What could be warmer than a mother’s love?
We’re catching up on the WordPress Photo Challenges we missed while on our extended summer holidays in the bush. “Warmth” was the theme for the challenge of 26/12/2014
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…
—————————————————–
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!
Tracks in the sand bear witness that these pools in the Shingwedzi River are a magnet for animals in the northern Kruger National Park
“Converge” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge
—————————————————–
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!
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.
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.
This afternoon we were very fortunate to enjoy a quality sighting of one of South Africa’s rarest bird species here at the Golden Gate Highlands National Park: the Southern Bald Ibis.
Not for us, thank you very much!
We’re visiting Golden Gate Highlands National Park again, for business and, come the weekend, pleasure. And of course we’ve already enjoyed an afternoon drive through the Park, taking in the magnificent scenery and plentiful wildlife.
I was inspired to try some “slow shutter panning shots” of these galloping black wildebeest by Susan Portnoy, The Insatiable Traveler. I’ll have to keep trying to get anywhere close to the awesome results she gets with the technique though. Thanks for the tips Susan!
It was hot. It was dry. It was dusty. The bellowing and snorting of buffalo filled our ears, their smell hanging thick in the air. The ground around our position was already littered with the trampled dung and tracks of hundreds of the animals. And still more of them kept coming, making their tiresome way in single file up the steep bank of the Mphongolo, then standing at the top catching their breath before rushing after the rest of the massive herd disappearing into the mopane. The last thing a tired buffalo needs at the end of a long, hot Lowveld day is to be caught alone when darkness falls…
During our September 2014 visit to the Kruger National Park, we encountered several exceptionally large buffalo herds around Mopani and Shingwedzi Rest Camps. This sighting however was the most memorable and we’ll undoubtedly think back to it every time we pass the location in future. The dry winter season had seen to it that the Mphongolo River was reduced to little more than a few stagnant pools surrounded by deep, soft, dusty sand. These pools sustain an incredibly diverse array of birds and game through the dry winter, making the 30km-long S56 Mphongolo River Loop, which follows the river course and offers dozens of good vantage points over the river, one of the best drives in the Shingwedzi area.
DeWetsWild 