Tag Archives: travel

Letaba Rest Camp, Kruger National Park

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Almost exactly in the middle of the Kruger National Park, on the southern bank of the broad and mostly sandy Letaba River, you will find the Letaba Rest Camp – a tranquil retreat beneath large, shady trees.

Sunrise between Phalaborwa Gate and Letaba Rest Camp

Letaba welcomed its first guests back in 1929, and remains very popular with visitors to this day. Hutted accommodation and camping is available for overnight guests, the restaurant offers sweeping views of the river and a spacious and shady picnic area, complete with swimming pool, is available to day visitors. Bushbuck, squirrels and a variety of birds have made themselves right at home among the accommodation units and provide endless entertainment to visitors lounging along the riverfront throughout the day.

Letaba bungalow

Bushbuck at home among the huts

Day visitor picnic site

The Elephant Hall is a unique educational facility with exhibits dedicated to every facet of the elephant’s ecology. Also on display is the ivory of several of the Kruger National Park’s famous big tuskers that have sadly departed to heavenly pastures.

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Elephant skeleton

Inside the Elephant Hall

You then won’t be surprised when we tell you that Letaba is elephant country. Visitors here have an excellent chance of encountering both breeding herds and bulls carrying impressive ivory. Masthulele, probably Kruger biggest tusker at the moment, is in fact regularly seen along the river right in front of the camp.

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The late Hlanganini

Masthulele

Buffalo is another member of the “Big-5” that occurs in large numbers in the Letaba area, and visitors are bound to see a variety of other wildlife, including predators, in the area.

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The best self-drive routes for game viewing from Letaba are those that track the course of the river; road S46 towards the south-east and road S47 to the north-west. Guided activities such as walks and night drives are also very popular.

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Pay Letaba a visit and you’ll quickly understand why it is a firm favourite with many of the Kruger faithful!

Look Up!

Pilanesberg – 17 February 2013

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Sunrise over the rim of the ancient volcanic crater

Last Sunday Joubert and I accompanied my brother Niël to the Pilanesberg National Park for a day visit – as always it was good to get out of the city and into the wilds, even if only for a day. Pilanesberg’s four entrance gates are all within an easy two-hour drive from Pretoria so it wasn’t difficult at all to be at the Park’s Manyane Gate in time for it opening at 05:30. We departed again, through Bakubung Gate, just as dusk was settling over the reserve at around 18:00 that evening.

Lake Mankwe

We spent most of the day exploring the Park along the extensive network of roads and also spent some time in the various photographic hides (two of which was damaged considerably by elephants recently and in need of repair). Here’s a collection of photographs of Pilanesberg’s mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, all taken on Sunday.

Blue wildebeest cow

Blue wildebeest bull

Yellow-billed stork

Barbel (catfish) ambushing small fish in the shallows

Pied kingfisher

Terrapins

Giraffe

White rhinoceros

Kudu cow and calf

Battle scarred zebra stallion

Elephants have right of way

Elephant roadblock

Waterbuck drinking

Grey heron cooling off next to the water

Jacana walking on submerged plants

Juvenile crocodile

Little Egret in breeding plumage

Impala

Springbok, South Africa’s national animal

Ostrich

Curious giraffe

For more on Pilanesberg you can read all about our previous visit there in May 2012.

Forward!

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Pachyderms on parade in the Pilanesberg…

Forward!

For more on this week’s photo challenge by WordPress: Forward

Sunrise

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Our visit to the Kruger National Park in April 2012 delivered some of the most gorgeous sunrises we can recall:

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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 Sunrise

Wanderlust

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It’s scenery like this that causes us to return to one of South Africa’s wild places at every opportunity, and why we pine for the bush whenever we cannot be there. This photograph was taken in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and shows a guided sunset drive about to cross the Black-Imfolozi River.

Wanderlust

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 “Wanderlust“

Rietvlei Nature Reserve – 3 February 2013

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We’ve made mention before of how fortunate we are to live in Pretoria, where so many nature reserves are to be found in close proximity to the city. At 3600ha, the Rietvlei Nature Reserve is the largest of the nature areas within the city limits, and is located right at the southern edge of the metro.

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Rietvlei is an important reserve in that it protects a variety of rare and threatened plants, animals and habitats. Visitors are drawn by a wide range of birds and animals that include lion (in a separate 100ha camp), white rhinoceros, buffalo, hippopotamus, cheetah, brown hyena and large herds of zebra and antelope. In addition, the Rietvlei Dam offers opportunities for fishing and sailing, with hiking, biking and horse trails being attractive alternatives to driving around or spending hours in one of the four photographic hides for exploring to reserve. Visitors can even overnight in the reserve, with camping and chalets being available next to the dam. There are two picnic sites in the reserve and a coffee shop where you can enjoy delicious baked treats.

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Unfortunately, due to its urban setting, the reserve can hardly be described as pristine and its management has to contend with a lot of human impact, much of it totally unavoidable and irreversible. The encroaching city sprawl almost surrounds the reserve while electricity pylons, water pipelines and invasive alien plants are very much in evidence. These negative factors however shouldn’t deter you from visiting Rietvlei – it has so much counting in its favour and it certainly is a popular retreat, especially over weekends, for city-dwellers intent on spending some time in the outdoors, as we were last Sunday.

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Home

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We may be living in Pretoria for most of the time, but in the Kruger National Park our souls are at home!

(This photograph was taken on the verandah of unit 14 at Olifants Rest Camp – the unit has a fantastic view over the Olifants River in the valley below. You can click on the image for a clearer view)

At home in the Kruger Park

For other blogger’s interpretation of this week’s challenge theme: “Home“

Now!

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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.

NOW

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“

Moreletakloof – 27 January 2013

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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.