During the final week of 2015, between Christmas and the end
of December, I visited two of South Africa’s National Parks that are situated
in a fairly arid part of South Africa – the Karoo National Park and the
Mountain Zebra National Park. Both these parks can be and are recommended to be
utilised on any of our overland tours between Durban/Johannesburg and Cape Town
(or Cape Town and Durban/Johannesburg). These suggested itineraries (which can
be tailor-made to suit individual requirements), are found at
http://www.guidedsafaris.co.za/.
This piece hereunder will focus on the
Karoo
National Park.
The Great Karoo is a vast and unforgiving landscape of which
the Karoo National Park is but a small portion. Being the largest ecosystem in
South Africa, the Karoo is home to a fascinating diversity of life, all having
adapted to survive in these harsh conditions. The Karoo National Park is
dominated by the lofty Nuweveld Mountains and rolling plains, where many
species that originally occurred here now once again occupy their former
ranges. Many of these species have been relocated to their former ranges - such
as brown hyena, lion and Cape mountain zebra. Unfortunately I didn’t get the
opportunity to see any lion during my visit, but as some compensation, I did awake early
one morning to the sound of a far-off roar of a lion!
It was in the 1970s that South African National Parks
proposed the establishment of a National Park that would be representative of
the Nama Karoo Biome after a campaign launched by the South African Nature
Foundation and funded through the commission and sale of special art
stamps depicting the flora and fauna of the Great Karoo. As a gesture of
support, the Town Council of Beaufort West donated some communal land
north-west of the town to the South African National Parks. This area then
formed the nucleus of the Karoo National Park, which was proclaimed in 1979. The
entrance gate to this park is situated about twelve kilometres from the town of
Beaufort West, just off the N1 road between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The park now has a road network of
about 130 kilometres with about 200 bird species, 18 snake species and 58 mammal
species, among them eland, springbok, red hartebeest, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, caracal
etc. – all species adapted to a dry climate – and the Karoo is dry, very dry!
The annual rainfall totals about 260 mm, with the plains being hot in summer,
and the mountain areas relatively cool throughout the year. During mid-winter
snow occurs regularly on the peaks of the Nuweveld Mountains, but during our
visit there was no rain and no snow and it was hot – very hot.
The very comfortable (and may I add, very scenic camp) has a
fully licensed a la carte restaurant which is open for breakfast from 07:00
a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (and breakfast is included with all reservations) and dinner
from 18:00 p.m. to 21:00 p.m. – lunch is not offered – as well as a
well-stocked shop where curios and basic commodities may be purchased between
the hours of 07:30 a.m. and 20:00 p.m. On one of our evenings we had a build-up of clouds
over the mountains and I took some photos from the veranda of my comfortable bungalow
in the camp of this setting – unfortunately the camera does not do this
justice, but these photos below will hopefully give some idea of the scenery:
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The view from my veranda as the sun sets to my left |
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As the sun set lower, so the tops of the hills were bathed in soft, golden light |
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Then with a rainbow set against the dark skies |
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The sun reflecting off the clouds just a few minutes before it disappeared for the night |
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What I particularly liked about the camp was the Fossil
Trail (which is situated within the camp perimeter). This 400m long trail
depicts the geology and palaeontology of the Great Karoo and has genuine
fossils and petrified wood on display on this paved trail which is accessible
to wheelchair-users. This impressive collection of bones, skulls and remains of
extinct Karoo wildlife is from some 255 million years ago, during the Permian
Period. The Great Karoo is an area of unrivalled importance for understanding
the evolution of the oldest known complex ecosystems on land. The park forms
part of one of the Karoo’s classic study and collecting areas for the wealth of
ancient petrified fossils of the long-gone Karoo animals. In the Karoo National
Park there is a clearly visible link between the geological horizons of the
plains of Beaufort West, progressing through time, layer by layer, to those at
the top of the Nuweveld escarpment.
There is also a bird hide within the camp perimeter (where I
photographed some birds and antelope.) Some of these photos are below:
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Greater-striped Swallow, perched on the window-sill of the hide, just a few feet from me |
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and it's mate in a different pose |
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Some Red Hartebeest heading down to the water - a scarce commodity here |
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A burst of speed as they get closer to the water |
One morning I decided to take on the Klipspringer Pass – and
what a spectacle. This is a very, very scenic paved pass inside the park,
beautifully constructed and a joy to drive. Oh, yes, I did see two klipspringer
up on some large boulders on this pass, but sadly, they were too far out of
range of my camera. Again, my camera
could not do justice to this scene but hereunder are two photos of the pass
and one of a gemsbok (Oryx) that we had seen on this particular drive:
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One of the hair-pin bends on the Klipspringer Pass |
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A small cross-section of the Klipspringer Pass |
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An Oryx (gemsbok) hidden among some scarce foliage |
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Out on the open plains wildlife was quite scarce – this didn’t
bother me as I did not expect an abundance of wildlife. It is a fact of nature
that dry, semi-desert areas just do not have the carrying capacity of wildlife
such as reserves that are situated within higher rainfall areas. I doubt that I
would recommend this game reserve to first-time international visitors who
would possibly only visit one game reserve, as a “must-see”. Had they been visiting
other reserves in the country that have higher wildlife densities (such as
Kruger Park Addo, the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi and the many private reserves) then
yes, it is certainly well worth the visit. We did see many ostriches, but sadly
had no sightings of the sought after species, lion, caracal, bat-eared foxes among
others. There are also Burchells (plains) zebra in this reserve, but we did not
see any of these either, but were fortunate to have some good sightings of
mountain zebra.
A cross-section of some of these animals and birds that were seen are below:
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Ostrich - female |
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Ostrich portrait |
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Ostrich family - the male on the left with some chicks and then the female on the right |
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Female Ant-eating Chat - they lack the white shoulder patches of the male (and are lighter in colour than the males). |
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A group of inquisitive Mountain Zebra with a great back-drop |
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Red Hartebeest at full tilt |
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Mountain Zebra portrait |
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