September 2024

After enjoying the Addo Elephant National Park so much in June this year (read here), we decided to visit another national park. The Mountain Zebra National Park is 291km/180 miles from East London and is just outside Cradock (now known as Nxuba).

Entrance to the Mountain Zebra National Park

This park was proclaimed in 1937. At that time, the Cape Mountain Zebra was an endangered animal, but thanks to the conservation efforts of farmers, there was still a small herd of these animals left. A farmer, Hans Jurgen Lombard donated 11 zebras to the park and today the herd has grown to more than 1,000 zebras. (Source: Mountain Zebra National Park Brochure)

Short sections of the park’s roads are tarred, while the majority are dirt roads. These roads can be driven by any vehicle, except for three 4×4 loops which are only accessible to 4×4 vehicles.

Tarred road inside the park

You can either drive through the park yourself to see the wildlife or you can make use of guided drives. We drove through the park ourselves and also did one of the 4×4 trails.

Our first wildlife sighting was that of a kudu cow

What makes this park so special is that not only are there many different wild animals to see, but the scenery is beautiful too. I’d love to jump right in and show you all the wildlife, but in today’s post we’re just going to concentrate on the beauty of this park – even though it’s pretty dry right now. The rainy season is just starting (which we experienced with a thunderstorm on our second day).

Reception area of the park

There are different accommodation options in the park. You can either camp, or stay in a cottage or rock chalet. There is also a guest house inside the park. We chose a cottage which was more than adequate.

Our cottage

Inside our cottage

The cottages are self-catering, but there is also a restaurant where you can enjoy meals. The small shop and a fuel station are also very convenient and the big pool is ideal for those hot summer days.

The pathway to the swimming pool

Swimming pool

With the sun setting fast, we decided to make a fire to enjoy our first braai in Mountain Zebra National Park.

Sunset at Mountain Zebra National Park

Time to enjoy a braai

We only had one full day available to explore the park and after hearing that a thunderstorm was expected later in the day, we left our cottage just after 8:00am to explore the park.

View of the rest camp from a lookout point

Early morning thunder clouds

There are several lookout points in the park. At some of these points you may get out of your vehicle (at your own risk) for a quick view, but at other points you must stay inside your vehicle … for obvious reasons – there are lions in the park.

We took this photo from the inside of our bakkie

Guesthouse and Doornhoek Dam

Is there a lion hiding here somewhere?

Wind pump

After driving around for almost three hours – and seeing many animals – we decided to drive to the picnic area to enjoy lunch. This area is fenced off and we were able to stretch our legs while eating chicken mayonnaise sandwiches that we had made earlier at our cottage.

Another swimming pool at the picnic area

Lovely picnic spots

Time for a hot drink

Lunch time

Just after we finished eating, it started to rain. According to the weather forecast it would rain for two hours and we decided to drive back to our cottage until the rain subsided. There are two hiking trails in the rest camp, but with the heavy thunderstorm, we decided it was safer to stay inside the cottage and read a book.

After the rain stopped, it was already late afternoon. We had heard earlier that we might see lions at the Kranskop Loop and decided to drive in that direction before going on one of the 4×4 trails.

Doornhoek Dam in front of us

Just after we passed the dam, a car came from the front. They stopped next to us and said we might be lucky to see four lionesses on the river bank. We only had to drive about 200m further and look closely to our right. Have we seen them? Well, you’ll have to wait for next week’s post to find out.

Where are the lions?

While we were driving, we saw a road on the other side leading up a hill. It was part of the Kranskop Loop we were on and we could see it going all the way to the top. Berto said that the views from there must be spectacular, so we drove on to see if he was right.

The Kranskop Loop continues on the other side

Crossing a river

At the beginning of the steep road

More thunder clouds (and we still want to do the 4×4 trail)

We stopped at the lookout point (where one can climb out while enjoying the view, but also look out for lions). We could see the road below which we had just driven – the view was indeed beautiful.

The view over the valley

Panoramic view on the other side of the hill

We now followed the road to the Sonnenrust 4×4 Trail. On the way there we stopped quite a few times to take photos of all the wild life – there were so many springboks and yes, of course zebras too.

The beautiful Cape Mountain Zebra

The Sonnenrust 4×4 Trail is 14km/8.6 miles long. It took us an hour and a half to drive – at first, it’s quite an easy road, but the higher one goes up the mountain, the more challenging it becomes.

A proper 4×4 trail

We saw a lot of wildlife on this trail. There was a special moment towards the end of the route that we will share with you in next week’s post.

A tree that one sees everywhere in the park is the Acacia Karroo (commonly known as the Karoo Sweet Thorn). Vervet monkeys thrive around these trees which supply to all their food needs. Kudu also like to eat the leaves despite the sharp thorns that are so characteristic of these trees.

Acacia Karroo (Karoo Sweet Thorn)

Big drops of rain started to fall towards the end of our drive on the 4×4 trail. It was now time to drive back to the rest camp and light our last fire of our wonderful short weekend in the Mountain Zebra National Park.

Late afternoon thunderstorm approaching

One last fire

Next week we will treat you with all the wildlife we ​​saw in Mountain Zebra National Park (read here).