Tag Archives: view sites

A walk in the Park

There’s no doubt that hiking is the biggest pastime enjoyed by visitors to the Royal Natal National Park. Walking through the mountains allows access to so many beautiful spots. We particularly enjoy the easy trails that lead from the Mahai campsite and visitor centre, like Otto’s walk and the trails to the Cascades and Fairy Glen.

The beautiful campsite at Mahai

Bushbuck are commonly encountered along the trails

Looking up at the mountains

The cascades trail

Crystal clear mountain streams

This was the last installment on our December visit to Royal Natal National Park in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg. From here we travelled to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in Zululand, and from tomorrow we’ll be sharing some of what we experienced there.

Breathtaking Mountains

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Come rain or shine, and no matter which way you look, the mountain scenery at Royal Natal National Park, dominated by the magnificent cliff face of the Amphitheatre, will take your breath away!

Mahai Picnic Area

Mahai Dam

Tugela Falls

Thendele view

Highveld Cabbage Tree

Thendele rain

Tugela River Valley

Thendele storm

Mahai Dam

Golden Everlasting

Thendele view

Mountain reedbuck ewe in Thendele

Mahai Panorama

Exploring Golden Gate

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As wonderful a place as Glen Reenen is, and as terrific as the trails that lead into the mountains from there are, to really experience all the Golden Gate Highlands National Park has to offer you also must take a drive along the Lichens Pass road that leads through the Park all the way between the eastern and western boundaries, the gravel road to Kestell to the northern boundary, and the Oribi and Blesbok loops that meanders up and over two plateaus near the camp. Along the way you can appreciate magnificent scenery and you could encounter some of the almost 200 species of birds and 60 species of mammals that occur here, including the bald ibis, crowned crane, guineafowl, secretarybird, cape and bearded vulture, blesbok, eland, hartebeest, oribi, grey rhebok, springbok, black wildebeest and plains zebra. Here’s just a few of the photographs we took while exploring the larger Park area during our December 2016 visit.

Golden Gate scenery

Black-headed Heron

Black-backed Jackal trying to hide from the camera

Plains zebra

Blesbok herd

Eland and blesbok

Southern bald ibis

Cape Canary

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Black-backed Jackal

Grey Rhebok

Cape Robin-Chat

Black-backed Jackal

Up into the Echo Ravine again

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The last time we walked the Echo Ravine Trail from Glen Reenen, Joubert was still a bit too young to join. This time around Marilize and I could finally share this beautiful walk with our son, something we’ve been looking forward to for some time.

Crossing the Little Caledon at the start of the trail

Looking back at Glen Reenen

Towering sandstone cliffs

Looking over the Glen towards Brandwag

In the ravine

Well camouflaged rock hyrax watching our progress

Beautiful wild flowers abound

Garden Acraea butterfly catching a piggy-back ride with Joubert

Cape Bunting

Let nature come to you at Glen Reenen

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Glen Reenen Rest Camp is one of our favoured options for an overnight stay when visiting Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The camp has an amazing setting surrounded by the magnificent mountains, with two crystal clear mountain streams flowing past and converging at one end, and is frequented by an equally impressive diversity of wildlife – we showed you the antics of the baboons yesterday, as well as the ground woodpeckers that call Glen Reenen home – just one of many kinds of birds that you’ll find there, and at night you may be lucky to see a jackal or various kinds of antelope roaming between the huts and campsites. It is also a fantastic base from which to explore the Park, be it on foot, horseback or in your own vehicle.

Glen Reenen, Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Unit 27, December 2016

Glen Reenen huts with the Brandwag Buttress in the background

The most popular trail in the Park, to the top of Brandwag, starts at Glen Reenen

View from our cottage

Looking along the stream towards the mountains

Looking upstream

The Little Caledon stream

Tadpoles in a pool

Crystal clear mountain water

Water-dependent insects abound, indicating how healthy the water is. This is a White Malachite.

Water-dependent insects abound, indicating how healthy the water is

Freshwater crab in a mountain stream

The Common Myna is an alien invasive species

Speckled Pigeons breed in the cliffs around Glen Reenen

Immature Fiscal Shrike

Mature Fiscal Shrike pecking up baboon leftovers

Cape Weaver male

Pied Starling striding across the lawns at Glen Reenen

Male Red-Winged Starling

Female Red-Winged Starling

Red-winged Starling chick waiting for his parents

Cape Wagtail

Crested Barbet

Glen Reenen, and Golden Gate Highlands National Park, is managed by the South African National Parks and is an easy 350 to 400km drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Our new favourite route to Golden Gate, via Sasolburg, Heilbron, Petrus Steyn and Bethlehem, a distance of about 400km from Pretoria (map drawn with Google Maps)

Quick wrap-up from Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

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We’re back home in Pretoria after our 10 day Christmas-in-the-Bush holiday. We didn’t have very good internet connection at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, the last stop-over on our trip, and couldn’t post our usual daily photo. For now though, herewith a few photographs from HIP just as a teaser with a promise of lots more to come soon!

Sunset over the Black Umfolozi River

Sunrise over Imfolozi with a Marula in silhouette

Cheetah with a tracking-collar

Tranquil scene on the Black Umfolozi

Impalas at dusk

Enjoying a sunnier Royal Natal

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Good evening from a much drier Royal Natal National Park, where we used the opportunity provided by the shining sun to explore some of the myriad trails that traverses this beautiful piece of earth, enjoying scenes like this along the Mahai stream.

royal-natal-21dec16-wp

Tomorrow we’re heading for the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, and may not be able to post regular updates until we get back home to Pretoria (though we will try). If you don’t hear from us again before then, here’s wishing all our friends at de Wets Wild a blessed Christmas!

Addo’s Diversity

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Addo Elephant National Park must be one of South Africa’s most diverse wild places, a fact really brought home as the plane flew over the Park on our way back to Johannesburg. What follows is just a selection of photos taken on a 24-hour working visit to Addo last week!

(I’ve shared pictures of Addo’s elephants and lions in seperate posts)

Addo scenery

Pied Crow

Addo scenery

Bokmakierie

Jackal Buzzard

Helmeted Guineafowl

Kudu cow

Warthog mudbath

Plains zebra

Cattle egret

Black-backed jackal

South African Shelduck pair

Black-headed Oriole

Addo scenery

Lichens

Lesser Striped Swallow

Rodent in its thorny fortress

Cape Crow

Red Hartebeest and Zebra sharing grazing

Red Hartebeest

Leopard Tortoise

Leopard Tortoises

Old buffalo bull

Sharing the waterhole

Red Hartebeest

Black-headed Heron

Addo Elephant National Park scenery

Addo from the air

Addo Elephant National Park, managed by South African National Parks, is located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, within easy reach of the city of Port Elizabeth’s modern airport along the recently upgraded N2 highway.

Return to Kgaswane

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Joubert and I have been planning a father-and-son camping trip to beautiful Kgaswane Mountain Reserve, and invited a few other dads and their sons to join us there this past weekend. It’s amazing just how quickly a weekend in the fresh mountain air surrounded by amazing scenery can fly past, especially when you have good company! I am also happy to report that we didn’t miss out on Kgaswane’s majestic sable antelope this time! Have a read here to learn more about Kgaswane.

Kgaswane scenery

This time we had good views of the magnificent sable antelope for which Kgaswane is so well known

Kgaswane scenery

Mixed herds congregating in the vlei

Kgaswane scenery

Alert kudu cow

Impala ram

Kgaswane scenery

Eland

This time we had good views of the magnificent sable antelope for which Kgaswane is so well known

Kgaswane scenery towering above a herd of sable antelope

Full moon over Kgaswane

Kgaswane sunrise

Camping at Kgaswane, October 2016

Kgaswane sunrise

Red Hartebeest on the run, totally ignoring the speed limit!

Mountain Reedbuck at full speed

Mountain Reedbuck

Kgaswane is home to the rare Oribi

Never miss an opportunity to go back to Lower Sabie and Olifants!

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There was a reason I dedicated the previous two posts on de Wets Wild to Lower Sabie and Olifants, two of the most popular camps in the Kruger National Park. That is because I had the opportunity to visit both camps again earlier this week, and now that you have been introduced to both destinations we can all just sit back and enjoy some photos from this latest trip. Here’s hoping you enjoy the gallery as much as I enjoyed putting it together!