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.