Mountain Zebra National Park recently celebrated its 80th birthday, and we were fortunate to win a game drive voucher for 2
On the one hand it's fun to win things like that, but then of course you have to pay for accommodation to actually use it... and then pay for the kids to come along as well
Not that I'm complaining too much - it was a great excuse for us to head back to MZNP for a few days. I went with very low expectations as I know it can sometimes be hard to find the elusive animals, and we had been so lucky on our last visit that I would have been quite happy this time if we just saw some ground squirrels
I managed to get a late booking on one of the chalets for the public holiday weekend, so we set off as soon as the kids were out of school on Friday to enjoy 3 nights in the park
Fairly soon after we hit the road, I got a message through from one of the guides in Addo that the lions were snoozing close to the road on Vukani Loop. Curiosity got the better of us, so we convinced ourselves that it wasn't much of a detour to go through the park rather than round it
Sure enough, the lionesses had made a buffalo kill quite close to the road. Josie, Dawn, Duffy and the 3 cubs were all flat out after gorging themselves on the buff. One of the cubs was giving aunty Dawn a cuddle
The adults were fast asleep, but fortunately a couple of the cubs were looking around for a while
There weren't too many people at the sighting, but someone had obviously parked badly or been parked in as some car horn sounds had the cubs on high alert
Double trouble then gave us a nice pose
After a while it all became too tiring for the youngsters and they flopped down again
It would have been nice to stay longer and watch the cubs when they were more active, but we were in entirely the wrong game reserve and had the bulk of our journey still to go
We Won An MZNP Game Drive
- Mel
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Re: We Won A Game Drive
When I first opened up here, I was like "Oh, my gosh, they allow so many lions in Mountain Zebra now?!"
So I had to go back to the beginning and actually read what you had written here. Now it makes
perfectly sense... and, wowie... those cubs have grown and look really curious about life Pretty too
Congrats on winning the drive Like you said... at the end of the day it's an excuse... to visit a fantastic park
(Since we'll be in KTP when the bookings open for my next autumn holiday, we're already making a plan
to return to Addo and Mountain Zebra then. Easier to get accomm and still totally wonderful parks to enjoy )
So I had to go back to the beginning and actually read what you had written here. Now it makes
perfectly sense... and, wowie... those cubs have grown and look really curious about life Pretty too
Congrats on winning the drive Like you said... at the end of the day it's an excuse... to visit a fantastic park
(Since we'll be in KTP when the bookings open for my next autumn holiday, we're already making a plan
to return to Addo and Mountain Zebra then. Easier to get accomm and still totally wonderful parks to enjoy )
God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die.
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
- Mel
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
Coming to think of it: The cubs look all quite male... Are they males only or is there a girl too?
God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die.
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
Ja, this is a bit confusing, Peej!
But good initiative there!
This is a funny sort of a prize...what is the point? Where does one win that?
But good initiative there!
This is a funny sort of a prize...what is the point? Where does one win that?
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
They earn a lot of money giving prizes like that
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
- Mel
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die.
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Re: We Won A Game Drive
Sorry for the (intentional) confusion thereMel wrote:When I first opened up here, I was like "Oh, my gosh, they allow so many lions in Mountain Zebra now?!"
So I had to go back to the beginning and actually read what you had written here. Now it makes
perfectly sense... and, wowie... those cubs have grown and look really curious about life Pretty too
Congrats on winning the drive Like you said... at the end of the day it's an excuse... to visit a fantastic park
(Since we'll be in KTP when the bookings open for my next autumn holiday, we're already making a plan
to return to Addo and Mountain Zebra then. Easier to get accomm and still totally wonderful parks to enjoy )
Not only a lot of lions, but Addo is much greener than MZNP at the moment
They're all male MelMel wrote:Coming to think of it: The cubs look all quite male... Are they males only or is there a girl too?
Nice to have you checking in LisLisbeth wrote:
They sure are. I'm still amazed how well the lions do in Addo.... much lower mortality rate than elsewhereFlutterby wrote:The cubs are in lovely condition!
Yep sorry for the confusion RPRichprins wrote:Ja, this is a bit confusing, Peej!
But good initiative there!
This is a funny sort of a prize...what is the point? Where does one win that?
They had a number of FB competitions running as part of their 80th birthday celebrations, but this one was a somewhat hidden SP forum one
Like others have said, it's all just a money making scheme, but we had been planning to get back to MZNP soon so this was good incentive
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Re: We Won An MZNP Game Drive
The rest of our drive up to MZNP was fairly smooth, but arriving at the gate at 4:30pm gave us little time to explore that evening. We decided to just do a detour round Ubejane loop on our way to the camp. It was becoming great golden Karoo light for photography, so pretty much everything got snapped along the way
First up was a pale chanting goshawk
Peering out of the bushes nearby was gemsbok catching the evening light
The kids were very happy to see their first ground squirrels of the trip, but the squirrels weren't hanging around for long on this occasion
The main pan on Ubejane had a decent amount of water which was totally different to our last two visits when it was completely dry
There was quite a bit of activity by the waterhole every time we went past, and this first evening there was a jackal scampering around plus some first views of the iconic mountain zebra as well as a couple of blue cranes
We saw plenty of yellow mongoose this trip, but for some reason every time I pointed my camera at them they ran off
This became something of a running joke throughout the trip... so this was the one and only shot I managed to get this time
First up was a pale chanting goshawk
Peering out of the bushes nearby was gemsbok catching the evening light
The kids were very happy to see their first ground squirrels of the trip, but the squirrels weren't hanging around for long on this occasion
The main pan on Ubejane had a decent amount of water which was totally different to our last two visits when it was completely dry
There was quite a bit of activity by the waterhole every time we went past, and this first evening there was a jackal scampering around plus some first views of the iconic mountain zebra as well as a couple of blue cranes
We saw plenty of yellow mongoose this trip, but for some reason every time I pointed my camera at them they ran off
This became something of a running joke throughout the trip... so this was the one and only shot I managed to get this time