Contrasting light and shadows in the Echo Ravine, in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. An easy but exquisitely beautiful walk from Glen Reenen Rest Camp delivers you to the ravine, a wonderland of enormous rock walls, dripping water, crystal clear streams and a diverse plant life. We’ll share more from Echo Ravine, and other trails at Golden Gate, in a forthcoming post.
“Shadowed” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge
Jumping up from a picnic, while celebrating a special friends birthday, to take pictures of large eagles flying over a major metropolis is not a familiar scenario for the de Wets. And yet that seems to be par for the course at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens!
Opened to the public in 1987 as the Witwatersrand National Botanical Garden on land donated five years earlier by the town councils in Johannesburg’s western suburbs, the gardens were renamed after the ANC leader Walter Sisulu in 2004. The focal point of the garden is undoubtedly the Witpoortjie Waterfall, the source of the Crocodile River which flows through much of the garden. Apart from beautifully tended and themed plant displays, the grounds include large tracts of natural vegetation and ample lawns under shady trees, very popular for picnics. Several pathways and tracks provide access to various parts of the gardens, and the most challenging of these lead to the top of the cliff above the waterfall, a favourite spot for many photographers hoping for a special shot of the eagles soaring past.
The gardens are open daily from 08:00 to 17:00 and facilities include a restaurant, kiosk, several function venues, a concert stage, an environmental education centre, a curio shop and a nursery selling indigenous garden plants. Guided tours of the gardens can be arranged in advance. We like the garden’s policy of “picnic in, litter out” encouraging visitors to take all their garbage with them when they leave.
The gardens are a haven for a multitude of birds and small animals, many of which are quite tame and obviously used to the human presence.
It’s been more than thirty years since a pair of Verreaux’s Eagles (formerly known as Black Eagles) first took up residence at a nesting site next to the Witpoortjie Waterfall. The current pair had successfully raised a chick to sub-adulthood and at the time of our visit was just starting to let the youngster know that it has to start looking for lodgings of its own. This made for spectacular flying displays over the gardens and against the backdrop of the Roodekrans cliffs.
On the other side of the garden, a dam with a bird-viewing hide at its edge was just one more delightful feature to add to our reasons to return to the gardens (soon!). Here we found an extremely irritable Egyptian Goose laying claim to the body of water and intent on ridding it of anything else that seemed remotely like waterfowl! It probably had a nest or goslings hidden somewhere near.
This was our first visit to these beautiful gardens, and we were wonderfully surprised and delighted by what we found. We spent the entire day at the garden, from when the gates opened until they closed, and yet feel like we haven’t seen most of it. Couple that with a jolly time spent with good friends, we’re sure it won’t be long before we return.
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Roughly two weeks ago I was invited to Skukuza Rest Camp, in the Kruger National Park, and of course this was the perfect opportunity to mix business and pleasure again. Unfortunately Marilize and Joubert couldn’t join me on this trip, but instead I enjoyed the company of a colleague as passionate about the Park as I am.
We drove to Kruger on the Sunday afternoon and could enjoy the scenery and wildlife along the way from Phabeni Gate to Skukuza. It had been raining all day, and some more in the weeks prior to our arrival, and fresh, green growth was sprouting all over.
Despite heavily overcast skies, Monday afforded us more opportunity to experience the Park, before and after our important meeting of course. The rains heralded the start of the impala lambing season, and many other kinds of animals were getting into the birthing action too.
And then Tuesday dawned, with bright and sunny skies, but for us it was time to head back to Pretoria, via Lower Sabie and exiting the Park at Crocodile Bridge.
Nothing like an unexpected bush visit to rejuvenate mind and body! This last gallery sums it up so well for me; even such a short visit to the Kruger Park can deliver unexpected and very memorable sightings. While doing our walkabout at Lower Sabie Rest Camp, I came across this tree agama being irritated by a large ant…
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Please vote for de Wets Wild in the 2014 SA Blog Awards
If you enjoy de Wets Wild as much as we enjoy sharing our love for South Africa’s wild places with you, please vote for us in the 2014 SA Blog Awards by clicking on this badge. We’ve entered both the Travel and Environment categories, and you may vote for us in both.
Thank you for your support!
The Witpoortjie Falls, in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, where we spent several hours today enjoying the scenic surroundings, soaring eagles and the company of wonderful friends.
“Angular” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge
Few places can compete with the Golden Gate Highlands National Park when it comes to sheer scenic splendour. Visiting the Park is always a pleasure, and our November 2014 visit was no exception. The Park is looking beautiful following the first good spring rains, and walking or driving around, there’s just so much to take in!
Summer is the best time for bird-watching, when the migrants from cooler climes arrive and many male birds are adorned in their breeding plumage. In addition, Golden Gate is home to several rare and endangered species, and we were lucky to encounter some of them.
Of course, a National Park wouldn’t be complete without large mammals, and Golden Gate has its fair share of animals adapted to the climatic extremes of a mountain environment.
It is always rewarding to bend the knees and appreciate the smaller, less obvious, of Golden Gate’s inhabitants.
After seeing Golden Gate looking so lovely, we can hardly wait for our next visit at the end of December!
I’ve just arrived back from a quick two-day working visit to a very overcast Skukuza in the Kruger National Park. It’s amazing to see how quickly the Park is turning green after the first sprinkling of summer rains, and now some brand-new additions to Kruger’s animal population are making their debut. The stork will be kept very busy in the next couple of weeks!
More photos to follow in an upcoming edition of de Wets Wild!
Well, according to the calendar it should have been spring. But judging by the temperatures we experienced, it seemed the Lowveld had skipped that season all together. It was only late September, but daytime temperatures rose to the upper thirties. The land was parched and animals were congregating in numbers at the last remaining water sources. It made for thrilling game viewing and just reminded us again that every season holds its own special appeal in the Kruger National Park.
Over the last couple of weeks, we already shared with you some of our most memorable sightings of the trip. Finding five cheetahs moving along the Shingwedzi River was exciting in the extreme, we were enthralled watching the interactions of different species of game at marvelous Mooiplaas waterhole, we laughed for joy at the playful antics of baby baboons, our encounters with the elephants of northern Kruger kept us on our toes and we empathised with thirsty, tired buffaloes along the Mphongolo. Time to wrap up now, and what better way than with a gallery of images taken during our four night stay – one night in the Shipandani Hide (near Mopani), and three nights at special Shingwedzi Rest Camp.
Time to pack up and head back to Pretoria this morning, but not before sharing one last photograph from the Golden Gate Highlands National Park; last night we were treated to a display of thunder and lighting over the mountains around Glen Reenen as a storm cell passed quickly through the area.
We woke up this morning to find the valleys of the Golden Gate Highlands National Park cloaked in a thick fog, drove to one of the mountain tops, found a spot above the low lying clouds, and were rewarded with the most beautiful sunrise.
While I was working today, Marilize and Joubert spent some time at the Golden Gate Highlands National Park’s Vulture Hide. And they were rewarded with a fantastic sighting of another rare South African bird, the Bearded Vulture! Am I jealous? Yes. Yes I am.
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