South Africa A Road Trip - February/March 2015

[Earthian]

@@Tom Kellie

i wrote to you giving a cross reference because i was interested in your views on the subject. Any way the case can be taken up in some other forum

[penolva]

I hope the Urikaruus part of the trip report has not got missed due to off topic posts. Thanks Pen

Edited May 14, 2015 by penolva

[graceland]

Stll continuing this wonderful ride with you @@penolva - I enjoy that you include the accommodations and a table set with wine!

The LBR series was beautiful; you do have an eye with the camera.

 

Totally perfect safari in beautiful areas I am not so knowledgable about, but have quite a remote feel to them.

 

Thanks so for sharing your journey.

[penolva]

We stayed one night at River Place in Upington and stocked up for Mokala NP. We were staying three nights in their tree house. We had been looking forward to this for a long time. It was a long drive but the first part was lovely with vineyards both sides of the road and Karoo type mountains. We stopped to refuel in Kimberley and arrived at Mokala around 3pm.

 

Mokala is a new park and they are gradually allowing the farm land to return to the natural bush. You are aware that there is human development nearby but it does not spoil the experience. The breeding of endangered and vunerable species in Mokala is aimed at conserving breeding populations to supply other national parks and also as a source of income. This might not be the safari experience preferred by others on this forum but we enjoyed Mokala very much. The park is beautiful, the animals very healthy and relaxed and the tree house was great fun.

 

Among the animals we saw there were roan and sable antelope, disease-free african buffalo, red hartebeest, tsessebe, blesbok, bontebok, black wildebeest and many more.

 

The Quagga Project is an attempt to breed plains zebra that resemble, as closely as possible, the now extinct quagga. This animal had a colour variation that resulted in no stripes on its hind quarters and with a chestnut background. Zebra from Etosha NP were brought to Mokala and we could see that they are achieving some success as many of the zebra we saw had very pale rumps with little or no stripes.

 

Mokala NP had been suffering from a severe drought for months. As soon as we arrived the heavens opened and it rained all night and some of the days we were there and the animals and the landscape literally burst into life around us.

 

Edited May 16, 2015 by penolva

[penolva]

The Camel Thorn Tree House was originally built for visiting dignitaries but was recently made available to the general public. We read about it in Scott Ramsy's 'A Year in the Wild'. It appealed to us as it has its own waterhole, is down a private road and looked really rustic. It was great. Very comfortable with a shower and loo, outside braai and a big deck. The area is unfenced as there are no lions, cheetah etc in Mokala although there are wild cat. We had plenty of visitors to the waterhole while we were there. It's become very popular according to the staff at reception and is booked up in advance similar to the wilderness camps in KTP. You have to telephone the park direct to make a booking.

 

The tree was in flower and there were lots of birds around. Its a beautiful spot to spend a few days relaxing.

 

 

 

 

[Marks]

Really like the photo of the two hornbills.

 

Interesting about the quagga project. I've heard of that before, but never realized it would be developed with a wild population. That seems like something that would be done in a more controlled setting. Very interesting to see the results!

 

Also like the very red rhinos.

[penolva]

We spent the last day at Mokala NP exploring the opposite side of the park. We met our rhino family again and the baby was very interested in us. @@Marks as you mentioned, the rhino and most of the animals seemed to have a red glow to them from the earth.

 

We saw some buffalo and they are indeed disease free and beautiful animals. The last drive through the most fantastic scenery and then back to the tree house where the zebra came to the waterhole. We could clearly see the way the stripes were changing to plain white like the quagga. Maybe they will have some success. It rained really hard during the evening and night and we had to sit inside the cosy little tree house to eat our meal.

 

We drove back to Johannesburg and stayed in Uxolo B&B again. The lovely ladies there did all our laundry for us. We returned the 4x4 to Bushlore and were at the airport in plenty of time for our overnight flight. We calculated we did 6632 km and it cost us ZAR700 for fuel. Already booked a return trip for 2016.

 

I will post some night time photographs once they are sorted out.

 

Thanks to all who came along for the journey and all the kind comments. Pen

 

[Sangeeta]

@@penolva - I finally got the time to read through properly, though this has been much more of an audio-visual feast than a written one

 

So many of your photographs are exceptional - really exceptional, both in composition and in clarity. Some of them look like postcards. The scenery and landscapes in this report have managed to even rival the quite fantastic wildlife sightings you had. I loved your Addo ele pictures, the dunes and fynbos vegetation, the very very cute meerkat baby in its mum's mouth, the bat eared foxes, the caracal and the brown hyena with its front legs neatly folded under! But that immovable Lion in Storm video was superb, What a stoical guy!

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.

[xelas]

@penolva: Indeed another great trip report, with fantastic sightings and equally great photos! Enjoyed it almost as much as the real thing.

[penolva]

@@Sangeeta thank you so much for reading it all! Glad you enjoyed the photographs, I will never forget the poor lion in that storm.

 

@@xelas thanks again for your kind comments

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@penolva

 

All of your trip report is delightful, especially because you include ample details suggesting how others might plan a comparable safari.

Your down-to-earth, practical commentary is a pleasure to read. Likewise the photos bring it all to life, not ably your baby rhino.

One photo struck a powerful chord in me, as it's what I've fruitlessly attempted numerous times, without any favorable outcome.

Seeing the sunset, moon and planet in such sharp clarity is IMPRESSIVE! When I spo a similar confluence in the heavens, I invariably reach for the camera yet the results are never worthy of posting.

My cap's off to you for achieving such a striking image. Very, very nice, indeed!

Thank you for the care and effort put into your trip report.

Tom K.

[Marks]

Excellent report, @@penolva. Enjoyed the whole ride.

[graceland]

As I, @penolva; a delight with exceptional pictures and great commentary. Thank you!!

[TonyQ]

@@penolva

I have really enjoyed this report - beautiful scenery and wildlife. The colour of the rhino in particular is a stunning red - then we see the track and realise why.

Thank you.

[penolva]

Thanks all, just starting on the book.

[Treepol]

@@penolva what fabulous colours in the Mokala photos - red sand, red rhinos and such green waterholes. I particularly liked the photo of the pair of hornbills.

[KaliCA]

Hi Pen, just spent a wonderful two hours reading your report and enjoying your beautiful photography. Such great and very memorable shots: the meerkat mom and baby, the double rainbow that deservedly won pic of the week on the Kgalagadi forum, the red rhinos, the caracal, the dunes with the ellies.... And the list goes on. One poster was right in mentioning that a TR seems to work better than a photo book on a forum such as this one. We read the words and then anticipate the pictures and voilà... They are better than imagined.

As you well know, we who stay behind, live for reports like yours to escape back to Africa. And what a beautiful and worthwhile escape it truly was.

Lucky you to revisit KTP so soon. After seeing your report I'm guessing that many readers will reevaluate going to SA in the green season and may even give some of the lesser known parks a try.

Thanks for sharing your excellent adventure!

[penolva]

@@KaliCA thanks so much for your comments. TR on here in future! Pen

[Marks]

As you well know, we who stay behind, live for reports like yours to escape back to Africa. And what a beautiful and worthwhile escape it truly was.

Well said! Threads like these keep me coming back to the TR subforums to briefly escape the daily grind.

[Atravelynn]

The roller and the worm series is unappetizing but they are outstanding images. Those other people missed a wonderful opportunity. Maybe they were too squeamish. Delightful Bat eared foxes and "bumping" giraffes.

[penolva]

Two night time shots taken at KeilieKrankie wilderness camp.

 

[Peter Connan]

Stunning Pen!

[penolva]

Here is a set we took at Urikaruus. The spotlight is quite bright here and our neighbour had a bright light. We are quite pleased with the effect its given some of the photographs and does not detract from the detail too much. Even got a shooting star!

 

[penolva]

Stunning Pen!

Thanks Peter, still trying to perfect the technique!

[Tdgraves]

@@penolva lovely shots. We were there at full moon, so virtually pointless even trying

Next time I will consult the lunar calendar before booking.....