from the camera
Plains zebra
Plains zebra
Plains zebra
Blesbok herd
Eland and blesbok
Southern bald ibis
Cape Canary
Levaillant’s Cisticola
Black-backed Jackal
Grey Rhebok
Cape Robin-Chat
Black-backed Jackal

Up into the Echo Ravine again

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The last time we walked the Echo Ravine Trail from Glen Reenen, Joubert was still a bit too young to join. This time around Marilize and I could finally share this beautiful walk with our son, something we’ve been looking forward to for some time.

Crossing the Little Caledon at the start of the trail
Looking back at Glen Reenen
Towering sandstone cliffs
Looking over the Glen towards Brandwag
In the ravine
Well camouflaged rock hyrax watching our progress
Beautiful wild flowers abound
Garden Acraea butterfly catching a piggy-back ride with Joubert
Cape Bunting

Let nature come to you at Glen Reenen

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Glen Reenen Rest Camp is one of our favoured options for an overnight stay when visiting Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The camp has an amazing setting surrounded by the magnificent mountains, with two crystal clear mountain streams flowing past and converging at one end, and is frequented by an equally impressive diversity of wildlife – we showed you the antics of the baboons yesterday, as well as the ground woodpeckers that call Glen Reenen home – just one of many kinds of birds that you’ll find there, and at night you may be lucky to see a jackal or various kinds of antelope roaming between the huts and campsites. It is also a fantastic base from which to explore the Park, be it on foot, horseback or in your own vehicle.

Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Unit 27, December 2016
Glen Reenen huts with the Brandwag Buttress in the background
The most popular trail in the Park, to the top of Brandwag, starts at Glen Reenen
View from our cottage
Looking along the stream towards the mountains
Looking upstream
The Little Caledon stream
Tadpoles in a pool
Crystal clear mountain water
Crystal clear mountain water
Water-dependent insects abound, indicating how healthy the water is. This is a White Malachite.
Water-dependent insects abound, indicating how healthy the water is
Freshwater crab in a mountain stream
The Common Myna is an alien invasive species
Speckled Pigeons breed in the cliffs around Glen Reenen
Speckled Pigeons breed in the cliffs around Glen Reenen
Immature Fiscal Shrike
Mature Fiscal Shrike pecking up baboon leftovers
Cape Weaver male
Pied Starling striding across the lawns at Glen Reenen
Male Red-Winged Starling
Female Red-Winged Starling
Red-winged Starling chick waiting for his parents
Cape Wagtail
Crested Barbet

Glen Reenen, and Golden Gate Highlands National Park, is managed by the South African National Parks and is an easy 350 to 400km drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria.

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)

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)