Mapungubwe Heritage site

One of the main reasons that I visited Mapungubwe NP was to visit the heritage site here.  It is an African Iron age site and part of the complex that includes Great Zimbabwe but pre-dating it.  The original settlement is now known as K2 and was in an adjacent valley to the south of Mapungubwe hill, occupied between 1030 to 1220 CE.  At around 1220 CE, Mapungubwe hill was occupied, with the royal household on top of the defensible hill and the commoners in the valleys below, which was a change to the traditional ‘central cattle model’ utilised in African settlements up to this period.  At its height, it was believed that Mapungubwe had about 5000 inhabitants.  Mapungubwe was abandoned around 1300 CE, probably due to a severe drought and it is believed that the people moved north and founded Great Zimbabwe.

Mapungubwe Hill.  The royal household was on top with only a single, easily defended pathway up.  The 'commoners' lived on the low ground around the base of the hill.

The movable cover on one of the archaeological pits.

The same pit, showing the fold up safety railings.

The railings folded up.

The site of K2 on an adjacent hill.

K2 again.

The sentry post on the single access to the top of Mapungubwe Hill.

One of the mortars for pulping up foodstuffs.

One of the hut footings for a wall.

One of the strategy 'games' played by the men, moving pieces into the holes to take opponents pieces.

Another game played by tossing and catching stones, while knocking the surrounding stones into the central hole, then snatching them all out.

A water cistern carved out of the rock.

A grain storage pit carved out of the rock.

The Best Weekend

I came to Africa for many reasons, fully expecting to fall in love with the continent and its people, however given my relationship history, I never expected to fall in love with an individual again.  Well, last week at Mapungubwe while on the heritage tour (there were only three people), I met an extremely attractive young lady, named Anna who after the tour asked me if I would like to come to her niece’s wedding in Polokwane on the weekend and after about .3 of a millisecond I said yes!  We met up for a meal and drinks on Fri night which became the start of what was the best weekend that I can remember having.  Anna’s niece’s wedding was absolutely amazing.  The bride was of mixed black and white African background with the groom being Indian background, therefore the day was an amazing mixture of black African, white African and Indian traditions.  It was a perfect example of the modern South Africa.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me on the night, so I will obtain some pictures from friends and post them in the future.  There was a recovery braii (what South Africans call a BBQ, because BBQ is the flavour of a chip/crisp) the next day, at which I continued to meet Anna’s family who have welcomed me with open arms (however I don’t think they realise how serious we are about each other yet?).  Both Anna and I feel the same way about each other and will get to know each other better in the near future, therefore I daresay she will be appearing in the blog more!

The only picture of Anna and I that I have so far, taken with Anna's phone.  It was taken very late at night, so we are not at our best.

Mapungubwe National Park Day 3 and 4

Sorry about the delay in posting, but I have been in the ‘big smoke’ of Polokwane partying all weekend (some details to follow in a later post).

Wed was a bit of a miserable day with thunder storms all Tue night and into Wed so I had a fairly quiet day.  I drove to the town of Alldays about 50 km away to fill up with diesel and buy some ice, and really that was about it.  All through Wed night we had four prides of lions or young males roaring all around the camp.  Three prides north of the river in Botswana and one on our side, about 3 km to the south.  After being round the heavily fenced farms in central east Limpopo, it was really a buzz to hear free roaming lions in the wild, especially so many prides.

On Thu I did the eastern side of the Park, even though the weather was still miserable.  While the eastern side didn’t have the wildlife ‘wow’ factor of Kruger or the western side (maybe it was the rain?), it was still very enjoyable, and the scenery was great.  The 4WD tracks really gave the bakkie a good work out.  Anyway, a selection of photos below:

A 'hairy' Waterbuck!



The type of damage that too many elephants can do to landscape.



More elephant damage.

An Impala buck.

This picture was taken in an 'Elephant Exclusion Zone', which is to try and minimise damage to certain environments. 

The junction of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers.  The land in the foreground is South Africa, to the left of the photo is Botswana, and in the far ground Zimbabwe.

A Stork (forgotten the name), almost the same as a Jabiru, only the colours are a bit different.

One of the old bunkers on the South Africa/Botswana border from the Apartheid era 'bush war'.

An interesting sandstone formation (about 30 m high).

A grove of 'succulents' in an otherwise dry landscape (once again, sorry I don't know the name).

A nice action shot of a wildebeest.

The new museum and interpretation centre that is being built in the park.  The buildings are clad in stone.  To give you an idea of scale the two little black lumps on the tall dome second from the left are people.  It should be a spectacular complex once completed.

Mapungubwe National Park Day 2

Today was one of the best days I have had in South Africa.  In summary I saw a range of new animals, had a guided tour of the Mapungubwe Iron Age hill settlement, met some nice people who have asked me out with a group of friends in Polokwane on Fri night and drove one of the most spectacular 4WD tracks I have seen.  Amongst the new animals I saw an albino Impala buck, Bushbuck, Steenbok and some Gemsboks.  Unfortunately it was twilight so the photos of the Gemsboks didn’t work out.  At one stage I was totally surrounded by massive herd of elephants, all females with calves.  There was nothing I could do but switch off the car and sit there for about half an hour.

I will do a separate post about both the Mapungubwe heritage site and the elephants once I have sorted the photos out.  I took 148 photos today so here is a sample less elephants and the Mapungubwe heritage site). I couldn’t in all faith thin them out any more.

This is part of the old border fence between South Africa and Botswana.  It actually dates from the Apartheid bush war days and is not patrolled now that there is peace.  However the elephants don't recognise international borders, and this is what they do to a triple concentina razor wire fence, with chain link on either side.

The extremely rare albino impala.  You may need to zoom in on this photo, but there is a normal 'tan' coloured one just behind it.

A colourful bird!

Zebras drinking at a nearby water hole (before the rain came and created puddles everywhere).

A Bushbuck doe  (I haven't posted one of these before)..

A helmeted Guinea Fowl.  These are everywhere that I have been in South Africa but a bit hard to get a picture of with my little instamatic.

One of the very common lizards sunning itself.  The South African lizards seem to be much more colourful than Australian ones.

An 'ation' shot of Kudu running in front of the bakkie.

A sculpture in the middle of the bush, in a National Park called 'Faces of Africa'.  I have no idea what it is all about?

Some of the sandstone hills in the western side of the Park.  This Park very much reminds me of the VRD and Kimberley in Australia (except an elephant or giraffe will walk out of the bush).

An extremely light coloured Giraffe.  It is actually a bit hard to see the colour in this photo.

Mapungubwe National Park

I have arrived in Mapungubwe NP and have had a brief look around the western section, and I have fallen in love with it already.  I am here for four days, which should just be enough.  If you are on the ball, you will note that I am spelling it different from my earlier posts.  Both spellings are used on different signs etc, and this seems to be fairly common in South Africa.  In many ways Mapungubwe reminds me of some of the Top End Parks in Australia.  The population density here is much less than what I have observed in the rest of Limpopo, a lot more like Australia.  Additionally the landforms and vegetation types are very similar.  However, just when you start feeling comfortable, an elephant or giraffe will walk out of the bush.  The campgrounds nice but you have the ever present baboons and monkeys to annoy you.   

I do not have internet connectivity here, so all of these posts about Mungubwe will be pre prepared.

As my camera batteries died today, and of course the spare batteries were in my campsite, I wasn’t able to take many pictures, so here is part 3 of Kruger NP animals:

Impala.

A Waterbuck on the banksof the Letaba River.

More Waterbuck.

A Klpspringer (literally rock jumper), perched on top of a koppe.

The Wilds of Africa

Sorry I am a bit behind on my posts but as I am in the very far north of Limpopo near the Zimbabwe border, and spending most of my time in National Parks, I do not have mobile or internet connectivity much of the time.  I am currently in Musina, on my way to Mapungobwe NP, sitting in a Spur restaurant having breakfast as an excuse to fire up my laptop.  I am assuming also that I will be offline for the next week as I will be in Mapungobwe.

I arranged my schedule to be in Musina for the Australia v New Zealand World Cup game and picked what was advertised on line as a luxury lodge in Musina, with quite reasonable rates.  Talk about false advertising!  In reality it was a truck stop motel, miles out of town.  No problem though as it was cheap, I saw the game (and the T20 cricket), and met some really interesting characters (pan Africa truck drivers, professional hunters, mercenaries, you get the picture of the type of place, I felt right at home).

Musina itself is an interesting place.  It is the major town servicing the main border crossing into Zimbabwe, and as such it seems to have thousands of long haul trucks everywhere, waiting border clearance, a very visible SA Police and Army presence, and a lot of what appear to be migrants (illegal?) crossing the border with their worldly possessions.

Anyway, I must head.  I will post again when I get a chance.  Below are a few photos taken between Kruger NP and Musina.

I know, another elephant!  But I like them!

I know, another Baobab!  But look at all the bird's nests.

Not a particularly good photo, but driving through this area reminded me a lot of the Victoria River District in Australia where I was living before coming over here.  Lots of rocky outcrops and Baobab trees.

Of course the round thatched huts are not very Australian.

Tickled!

I set up this blog when I went to South Africa as a way of updating family and friends in Australia on my work and travels, without having to resort to individual e-mails (I am essentially a lazy person).  However, I have been tickled by how many people from all different countries around the world have been viewing it, I guess I am averaging about 70 hits a week from all around the world, which I think is absolutely fantastic.  I seem to get spikes at certain times in certain countries, so obviously people are letting their friends know when they discover me! The last week’s stats on views for the blog are: USA 27, South Africa 21, Australia 20, Russia 5, Germany 3, Portugal 2, Slovenia 2, Uruguay 2, UK 1 and Japan 1.

I don’t even know people in some of these countries, although I have met people from all of them in my travels and they have been ALL very nice (the Slovenian lady who happened to see Ms Dig’s and my now defunct wedding (but we are still very good friends) in Kakadu NP and who gave us a heart shaped rock she had carried all the way around the world from Slovenia springs to mind).   The bottom line is you are all welcome, especially if you find some interest or enjoyment in my ramblings.  Please feel free to post any comments, suggestions or requests as I love hearing from people from all around this wonderful world.  The photos that I post (from my little instamatic!) are only a small percentage of the photos that I take, so if you want me to post some more on a specific subject (or animal) then please ask.  Once again this is my lazy side as it means I don’t have to think about my next post!

Once again, this South African red wine is pretty good.  I have a personal standard of not drinking by myself, so I figure if I am on the internet to 70 odd people around the world, then I am not really drinking by myself.  Any justification!  Please forgive my drunken ramblings, but they are heartfelt.

Punda Maria Day 2

Once again the fact that people are ‘sheep’ has been reinforced to me!  Now that school holidays are over in South Africa, Kruger has quietened down a bit.  However, the Punda Maria campground is relatively large (about 300 m by 200 m) with a toilet block and separate camp kitchen centrally at either end.  In my two days here I have watched people come and go, on both days everyone bar myself and one other lot of campers (different both days) have clustered around the first amenities block. About 15 caravans/campers all set up in a 50 m radius, leaving the other camp kitchen and amenities for my sole personal use.  I can’t complain about that!

Once again the Park amazed me today, I think you could spend a month here and see something new every day, although I only took 104 photos today.  It would have been more, however the main cultural heritage site in the area. Thulamela was closed for work.  It was actually a bit frustrating as there was no notice to this effect until you arrived there, which was a 50 km drive.  It didn’t really matter though as there was a lot of other stuff to see.

At one stage this morning I was totally surrounded by a herd of about 100 buffalo, but that deserves its own post, so you will have to wait.  I actually have internet connectivity here at Punda Maria, but like SanWild it is at the extreme edge of mobile phone coverage so it is very slow.  I may not be able to post these posts until I get back into a town.  By the way, I have decided that South African cask wine is pretty good, as while I am sitting here my glass seems to keep getting empty!

I have also decided that Vervet Monkeys are too smart and cheeky for their own good.  I had three incidents with them today.  I went to the toilet this morning and was away from my campsite for about 10 minutes (yes Mum and Ms Dig, only 10 minutes, as I didn’t take a book!), when I got back, a monkey had unlatched my esky, opened the lid, opened a plastic bag of apples and was happily sitting in my chair eating an apple.  He/she ran away up a tree when I approached, but then the annoying thing was it ate only half the apple and threw the rest away.  At lunch time I stopped at a designated picnic area (where you could get out of your car) and had lunch.  Once again, I had an apple in my hand and when I glanced to my left a monkey jumped on the table to my right grabbed the apple and took off up a tree.  Now, I am pretty situationally aware, and have fairly good reflexes, but there was no way I had time to react to this ‘assault’.  So far, the first three apples from this bag go to the monkeys.  About 1630 hr I arrived back at the campsite to find that the only tub I had left behind (I had taken my esky, food tub and cooking tub with me), had been opened and ‘ratted’ by the monkeys.  This tub was left behind because it contained no food!  Therefore my washing powder, pegs, plastic bags etc were all thrown out.  Even  a number of empty ‘tupperware’ type containers had been opened by the monkeys.  Nothing is safe!

A vervet monkey sitting on the back of my bakkie.  He was originally sitting on my bike but I wasn't quick enough to get a photo.

The open landscape in the northern end of the Park.

Another Baobab.

A close up of the Baobab above showing the damage that elephants do to the trunk.  Interestingly there are very few juvenile Baobabs which I attribute to the elephants.

Another Baobab.  I can't remember why I included this one?

An example of the denser vegetation and larger trees along one of the river corridors.

Baboons foraging out in the open.  The ground was basically bare but they seemed to be finding something to eat as they kept putting things in their mouths.

Crooks Corner where the borders of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet.  It was called Crooks Corner because it was the hangout of criminals, gun runners, ivory poachers and slavers.  If the authorities of one country approached, they would duck across the 'border' into one of the others.

I find it hard to accept how you can build huge power lines through the middle of a world heritage national park?

Just to give you an idea of how close the elephants come to the cars.