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Tour leader and native South African Leon Marais continues his Top Ten South Africa wildlife experiences. Here are his 5th & 6th choices.
Gemsbok
Number 5: The Kalahari – a last frontier
If, like me, arid and desolately beautiful places stir something deep inside of you, then the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park should be firmly lodged high up on the top 10 list. The Kalahari is a semi-desert region covering parts of north-western South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) is an amalgamation of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park of South Africa and the Gemsbok/Mabuasehube Parks of neighbouring Botswana, creating a massive 38,000 square kilometre reserve comprising miles and miles of linear sand dunes, Acacia savannah, fossilised riverbeds and saltpans. This is one of the largest and wildest parks in Southern Africa, where the Kalahari’s unique scenery, superb birding, incredible mammal viewing and distinct aura of desolation combine to create a truly amazing wildlife experience. A black-maned Lion roaring from atop a red sand dune, a herd of face-painted Oryx crowded together to look like a medieval spear-bearing army, a flock of Ostriches running across the bed of a fossilised river: these are some of the sights and sounds that await the visitor in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
To find out more about our 'South Africa - The Cape & Kalahari', click here.
Number 6: A window into the past – San Rock Art sites of South Africa
Virtually all of my favourite places and exceptional experiences in South Africa revolve around natural history, but as always there’s an exception to every rule. Several thousand years ago, before the arrival of Negroid people from West Africa, a people known as the San roamed the land. They were hunter-gatherers, living in small nomadic communities wherever there was shelter and food. Like all peoples they sought out a spiritual connection to help them understand themselves and the world around them. This they expressed through rock art, which were first thought to be random depictions of everyday life, usually of hunts and fireside dancing scenes.
Recent investigation reveals that these paintings are much more meaningful and are more a portal to the spiritual realm than a record of their daily life (to at least get a basic understanding you need to be guided by a qualified rock art guide such as Andrew Rae of Mopane Bush Lodge near Mapungubwe National Park, who can give the necessary insight into what you are looking at). Other spectacular rock art sites include the Main Caves at Giant’s Castle Game Reserve and Didima Gorge in the Drakensberg and the Cedarberg region in the Western Cape.
To read more about seeing rock art with Naturetrek, click here.