On most occasions you’d encounter African Wild Dogs, they’ll be running somewhere, covering enormous distances in quick time. This photograph was taken near the Afsaal picnic spot, in the Kruger National Park.
We’re participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazineLetsBeWild.com‘s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s challenge is “Movement“.
We’ve enjoyed our final sunset of this Kruger Park visit, and wasn’t it gorgeous?
Tomorrow we’ll be heading back home to Pretoria, but only after we undertake a final game drive. Will Kruger have one more parting gift in store for us?
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 “Birds of a feather” and we’re submitting a collection of photographs of some of the more than one hundred bird species we’ve identified over the last five days that we’ve been spending here in the Kruger National Park.
Blue Waxbill
Pied wagtail
Hooded (left) and Lappet-faced (right) Vultures
Tawny Eagle
Wire-tailed Swallow
Lilac-breasted Roller
Pearl-spotted owlet
White-crowned Lapwing
Yellow-billed Hornbill
Hamerkop
Helmeted Guineafowl
Ground Hornbill
Black Flycatcher
Fish Eagle
Kori Bustard
White-fronted Bee-eater
Bateleur
What a view!
Today we enjoyed our lunch at the picnic spot high above the Mlondozi Dam, from where we could watch pods of hippos and herds of elephants mingle while enjoying a cool drink ourselves.
Thick mist blanketing the Crocodile Bridge section of the Kruger National Park this morning
Good evening everyone!
An overcast start to the day at Pretoriuskop, but the cloud cover dissolved soon enough to reveal another glorious lowveld day here in the Kruger National Park. We visited a couple of dear friends at Skukuza before making our way here to Crocodile Bridge Rest Camp, where we’ll be spending the next four nights.
Crocodile Bridge Sunset (click on the image for a clearer view)
Yep, we’re back in the Kruger National Park – we simply cannot get enough of this paradise!
Tonight, we’re sleeping in historic Pretoriuskop Rest Camp. Depicted below is the nearby Ship Mountain (so named because it resembles the upturned hull of a ship) used as a landmark by transport riders and explorers more than a hundred years ago en route to Delagoa Bay (today’s Maputo in Mozambique).
If our internet connection allows, we’ll again try to post a picture or two on a daily basis while we’re in the Park, and there will definitely be a full report back when (unfortunately) we have to return to the city…
Back to the largest green canyon on earth
We headed for the Blyde River Canyon again over Easter 2013 and had a most enjoyable time, as always, being out in nature. In June 2012, we based ourselves at Forever’s Swadini Resort in the lowveld portion of this beautiful nature reserve, and so this time around we spent three very comfortable nights at their Blyde Canyon Resort up top on the escarpment. While the climate and surroundings of the two resorts differ markedly, both are well managed with good amenities and very definitely worth a visit.
Camping at Blyde Canyon
Comfortable chalets at Blyde Canyon
At Blyde Canyon Resort a number of hiking trails and viewpoints are available to enjoy the spectacular natural surroundings, offering chance encounters with small antelope and primates. During our visit the resort also arranged a very informative talk on snakes, including a number of venomous specimens being displayed, which turned all the more exciting when a live, wild juvenile cobra put in an appearance between the visitors lounging on the lawn – luckily the presenter was on hand to capture it for later release back into the wild.
The resort is an excellent base from which to explore other parts of the nature reserve, such as the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, named after a prospector who expected to find alluvial gold deposits there. Here, at the confluence of the Blyde (meaning joy) and Treur (meaning sorrow) Rivers, the force of the cascading waters carrying with it all sorts of debris have weathered away the bedrock to form a series of very interesting formations. A number of popular viewsites and the Echo Caves are additional attractions in the vicinity to consider.
On the way to Blyde Canyon, we enjoyed a couple of hours exploring the Sudwala Dinosaur Park – have a read here if you’d want to see more of this worthwile destination.
The magnificent Amphitheatre is a rock wall approximately 5km in length, and forms part of the Drakensberg mountain range. This photograph was taken near the Mahai Visitor Centre in the Royal Natal National Park.
(you can click on the image for a bigger view)
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 “Mountains”
Have a look here if you’re interested in reading more about Royal Natal National Park
A look at the evolution of tourist accomodation in the Kruger National Park
The Wolhuter Hut in Pretoriuskop Rest Camp dates from the 1920’s and has been preserved to offer a glimpse into what a visit to the Park was like when it was still in its infancy (it is no longer used to accommodate guests):
Wolhuter’s hut in Pretoriuskop
The accommodation on offer today is much more sophisticated and spacious – this is one of the new bungalows in Lower Sabie Rest Camp:
Bungalow in Lower Sabie
There’s a huge variety of accomodation options available in the Park today, ranging from the very rustic to the very luxurious, to cater for almost all tastes and budgets.
This post is in response to this weeks’ photo challenge from WordPress: Change
DeWetsWild 