Tag Archives: travel

Texture in Nature

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For this week’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers, by online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com, themed “Texture in Nature“, we decided on submitting a collection of shots depicting the intertidal pools of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Few people fail to be fascinated by the wildlife hiding away in these seashore retreats – perhaps because it is a window into a world so vastly different from our own?

(click on an image to view the pictures in a carousel)

Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park
Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park
Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park
Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park
Intertidal pool – iSImangaliso Wetland Park

 

 

Cathedral Peak

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Cathedral Peak is another beautiful part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (a World Heritage Site). Located in the central Drakensberg, the area is well-known for its dramatic scenery: Craggy peaks (Cathedral Peak itself rises to an altitude of over 3000 metres) and sheer rock faces, steep grass-covered slopes and deep valleys vegetated by indigenous forests and drained by crystal-clear mountain streams.

These magnificent surroundings make the Cathedral Peak area a favourite haunt for hikers with numerous trails ranging from a few hours to several days in length traversing the mountain range (with a large number of caves providing an interesting overnight camping option). Other activities on offer include trout fishing, bird and game viewing, mountain biking and a guided drive along Mike’s Pass for stunning vistas of the escarpment.

Accommodation is available at the privately-operated Cathedral Peak Hotel, the luxurious Didima Camp, and a neat camping area with modern hot-and-cold ablution facilities. Didima, like its sister-Drakensberg Resorts at Royal Natal further north and Giant’s Castle further south, is operated by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. The accommodation units have been built in a unique style reminiscent of the caves that the area is so well-known for. These caves were in years past used as dwellings by the nomadic San people, and the San Rock Art Interpretive Centre at Didima is an excellent place to learn more about their fascinating art and culture.

Thankful

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We are extremely thankful to be living in a country so richly blessed with natural splendour – this picture taken at sunrise  on the beach at Cape Vidal in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Macro Photography

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These close-up pictures of some smaller animal life was taken in the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site, in the far North-West corner of South Africa  where it borders Botswana and Zimbabwe:

Caterpillar

Superbly camouflaged gecko in a chalet at Mapungubwe National Park

Huge cricket sharing our outdoor shower in Mapungubwe National Park

We’re participating in the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s challenge is Macro Photography.

Inspiration

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de Wets Wild is inspired by spending time together in South Africa’s wild places – as in this picture featuring Dries and an eight-month old Joubert negotiating a trail in the Moreletakloof Nature Reserve in Pretoria, South Africa.

Giant’s Castle Game Reserve

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The Giant’s Castle Game Reserve was established in 1903 and is named after a peak, 3314-m high, that towers imposingly over the valleys of the reserve.  Located in western KwaZulu-Natal Province on the border with Lesotho, the reserve is today an integral part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, a world heritage site.

Specifically proclaimed for the protection of the last remaining free-roaming populations of eland (the biggest antelope in Africa) in Natal, the area where the reserve is located today was also home to the San-Bushmen, hunter-gatherers that were driven from the area by the middle of the nineteenth century and of whom the only remaining proof of their occupation is the vast number of paintings that adorn the walls of caves and rock overhangs in the area. Ironically so, for the San revered the eland as the most sacred of animals.

One hundred and nine years after the reserve’s foundation, the eland and a wealth of other animals, birds and plants all find protection here, but the magnificent mountain scenery still leaves the most lasting impression on visitors.

Green

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A collection of images depicting the splendour of the natural vegetation found in South Africa’s wild places.

(click on an image to view the picture carousel):

The rolling hills of Giants Castle Game Reserve in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park
a View over the Ithala Game Reserve
Nkumbe viewpoint, Kruger National Park
Looming thunderstorm over the plains of the central Kruger National Park
Waterbuck drinking from a small stream with dense riparian vegetation in the Kruger National Park
Serene river pool in the Kruger National Park
a Red Bishop in a reed bed in the Moreletakloof
View across the Eastern Shores of Lake Saint Lucia (iSimangaliso Wetland Park)
Nwanedzi viewpoint in the Kruger 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)

Sunset over Marakele National Park
Sunset over the Kruger National Park (near Shimuwini Bushveld Camp)
Sunset over Ithala Game Reserve
Sunset over Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park
Sunset over the Kruger National Park (near Olifants Rest Camp)

Renewal

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Caring for a new generation: Vervet monkey female and baby bonding through fun and games, as seen in Skukuza Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park. I think it’s clear from the expression on the little one’s face how much he’s enjoying their play!?

uMkhuze Game Reserve

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Heaven to bird watchers and a paradise for photographers!

The uMkhuze Game Reserve, which celebrated its centenary on the 12th of February 2012, is today an integral part of the greater Isimangaliso Wetland Park (a World Heritage Site) and is one of South Africa’s most ecologically diverse conservation areas. It is located in the north of Kwazulu-Natal province, roughly 500 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg or 350 kilometres north of Durban, very near the N2-national highway which makes it a very easy-to-reach destination.

The reserve is probably best known as a mecca for bird watchers, with over 400 bird species having been identified here.

This abundant birdlife is attracted to the reserve by the wide array of habitats, stretching from the slopes of the Lebombo Mountains through gently rolling bushveld and dense woodlands to thick riparian forests, swamps and the magnificent watery expanse of Nsumo Pan.

With the exception of lion, uMkhuze provides sanctuary to good numbers of almost all South Africa’s big game and large predators. (EDIT: Lions were reintroduced to uMkhuze in late 2013)

Photographers have been well catered for, with several hides and platforms available in which visitors can easily spend hours or even the entire day watching the continuous processions of animals and birds slaking their thirst at the water’s edge.

Mantuma is the main camp in uMkhuze. Here you will find a curio shop with basic items for sale, a swimming pool and the delightfully named “Rhino Dine-O” take-away kiosk catering to the needs of the reserve’s guests. The elegant nyala often make themselves at home amongst the huts in the unfenced Mantuma Camp. A spacious and very shady camping area at the Emshopi entrance gate accommodates up to 100 campers at a time.

uMkhuze Game Reserve offers so much to experience that there’s always something left to explore and that’s ample reason to return again and again!