Tag Archives: vacation

What a welcome at Mpila

We had only just arrived at Mpila Camp in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park this afternoon, when we were welcomed by this Spotted Bush Snake on the mosquito screen of our kitchen door – What a welcome!

Umlalazi Airshow

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While exploring the mangrove swamps here at Umlalazi Nature Reserve this morning, this Pink-backed Pelican treated us to a low-level flypast.

Today was our last day here at Umlalazi. Tomorrow, we head for the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. If we have a good enough connection well try to post a daily update from there as well.

Early to rise…

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We were out the door at 04:20 this morning to take in this spectacular sunrise over the Indian Ocean. We then spent a couple of hours playing on the beach before going back to our cabin for a delicious brunch. Wish every day could start this way…

A morning in the Dlinza Forest

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We spent the morning exploring the beautiful Dlinza Forest Nature Reserve in the town of Eshowe. This panoramic view awaits you at the top of the aerial boardwalk at Dlinza – an excellent way to experience the middle and upper stories of the forest that one doesn’t normally have access to – click on the image for a larger view. Of course we’ll share more about Dlinza when we’re back from holiday!

View from the Dlinza Reserve’s Aerial Boardwalk

In a forest of giants

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Today we spent some time exploring the Raphia Palm National Monument, quite literally one of the biggest attractions here at Umlalazi Nature Reserve. See if you can make out Joubert standing next to two of the towering giants.

Vacation Time!

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The time for our December holidays have finally arrived, and we kick of our summer vacation at beautiful Umlalazi Nature Reserve on the north coast of Kwazulu-Natal Province!

Boys Weekend in the Pilanesberg

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Early on this past Saturday morning Joubert and I headed for the Pilanesberg National Park’s Kwa Maritane Gate. Our plan was to spend all of Saturday, most of Sunday morning and the night between in one of South Africa’s most easily accessible wildlife destinations, enjoying a bit of father-son company and shared hobbies in the beautiful surroundings far from the city’s distractions. When the Gate opened at 05:30 we set off, enjoying some thrilling encounters with the Park’s wildlife right from the start.

With the kind help of wildlife photographer Brian Pettit (http://www.naturepicturesworldwide.com/ & https://www.zambezicruisesafaris.com/our-blog/), this massive insect was identified as the bush cricket Clonia wahlbergii

Pilanesberg’s tusker Mavuso

Grey Heron

Lioness feeding from the carcass of a poached rhino

Well-hidden lion

Plains Zebra searching for fresh green shoots

African Grey Hornbill

Secretary Bird

Speckled Pigeon (photo by Joubert)

Red Hartebeest

Red-billed Oxpecker

Southern Masked Weaver

White Rhinos hiding from the sun

Pied Crow (Joubert’s photo)

Steppe Buzzard in flight (Joubert’s photo)

Streaky-headed Seedeater

Steenbok Ram

Mountain Reedbuck family

Warthog

While we were enjoying the Pilanesberg’s sights and sounds from the coolness of the photographic hide at Makorwane Dam, Joubert suggested that we head for Bakgatla Resort to go setup camp before the day got any hotter.

Arrow-marked Babbler

Spur-winged Goose

African Darter in flight

Green-winged Pytilia (female)

Kalahari Scrub Robin

Giraffe

Bushveld Pipit

Baby elephants fast asleep in the heat while the rest of the herd stand guard

With our tent pitched and our camping chairs unpacked, we could enjoy our lunch, a few glasses of cold drink and an ice-cream treat surrounded by a selection of Bakgatla’s permanent residents of the feathered variety.

Camping at Bakgatla, Pilanesberg National Park, November 2018

Orange-breasted Bushshrike (male)

Red-billed Hornbill

Black-backed Puffback

Blue Waxbill

Chestnut-vented Warbler

Black-collared Barbet

The first stop on our afternoon drive was Rathlogo Hide, just a few kilometers from Bakgatla.

Hadeda Ibisses

Elephant enjoying a cooling mudbath

Elephant at Rathlogo

Buffy Pipit

Sabota Lark

Giraffe enjoying the shade

At Tilodi Dam we laughed at the antics of a male African Black Duck that was most impressed with himself for having chased off a White-faced Whistling Duck from “his” shoreline.

White-faced Whistling Duck

White-faced Whistling Duck being chased by an African Black Duck

African Black Duck enquiring whether his lady was suitably impressed?

There was much more wildlife to be seen as we traveled through the southeastern portions of the Park.

Immature Black-chested Snake Eagle

Hippos at Nkakane

Eland on Kwalata Drive

Baboons relaxing in the shade

Protective Tsessebe cow with her calf

At Lengau Dam a group of baboon youngsters were having great fun roughhousing in a dead tree and occasionally dropping into the water below – no doubt enjoying great relief from the oppressive heat but I was surprised that they weren’t more afraid of the crocodiles!

Baboons having fun at Lengau Dam

With the sun setting it was time to head towards Bakgatla.

Waterbuck

Elephant cow

Big Elephant herd at Makorwane

Sunset over Pilanesberg (photo by Joubert)

On Sunday morning we packed up our camp and headed for the Lenong Viewpoint to enjoy our morning tea and rusks from a beautiful vantage point high on top of one of Pilanesberg’s mountains. The rest of the morning we spent visiting more of our favourite spots in the Park, until the day started getting really hot again. We enjoyed a quick lunch at Fish Eagle Picnic Spot and then headed for Kwa Maritane Gate and home…

Buffalo cow

Lenong Viewpoint in the Pilanesberg National Park

White Rhino

Veld fire started by a lightning strike

Kori Bustard searching the burnt veld for prey

Big crocodile at Batlhako Dam

Immature Fish Eagle at Batlhako Dam

Familiar Chat

Speckled Rock Skink

Diederik Cuckoo

Marsh terrapins and sharptooth catfish fighting about scraps carelessly dropped by a tourist at Ruighoek Dam. (Another of Joubert’s photos)

Ruighoek Dam

Buffalo Quartet

Crested Francolin

Impala Ram

Young Kudu bull

Capped Wheatear

Barn Owl fast asleep at Fish Eagle Picnic Spot

White-throated Robin-Chat

Pilanesberg National Park is an easy 160km drive from our home in Pretoria.

A thousand posts on de Wets Wild!

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Today we celebrate a major milestone for us here at de Wets Wild – our 1,000th post!

A huge word of thanks must go to our all our friends and followers for their support and encouragement over the course of the past 6 years! Thank you for sharing our love and passion for South Africa’s wild places and the creatures that find a home there with us – we hope you’ll continue to do so for many years to come!

Seems fitting now to have a look at some of the most popular posts and other highlights we enjoyed on this journey. (Clicking on the links provided should open the posts in a new window without closing this post).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our “About” page (home page) is by far the most visited.

de Wets at Golden Gate Highlands National Park, July 2013

de Wet family at Ithala Game Reserve, December 2014

Wild de Wets

Giant’s Castle

But how and why the post about South African Hornbills come in second place, I have no explanation!? That they’re fascinating birds we won’t argue about.

Yellow-billed hornbill

Crowned Hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill

Trumpeter Hornbill

African Grey Hornbill

Ground Hornbill

South Africa’s vultures are getting some well-deserved attention as well.

Hooded Vulture

White-headed Vulture

White-backed Vulture

Bearded Vulture

Lappet-faced Vulture

Cape Vulture

Palm-Nut Vulture, Umlalazi Nature Reserve, March 2016

Another post about a bird that got a lot of attention is that about the black heron and its fascinating hunting technique.

Black Heron “canopy feeding”

Early into our blogging “career” we took part in a few photo challenges – the image we posted of dew droplets caught in a spider’s web was the best received of those.

The post we did on the Kruger National Park’s Selati Line, with thanks to my sister for the use of her photos, has been a perennial favourite.

Steam engine at Skukuza “station”

The features we did on Pafuri Border Camp (in Kruger) and Nyathi Rest Camp (in Addo) when they opened are still very popular – people are obviously very eager to explore new destinations and we’re glad that de Wets Wild could help so many of them plan their visits!

Addo’s new Nyathi Camp

Mockford Cottage, Pafuri Border Camp

But it is not only the new destinations that people are interested in, as the posts about familiar favourites like Skukuza in the Kruger Park, Loskop Dam and Golden Gate Highlands National Park prove.

Sabie Bridge at Skukuza

Loskop scenery

Brandwag Buttress in Golden Gate

Plains Zebras seem to be the most popular mammal featured here at de Wets Wild, as a few posts about these beautiful animals feature at the top of the charts!

Plains Zebra

Ithala fight for dominance

Plains Zebras

Pale-rumped Plains Zebra in Mokala National Park

Plains Zebra

Plains Zebra trying to trip an opponent

Plains zebra

But the world’s cutest bouncing baby rhino will not be outdone!

You’ll never catch me!

Of course we cannot talk about highlights and forget how your support helped us feature in the honours at the SA Blog Awards – from finishing as runners up in both the Best Travel Blog and Best Environmental Blog Categories in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to finally winning in both in 2017!

High time we went back to Ithala!

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This past Women’s Day long weekend afforded us the opportunity to make a long overdue return visit to one of our favourite South African wild places – the Ithala Game Reserve in northern Kwazulu-Natal. We’ve been singing the praises of this little known yet exceptionally scenic reserve for as long as this blog’s been running and if you’d like to see all our posts about Ithala and learn more about it please follow this link.

While the weekend’s weather ranged from cold, wet and blustery to glorious sunshine, that didn’t curtail our explorations in the least. How could it, when the majestic scenery is so rewarding!?

Mountain stream at Ithala

Pongola River

Low hanging clouds over Ngotshe Mountain

A viewpoint in the mountains

The Pongola River flowing far below

Inclement weather over Ithala

Sunset glowing on Ngotshe

Ngubhu stream

Ngotshe in morning light

And, when the sun came out, so did the butterflies and various kinds of reptiles!

Common Dwarf Gecko

Rainforest Brown

Variable Skink

Barberton Girdled Lizard

Ithala has a rich variety of bird species and many of them are easily seen and photographed in Ntshondwe, the reserve’s main camp.

African Dusky Flycatcher

Amethyst Sunbird

African Firefinch (male)

Southern Bald Ibis

Blue Waxbill

Cape Batis (male)

Cape Glossy Starling

Cape Rock-Thrush (male)

Cape White-eye

Chinspot Batis (female)

Common Waxbill

Eastern Nicator

Familiar Chat

Fork-tailed Drongo

Mocking Cliff Chat (male)

Olive Woodpecker

African Pied Wagtail

Purple-crested Turaco

Red-billed Oxpeckers

Red-capped Robin Chat

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Male Southern Double-collared Sunbird

Tawny-flanked Prinia

White-bellied Bustards

White-crested Helmetshrike

Yellow-billed Kite

Yellow-breasted Apalis

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow

And of course, what would a “game reserve” be without a rich assortment of large animals? Ithala never disappoints in its variety of mammals, and especially the giraffes (Ithala’s emblem) were out in force!

Blue Wildebeest

Rock Hyrax (Dassie)

Acrobatic Rock Hyrax (Dassie)

Rock Hyrax (Dassie)

Eland bull

A warning well worth heeding!

Elephant cresting a hill

Elephant bull

Iconic Ithala: Giraffe and Ngotshe Mountain

Giraffe calf nibbling on tender shoots

Giraffe at a gallop

Giraffe bull

Newly born Giraffe calf

Common Duiker lamb

Impala Ram with Red-billed Oxpeckers

Kudu calf

Young Kudu bull

Mountain Reedbuck pair

Mountain Reedbuck ewe hiding from the cold morning air

Nyala ewe

Nyala bull

Red Hartebeest

Southern Reedbuck

Steenbok

Thoughtful Vervet Monkey

Grooming Vervet Monkeys

Warthog on the run!

Waterbuck bull

We spent three nights at Ithala, staying in comfort in Ntshondwe’s chalet #20. Ithala’s a relaxed 6 hour drive on good tarred roads from our home in Pretoria.

Ntshondwe Chalet #20, Ithala Game Reserve, August 2018

Pretoria to Ithala
(drawn with Google Maps)

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park – Wildlife

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For such an arid area – average rainfall measures around 200mm per annum – the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is home to an astonishing variety of wildlife. Apart from a wide variety of desert-adapted plants and invertebrates, the Park’s lists boast 62 kinds of mammals, 274 species of bird (of which 78 are resident throughout the year), 48 sorts of reptiles (including 17 snake species) and seven kinds of frogs.

There’s three kinds of plants that really are characteristic of the Kalahari. The first is the Camel Thorns – huge trees growing in the beds of the Auob and Nossob River and about which we’ll be sharing more soon. Then, there’s the Gemsbok Cucumbers and Tsamma Melons; the fruits of which are made up of around 90%+ of water and both an invaluable source of moisture to all kinds of wildlife (including some carnivores).

Camel Thorn tree

Gemsbok Cucumber

Tsama Melon

Tsama Melon that’s been opened and partially eaten

At the one end of the scale there’s a multitude of invertebrates and small reptiles and mammals taking up their respective positions in the food pyramid. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park allows a glimpse into their natural cycles and behaviours uniquely adapted to their arid environs.

Armoured Ground Cricket

Bibron’s Thick-toed Gecko

Brant’s Whistling Rat

Four-Striped Grass Mouse

Camouflaged Tree Locust against a tree trunk

Ground Agama

Ground Squirrels

Karasburg Tree Skink

Meerkat Family (Suricates)

Meerkat

Puff Adder

Slender Mongoose atop a Sociable Weaver nest

Kalahari Tree Skink

Yellow Mongoose

The Kalahari might best be known for the grand variety of raptors that soar its airways, but birdwatchers will not be disappointed by the variety of other, less fearsome but equally fascinating, feathered fauna that find a home here.

African Harrier Hawk

Bateleur

Burchell’s Sandgrouse (male)

Cape Glossy Starling

Cape Turtle Dove

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Familiar Chat

Fork-tailed Drongo

Gabar Goshawk

Greater Kestrel

Groundscraper Thrush

Jackal Buzzard

Kalahari Scrub Robin

Kori Bustard

Lanner Falcon with prey

Lanner Falcon

Namaqua Dove

Namaqua Sandgrouse wetting his feathers to take water back to its chicks at the nest

Northern Black Korhaan

Ostrich male on the run

Ostrich male with his chicks

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Pygmy Falcon

Red-headed Finch pair

Rock Kestrel

Rock Martin

Scaly-feathered Finch

Common Scimitarbill

Secretary Bird

Sociable Weaver

This Sociable Weaver nest near Twee Rivieren in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park may well be one of the biggest constructions by birds on the planet!

Southern Masked Weaver

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

Tawny Eagle

White-backed Mousebird

White-browed Sparrow-weaver

Yellow Canary (male)

The Rest Camps of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are excellent places to look for owls, by day or night!

Pearl-spotted Owlet seen in Nossob

Southern White-faced Owl seen in Mata Mata

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl seen at Twee Rivieren

Predators, both large and small, abound in the Kalahari. Africa’s three species of big cat are often seen (though the leopard eluded us when we visited in June 2018), and is one of the main reasons people undertake the long journey to visit here.

African Wild Cat

Bat-eared Fox

Black-backed Jackal

Black-backed Jackal eating from the carcass of a Spotted Hyena

Brown Hyena and Black-backed Jackals on a carcass

Brown Hyena

Cheetah on a distant dune

Lion on a dune in the Kgalagadi

Lion watched by wildebeest

Lioness at Nossob’s fence

Lion close-up

Lioness peaking over a ridge

Lions at sunrise

Kalahari lioness

Kalahari Lioness

Well camouflaged Lion pride

Lion pacing the Nossob

The Gemsbok is so iconic of the Kalahari that both parks that today make up the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Botswana’s Gemsbok National Park and South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National Park) was named after it. These beautiful animals are of the most commonly encountered large mammals in the Park.

Gemsbok

Gemsbok herd

Gemsbok drinking

Gemsbok

And while there may not be as great diversity among the large herbivores in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park as in some of Africa’s other great conservation areas, the antelope, giraffe and warthogs occur in such numbers that it belies the harshness of their environment.