These waterlilies, photographed in the Ithala Game Reserve, grow in a pond overlooked by Ntshondwe Camp’s restaurant’s deck, adding to the tranquil atmosphere while enjoying a meal in the great outdoors!
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Flowers“
We’ve just returned from a morning outing in the Moreletakloof Nature Reserve near our home, where we encountered this zebra. If you’d like, there are more photos from our trip here.
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Now“
Probably the best thing about living in Pretoria is that there’s a bunch of nature reserves very near to us. The tiny (100 hectare) Moreletakloof Nature Reserve is just one example: it is only 2.6 kilometers from our home, and early this morning Joubert and I headed there for a bit of walking. Despite it being overcast and drizzling we had a thoroughly enjoyable father-and-son experience, encountering a variety of birds and animals along the trail.
Ostriches are frequently encountered in Moreletakloof, and can be dangerous when protecting chicks.
Moreletakloof’s animals are quite habituated to the human presence
Zebra foal with an irritating itch in the ear
Impala
More impala
Red bishop
And even more impala
This small stream meanders from one end of the reserve to the other
Trail through thicket
Restored farmhouse from the late 1800’s now operating as a restaurant, with blesbuck grazing on the grounds
Blesbuck
Who’s watching who?
Three generations of anglers setting out at dawn towards their favourite fishing spot at Cape Vidal, in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
(you can click on the image for a clearer view)
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “People in Nature“
Sandstone cliffs and rolling grasslands, painted in the warm golden glow of a Free State sunrise.
Golden Gate sunrise
The Free State Province of South Africa has a reputation for being flat and featureless, and for the most part that is true. But in the east of the province the Maluti and Drakensberg mountain ranges rise to dizzying altitudes, and it is in the foothills of these majestic peaks that the Golden Gate Highlands National Park was proclaimed in September 1963.
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate is another of our favourite South African nature destinations and after a relaxed four hour drive from Pretoria we were overjoyed to be back at the quaint Glen Reenen Rest Camp, our home-away-from-home for three nights at the end of December 2012.
Glen Reenen
Glen Reenen
Glen Reenen
Rondawel in Glen Reenen
The mountainous landscape and grand sandstone rock formations, hundreds of millions of years old, is what Golden Gate is most famous for – with the iconic Brandwag Buttress standing guard over the Park being the star attraction.
Brandwag Buttress
Golden Gate scenery
Mushroom Rocks
This is a summer rainfall area and there was water in abundance throughout the Park during our visit – water as fresh, cool and crystal clear as only a mountain spring can produce.
The Little Caledon River
Mountain stream
Stream flowing past Glen Reenen
Pure mountain water
As with all mountain areas one needs to be mindful that the weather can change very quickly and misty mornings are a regular occurrence, making for hazardous driving along the Lichens Pass that snakes through the reserve.
Clouds rolling in over Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Misty valleys along Lichens Pass
The sun trying to break through heavy cloud
There are numerous scenic hiking trails of varying length and difficulty along which the park can be explored, and horse-trails are on offer for both novice and experienced riders. Two short, tarred game-viewing drives loop across the plateaus near Glen Reenen, while a recent addition that should prove very popular in years to come is a photographic hide built at the Park’s vulture restaurant where carcasses are laid out to supplement the diets of two endangered vulture species that occur in the Park: the Cape Griffon and the Bearded Vulture.
Scenic hiking trail
Vulture hide
Of course, the Park also harbours a variety of other birds and animals, all adapted to the highlands environment.
Black wildebeest, with Brandwag in the background
Black wildebeest
Blesbok
Baboons regularly forage through the camp
Secretary bird
Red hartebeest
This serval was a pleasant surprise
Plains Zebra
Black-backed Jackal, the most often encountered of Golden Gate’s carnivores
Grey rhebuck, a mountain-loving antelope endemic to South Africa
While at Golden Gate we posted some pictures on a daily basis – have a look if you’d like to see more:
The Golden Gate Highlands National Park will remain close to our hearts for as long as those mighty golden cliffs and grassy peaks tower over the wooded valleys, rolling fields and crystal streams in their shadow below!
If you are afraid of heights, the 80m long suspension bridge at the Lake Eland Game Reserve at the Oribi Gorge in southern Kwazulu Natal Province will have you trembling in your boots!
(you can click on any of the images for a clearer view)
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge was “Scary“ and we are thrilled to have received another honorable mention for our entry!
We left Pretoria in the dark of night on the 20th of December to arrive as early as we could at Ithala – it’s the kind of place where you want to be as long as you possibly can.
Ithala sunrise
Ithala Game Reserve must be one of the most scenic wild places in South Africa, and we have never seen the reserve as green and wet as we did on this visit – it is clear that good rains must have fallen in the weeks prior to our arrival.
In some places the grass on the verges of the narrow roads was higher than our vehicle!
Ithala scenery
Ithala scenery
Ithala scenery
Waterlilies in the pond at the restaurant
The Mhulumbela stream
It’s easy to understand why Ntshondwe Camp, our base for the four nights we had available to visit this beautiful reserve in the north of Kwazulu-Natal Province, has won so many awards: a beautiful setting beneath towering cliffs, comfortable accommodation tucked away into indigenous vegetation providing great privacy, a variety of well-maintained facilities (pool, information centre, shop, restaurant, ladies bar, coffee shop, conference centre, children’s play area and walking trails) and a staff-compliment intent on making every guest’s stay a memorable experience.
Ntshondwe’s chalets are spacious and private
Nice view from the jungle gym!
Small wildlife abounds in the camp and, being used to the human presence, make for easy photographic subjects.
Cicada
Agama lizard
Dassie (or Rock Hyrax)
Brightly coloured beetle
Joubert could also participate in a guided sunset drive here at Ithala for the first time – in most other reserves children under the age of 6 or 7 aren’t allowed on guided activities. We’ve been on guided drives in many reserves where the adults were much more poorly behaved than any three year old could be, and so we really applaud and appreciate the fact that here at Ithala they also allow younger children to enjoy the thrill of using a spotlight to search for nocturnal wildlife. Our drive delivered a variety of antelope and zebra, a vine snake and chameleon, nocturnal birds including a spotted eagle owl, hares, elephant, white rhino and a fleeting glimpse of a leopard and it was a real highlight for Joubert.
Not satisfied with his wildebeest picture
Three picnic sites are spread across the reserve, each exposing the visitor to a different facet of the reserve. It’s become a tradition of ours to enjoy a breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghurt at a different one of Ithala’s picnic sites every morning.
Ngubhu Picnic Site
The dense vegetation made viewing more difficult on this visit than on previous occasions, but we nevertheless enjoyed fine sightings of a variety of birds and animals.
Vervet monkeys playing along a small creek
Kudu bulls
Tsessebe – one of South Africa’s rarer antelope
We don’t often see nyala at Ithala, so this sighting was a special treat
Hilltop zebras
Pin-tailed whydah
Mountain reedbuck ewe and fawn
More kudus
Impala lamb
Nodding zebra
The blue crane is South Africa’s national bird
White rhinoceros
The stately giraffe is Ithala’s mascot.
This young elephant bull wasn’t as glad to see us as we were to see him!
He’s charging!
Ithala’s elephants aren’t as used to humans and their vehicles as their counterparts in many other reserves
We awoke one morning to find the reserve cloaked in a thick blanket of fog, which made for some interesting photographs.
Misty Ntshondwe
Zebra in the mist, Ithala
Kudu peering from the fog
Black rhino hiding in thick mist at Ithala
While at Ithala we posted some pictures on a daily basis – have a look if you’d like to see more:
Our four night stay was over in the wink of an eye and we had to head back to Pretoria to celebrate Christmas with our extended family. Will we be back? God willing we definitely will!
Eye-to-eye with a white rhino
Nature has sculpted a whole bunch of unusual rock formations – on both a large and small scale – from the sedimentary sandstone here at Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa.
(you can click on the images to see them enlarged in a gallery)
We’re participating in the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Unusual“.
A visit to a National Park is not always about the “hairies and scaries” – these photographs were taken while walking around the Golden Gate Highlands National Park today:
We arrived at another of our favourite South African wild places this morning: the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, located in the eastern Free State Province, where our base for the next three nights will be the charming Glen Reenen Rest Camp. Again we will give a proper report back soon, but for now we will try to post one or two pictures daily while we are here.
Today’s weather was overcast, rainy and cool but came sunset Golden Gate was lit in magnificently warm hues.
DeWetsWild 