Golden Memories – December 2020

Posted on by Susan

In December we returned to South Africa, one of our favorite countries. Around Christmastime we took a road trip to several national parks and our daughter joined us for this adventure. 

  • Unexpected waterfall over the edge of Mushroom Rock after a morning of rain.

Golden Gate Highlands National Park was our first stop. This time we explored the Blesbok Loop area of the park, which was closed during our 2019 visit because of road resurfacing.

  • Valley view

And for the first time we followed the Holkrans Trail.

  • Who needs a gym when you can climb wooden ladders up the side of large rocks.
  • Another cascade of water
  • Susan along the trail’s edge
  • We were thankful for the few wood pathways over steep and sometimes slippery, rock faces.
  • One of two caves along the trail

We once again hiked up to the top of Brandwag Buttress for awesome views of the valley.

  • Brandwag Butrees as seen from Holkrans Trail
  • The youngest of us made it to the top first!
    Notice the not-so-sturdy fence around the cliff edge.
  • The road on the valley floor looks a long way down!
  • Descending from the top of the buttress takes a bit of concentration.

The three of us spent a bit of time at the vulture hide. Like our previous visit, we didn’t see any rare and elusive bearded vultures. But we did spot some cape vultures high up in the air as they circled the high plateau. Local farmers and park rangers often bring deceased animals to the hide to entice the vultures and other critters to the viewing area.

  • White-necked ravens at the vulture hide.
  • Red hartebeest on the lunch menu
  • Plenty of food to share
  • The collared black-backed jackal looked at the carcass from a distance.

We photographed many of the early summer flowers.

And as always, we enjoyed watching the animals and birds.

  • Typical lizard
  • Several times the playful babies in this baboon troop somersaulted half way down the hillside.
  • Blesbok
  • Zebras
  • Red hartebeest
  • Secretary bird

This beautiful long-tailed widowbird entertained us as it hunted for food in a meadow near our mountain cabin.

Two young male black wildebeests practiced their charging skills. The four photos were taken within a 14 second period of time. The last picture displays their “just kidding” attitude before walking away from each other.

For specific park details, check out the Glimpses of Gold post that describes our first visit to Golden Gate Highlands National Park in May 2019. Just click on South Africa in the Categories menu in the right side bar of our home page and then scroll down for the post.