National Parks week – get in for free

It's offi­cial. This week, start­ing today 14^th September, you can get into any (or at least the major­ity) of the South African National Parks (SANParks) for free. So, if you're in Cape Town you have the whole of the Table Mountain National Park at your dis­posal, and, bet­ter still, if you're up in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, the Kruger National Park is yours for free this week ... Continued

Caracal Photograph

This beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph of a Caracal was taken at the Emdoneni Cat Rehabilitation Centre in Hluhluwe (yes, I know we are show­ing a lot of pho­tos taken at Emdoneni — but aren't they beau­ti­ful?). The largest African lesser cat and an excep­tional climber and jumper, the cara­cal is a slen­derly built cat with long legs and a short, sharply tapered tail. The cara­cal resembles a cross between a leo­pard and a lynx. Continued

African Wild Cat Photographs

These pho­to­graphs of an African Wild Cat were taken at the Emdoneni Cat Rehabilitation Centre in Hluhluwe, KwaZulu Natal. Apart from the obvi­ous dif­fer­ence in their ear col­or­a­tion and the longer legs, the African Wild Cat is eas­ily mis­taken for a domestic cat. Interbreeding is pos­sible as they are so closely related to domestic cats. Continued

Mom & Baby Rhino Photos

These beau­ti­ful pho­to­graphs of the White Rhino Mom and Baby were taken in the Entabeni Game Reserve in Limpopo, South Africa. The white rhino's name derives from the Dutch "weit," mean­ing wide, a ref­er­ence to its wide, square muzzle adap­ted for graz­ing. The white rhino, which is actu­ally grey, has a pro­nounced hump on the neck and a long face ... Continued

Giraffe silhouette photograph

A beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph of a gir­affe with beau­ti­ful sun­set. The Giraffe is unknown out­side of Africa and early writ­ten records described the gir­affe as "mag­ni­fi­cent in appear­ance, bizarre in form, unique in gait, colossal in height and inof­fens­ive in char­ac­ter." Continued

Waterbuck Twins — Photograph

This pho­to­graph of the Water Buck twins was sent to us by Madelein Calligeris. Madelein took this gor­geous shot in the Big 5, Karongwe Game Reserve near Hoedspruit in Limpopo. According to the Wikipedia entry, Waterbuck stand 100 to 130 cm at the shoulder and weigh from 160 to 240  kg ... Continued

Who's watching whom?

"Who's watch­ing whom" or "Too close for com­fort" are both apt titles for this remark­able pho­to­graph sent to us by Christine Lucas — you decide! Continued

St. Lucia Estuary Bull Hippo

We've received lots of new, beau­ti­ful pho­to­graphs — choos­ing a win­ner is going to be very dif­fi­cult! Please keep them com­ing, click here to see how to enter: Photographers Competition July 2009. Today we show­case a fab­ulous shot of a Bull Hippo taken in the St Lucia Estuary. Stunning! Continued

Ostrich on Guard!

We love this pho­to­graph of the Ostrich with the slightly blurred back­ground mak­ing the Ostrich really stand out. Fabulous photo, thank you Marius for shar­ing it with us ... Continued

Adopt a Cheetah

Adopt a Cheetah

Adopt a Cheetah, Tiger or Lion ... One can feel a little hope­less in a world where a once almighty animal king­dom is fad­ing slowly out of existence.

Adopting a creature of South Africa will uplift your spir­its and con­serve our wild­life so that the roar of a lion can be heard in the future tense, the race of a chee­tah can be blurred into the dis­tance and the pounce of a tiger can be felt ever­after. Continued

Raw. Untamed. Magnificent. The Kruger National Park

Kruger Park

Possibly one of the most fam­ous attrac­tions in South Africa, for loc­als and tour­ists alike, the Kruger National Park offers world class facil­it­ies as well as end­less oppor­tun­it­ies to view and inter­act with African wild­life, par­tic­u­larly the fam­ous Big Five.

The Kruger park itself was estab­lished in 1898, fol­low­ing a twelve year cru­sade to con­serve the Lowveld wild­life by Paul Kruger, from whom the park takes its name.

The Kruger National park spans an impress­ive 2 mil­lion hec­tares of unspoiled bushveld, arche­olo­gical and his­tor­ical sites where early set­tlers as well as Khoi San peoples camped, their faint traces still evid­ent today.

Activities within this National  Park centre around provid­ing the vis­itor with as up close and per­sonal an exper­i­ence of the African bushveld as pos­sible with bik­ing, hik­ing, walk­ing or 4x4 safaris avail­able, all accom­pan­ied by armed and trained guides to ensure your safety while you mar­vel at the diversity of spe­cies. Continued

Wild Animal Hosts look forward to meeting you

Jespha — The older ...

In Limpopo, bor­der­ing the his­toric Leydsdorp where gold was 1^st dis­covered in South Africa in 1891, you will find a wild­life reserve and sanc­tu­ary that is held in trust for more than 4500 res­cued wild animals.

Many wild anim­als have been res­cued by the SanWild Wildlife Emergency Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre over the years and what makes this reserve unique is that your hosts are the anim­als them­selves; Among them are two charm­ing French hippo bulls called Tonga and Aldo. They recently “immig­rated” to South Africa from Paris after being con­fis­cated by the French con­ser­va­tion author­it­ies from 2 sep­ar­ate trav­el­ling cir­cuses in France. KLM air­lines donated their air­fares and the hip­pos have form­ally been appoin­ted as the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary’s ambas­sad­ors for 2008. Continued

Introducing Little Jock

Little Jock

Little Jock (at Jock Safari Lodge in the Kruger National Park), over­look­ing the banks of the Biyamiti River is situ­ated one kilo­meter from Main Camp and offers sweep­ing views over the unspoiled Kruger Park Bushveld. Three lux­uri­ous suites offer all the com­forts and amen­it­ies one can expect from a 5-star private lodge.

Guests can relax in the com­fort of the cent­ral lounge designed with large bay win­dows and enjoy both al fresco and indoor din­ing facil­it­ies, while your chef con­jures up tra­di­tional dishes inspired by the nat­ural surrounds.

Your per­sonal game ranger takes care of all your game drives and bush encoun­ters. Whilst not on game drives you can relax next to the scenic pool soak­ing up the sun watch­ing the wild anim­als fre­quent the sur­round­ing bush. Continued

Mkuze Falls Private Game Reserve

Game Viewing

Situated between the Kruger National Park and the Zululand Coast — the same Africa, a dif­fer­ent world! Mkuze Falls is one of only two Private South African Game Reserves in the region where you can view the 'Big 5'.

The Mkuze Falls Big Five Private Game Reserve is situ­ated in the heart of his­toric Zululand in KwaZulu Natal. The reserve is loc­ated on land that once formed part of the 'Boer Republic', cre­ated when the pion­eer leader, Piet Retief, bought the land from Dingaan, half brother of the great Zulu-king Shaka. Mkuze Falls Lodge con­sists of nine thatched chalets and a cent­ral lodge com­plex that are all built on raised wooden plat­forms and provide stun­ning views of the falls or the per­en­nial Mkuze River and the hills beyond.

The Mkuze Falls Game Reserve is a haven to the African 'Big Five': Lion, Elephant, white and black Rhino, Cape Buffalo and Leopard. Cheetah, Hippo, Crocodile, spot­ted Hyena, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Zebra and numer­ous spe­cies of ante­lope are also res­id­ent in the reserve. The elu­sive Nyala occurs in greater num­bers here, than any­where else in the world. Continued