Grey, Red-billed and Yellow-billed Hornbills visit us at our campsite here in Shingwedzi in the Kruger National Park around lunchtime every day, amusing us with their bold yet unsuccessful attempts to pilfer food from our plates…
I had trouble deciding whether to show you the beautiful lions we saw today near Babalala Picnic Spot, or the beautiful leopard we saw within a stone’s throw from Punda Maria Rest Camp. So, I will show you both!
Three bull elephants sharing an afternoon drink at their local watering hole (a pool in the Shingwedzi River)
Elephants gathering in their numbers along the dwindling waterholes of the drying Mphongolo River
(You can click on the image for an enlarged view)
The last photo taken today – sunset over the dry bed of the Shingwedzi River.
(You can click on the photo for a bigger view)
Follow the leader!
These two gentlemen and their entourage greeted us at the gate as we were leaving Shingwedzi for our afternoon drive today,
Lovely warm weather here at Shingwedzi today, and lots of time to visit all the waterholes in the surrounding area – this one being Red Rocks to the south-west of the camp.
It’s 21:30 and I am sitting next to the fence at Shingwedzi Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park, listening to the sounds of lions, at least one leopard, hippos, zebras, impalas baboons and elephants breaking the silence of the night while Marilize and Joubert are already sound asleep in the tent behind me. Today is the first day of our long awaited winter visit to Shingwedzi, and we’ll try to do a daily update when cellular signal allows.
I’ve just returned from a quick three-night solo visit to the Kruger National Park, and have some really memorable sightings to share with you. As the three of us will be heading back to Kruger again later in the month for a longer visit, I’ll be keeping you in suspense till we return – here though a little teaser-gallery just to wet your appetite for things to come!
If you thought we were a bit quiet over the Easter Weekend you’d be right, as we disappeared into the Marakele National Park in the Waterberg Mountains of the Limpopo Province, celebrating the cornerstone of our Chrisitian faith with good friends and family surrounded by awesome scenery and beautiful wildlife.
Marakele’s such a treasure chest of diverse wildlife that it is hard to decide what to show and what to leave out. Let’s start then with a few of the “creepy crawlies” that we encountered while exploring the Park.
WIth Autumn now in full swing in South Africa most of the summer visiting migrant birds have departed for warmer environs already, but bird watching at Marakele over Easter was still a special treat!
What would a National Park be without some charismatic large mammals? Marakele certainly didn’t disappoint on that score, even though the lush vegetation following the rainy season did make game-viewing a bit trickier than usual.
Altogether we spent 4 nights in Marakele on this trip, arriving late on the 18th and departing again on the morning of the 22nd of April 2019. When visiting Marakele in a big group there’s no better option than to stay at the Thutong Environmental Education Centre (as we did) in a remote corner of the Park.
We’ve covered Marakele extensively in previous posts on de Wets Wild, so why not have a read through all of them if you are interested to learn more about this magical piece of our country.
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