Marakele National Park

I was awake at 5am. The lady at reception yesterday had said the wilder animal side was open from 6am to 6pm and I wondered how many people would be doing a game drive.
I got up and out of the caravan at 5:15am and I was surrounded by birders pointing in the trees and taking photos. Birders have their own moral code which means they can go anywhere or Point there cameras anywhere even if this means infringing on your privacy or camp.
We had a couple of coffees and at 6am the rush to get to the gate wasn’t there. Nobody moved so at 6:10am we decided to go. It was our first time here and we soon found out why nobody was in a rush. The vegetation was so thick you wouldn’t be able to see anything unless it crossed the road.
We passed through the subway and got to the electric gates where wilder animals are supposed to be, pressed the button and drove in and what greeted us?
A rhino, then another and then another. It was a family and we stopped to let them do what they wanted for 10 minutes until they cleared the road.
The vegetation inside this section was even thicker and we set off towards the cape vulture viewing site.
We saw another rhino on the way as he was walking down the road and we followed him for a good kilometre until he slid off into a small clearing and we could get photos.
Then the road started going uphill and it climbed higher and higher and got tighter and tighter as went around hairpin bends and switchbacks. There were no barriers just a shear drop to your doom and this single track was the only way up and down.
After driving in first and second gear at 20 kph for an hour we finally reached the viewpoint. Marakele boasts the second largest cape vulture colony in the world. There wasn’t really a car park at the top more just enough space for 3 cars and if that was full you would have trouble turning around and we were the second car so we stopped for a Quick Look at the vultures who were miles away on another mountainside and then we made our way precariously down passing only one car on the descent but many more on the flat section in the main park so we were glad we went up there early.
Back at ground level we saw yet another rhino before we got to the electric gate and once through there we made our way to the bird hide which was beautiful and overlooked a waterhole but it was void of people and wildlife.
From there we decided to do one of the loop roads which just happened to be 4x4 only and high clearance as recent rain had completely killed the roads. All of the roads here are mud so when it does rain I can’t see anyone driving anywhere.
We got back to camp at 11am, had toasties for breakfast and then had showers and climbed back into bed for a nap. Our day was practically over. Out of all the animals here we had seen Gnala, impala, wildebeest, 3 warthog and the 5 rhino. We also saw dwarf and banded mongoose. It is a very quiet park with beautiful scenery but to spot anything you had to be lucky with this bush veld.
At 2:30pm we were joined in camp by an ostrich that we thought was going to attack the guy in the tent next door but luckily he woke up just in time and the ostrich then had it’s head in his ammo box which was full of crackers. Who knew that ostriches loved crackers.
At 3pm we decided to head out of the park and down to Thabazimbi, our nearest town 15 mins away. Here we popped into a Midas car store and got a new gas strutt for our back door and we also popped into the spar to get extra food for tomorrow’s long journey.
When we got back I lit the Braai and we cooked an award winning Wors from chequers which was amazing. I also cooked the last of yesterday’s steak so we had a proper meat fest.
At 8pm we headed into the caravan for the night. Tomorrow is going to be a big day of driving.Read more