Mapungubwe Elephants

Yes, I know more elephants but I can’t help myself.  However, these ones are different, they are ‘rock’ elephants.  I came across a herd of females and calves in amongst all of the sandstone valleys and outcrops on one of the 4WD tracks.  There were dozens of them, all over the place.  Every turn I took I ran into more elephants and at one stage the car was totally surrounded and there was nothing I could do but sit there with the engine off and take photos.  The adults were aware of me and every time one of the calves would get too close to the car (less than 5 m), one of the adult females would push it away, literally like a bulldozer.  Anyway as I didn’t have many photos of calves, or herds in general, I couldn’t help myself but take more photos.

A Couple of the elephants grazing with the sandstone ridge in the background.

The herd was all females and calves. Here is one of the calves.

The calf on the road.

A mother/Aunt keeping an eye on me.

Mother and calf.

Mothers/Aunts and calves.

Same as above, moving slowly.

For all you Australians!  Elephants and windmill.

The 'rock elephants' moving up the valley.

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.