From Mapungubwe National Park we drove directly to Marakele National Park, in the Waterberg Mountain range of the Limpopo Province and near the Botswana border. Named a national park in 1994, the 670 square kilometers were originally named Kransberg National Park. A very short time later the area was renamed Marakele National Park, a Tswana name meaning “a place of sanctuary.” A busy, paved road divides the park into two fenced sections with a short, double-gated tunnel so visitors can easily drive between the east and west halves. 

Sightings in the West Section

Mom and Dad ostrich were so proud of their spunky, chattering little ones.

A group of banded mongooses weren’t too sure about a large bird (compared to them) walking on the road just in front of them. They kept a close on it until it was quite a distance away.

This was our first visit to Marakele National Park and during our multiple stops at the Bollonoto Bird Hide we discovered that a wide variety of animals come to the dam for a quick drink before heading back into the bush. A few water birds stayed a little longer to look for a bite to eat.

Sightings in the East Section – Just after the start of our first early morning drive we found evidence of rhinos: a midden, which is a communal pile of dung. Male rhinos will scrape some dung on their feet and track it around the boundaries of their territory.  We also saw a male white rhino spraying urine to mark the outside edges of his territory, a paved road in this case.  Black rhinos live in the park, but we only came across white ones during our visit.

We drove to Lenong Viewing Point to look for Cape vultures, also called Cape griffons or Kolbe’s vultures.  The park is home to up to 800 breeding pairs, the largest colony in the world. They nest in cliffs near the lookout point and a female lays just one egg per year. The adults have buff or cream colored bodies with dark flight and tail feathers, while the juveniles are darker. They are the largest vulture in Africa, having a wingspan of about 2.5 meters. Cape vultures play an important part in maintaining the park’s ecosystem by cleaning up dead carcasses. 

And a few other creatures near the viewpoint

Lions live in the east half of the park and we saw just two during our stay. A large, beautiful male walked towards our car on a dirt road, passed right beside us, and then continued down the road. (We did roll up the car windows just before it walked past.) A few minutes later we saw a golden lion sitting by the road and at first we assumed it was an adult female. As we got closer we could see the beginnings of a mane on the young male.

Surprisingly, just one sighting for us in Marakele NP of Cape buffalo and an elephant or two. We saw white rhinos on each of our three full days in the park.