Marakele National Park

The mountain section is spectacular for its scenic beauty; the plains section is less interesting as wildlife is hidden in the thick vegetation, so spotting animals is not easy. Road network is limited so it is often crowded

Scenic and Serene Marakele National Park

Marakele National Park, one of the SAN parks is best for the scenic beauty, wildlife, birds and should not be missed if you are in South Africa. It is easily reachable. Food, accommodation and other traveler requirements are available at the nearby town Thabazimbi. You can spend 2+ days inside the park to fully enjoy the beauty of this park. The accommodation inside the park is very good and one should stay and enjoy the nature and wildlife. It is having rough roads that would test your driving skills as well. Wild lifes that are spotted during the visit include Giraffe, Rhinoceros, Impalas, Zebras, Ostriches, Vultures etc., The memorable scenic places include the drive on Mbidi road and the site of the valley, while driving down from the top Lenong Viewing point.

Wonderful, but best spent in a tent or caravan.

I go often to Marakele National Park, always as a camper. This is the only way to truly enjoy Marakele.

There are three things that stand out about Marakele, and that make the park unusual. Firstly, there is the campsite that is unfenced, and that is often visited by numerous mammals and lots of birds. It is not uncommon for white rhinoceros to wander through the campsite, and often you can hear them at night munching on grass outside your tent. Secondly, there is access to the mountain areas with several species of birds that are not easy to see elsewhere, and large flocks of Cape Vultures. Thirdly is the variety of habitats and the large number of bird species that can be seen there, especially in summer.

While there is plenty of wildlife, and it is worth seeing, the number of species is lower than some of the other parks, such as Pilanesberg, and the thick bush can obscure game viewing. But, that is also part of the charm, and the challenge of the park. The Waterberg Mountains creates some stunning scenery, and the open campsite gives good access to wildlife that wanders through. The birding is excellent, and never disappoints.

park is a bit small

Nice experience, great lodge.

A memorable experience

Our first safari so nothing to compare it to but we had a lovely trip - enjoyed everything with no complaints

Beautiful landscapes, few animals

We visited the Park 4 years ago, so i don't know what's the current situation..
We spent a day in the park with our car, exploring a large part of it.
The park is divided into 2 zones, the first is flat, with a "bush" where you can easily see impala, wildebeest, warthog (and according to the rangers at the entrance, not seen rhinos ...).
In the second area the road becomes bumpy, the landscape becomes more mountainous and they told us that we should be able to see the "big four" (except the lion), but on a full day of search we have seen just some kudus and zebras ...
You could see on the road very recent traces of the passage of elephants and rhinos (droppings and broken branches), but it's amazing that even waiting for a long time we didn't heard or saw anything ...
Maybe because of the dense and narrow vegetation near the road ... but also from the high ground with binoculars we couldn't see anything on the move.
However the views are spectacular in the mountains, including the long, steep climb up to the top of the massif of Waterberg, where you should be able to see the colonies of griffon vultures.

Marakele National Park is a hidden gem with magical scenery and good selection of wildlife.

My visit to Marakele took place at the end of September 2015. This is typically considered near the end of the dry season. The temperatures are above 30 degrees celsius daily with little to no sign of rain. The surrounding vegetation is quite dry, although leaves are starting to sprout with the advent of the coming summer. This means that the vegetation is not too thick enabling you to spot the animals further away from your vehicle than you otherwise would when everything is green and vibrant. Its also a good time to frequent waterholes in the morning and evening because water is still scarce and animals tend to congregate at the waterholes for their daily fill.

Marakele has a predator section and a non predator section. Camping is allowed at designated camp sites in the non-predator section. There are no fences around the camp sites so animals are free to walk through the camping area. This might sounds both exciting and scary, but what I noticed is that many campers are not used to this and do not respect the animals right to be there and try to chase them away when they come sniffing at the strange smells we humans bring. But its a lovely experience to see giraffes and rhino walking through the camp and the ability to grab the camera to get amazing photos. Additionally, Bontle Camp, where I stayed, has a waterhole alongside a wide plain that provides hours of peaceful wilflife entertainment where one can spend hours sitting and staring through binoculars. The non predator section has an abundnace of wildlife ranging from many species of buck, to more rare sightings of rhino and giraffe. Monkeys, babboons and warthogs are fairly prevalent too, as well as plenty of zebra and ostriches. There should be ample opportunity to spot most of these animals while driving through the park over the course of a few days.

The non-predator part of the park covers a small region of fairly flat savannah. The predator section takes you into the larger part of the park which is situated among some of the mountains making up the Waterberg mountain range. Most of the animals from the non-predator section can also be found in the predator section, but because of the larger area, sightings become more rare here. In addtion to the above, it is also possible to encounter lions, elephant and leopard. But these are rarer and they were mostly hanging around the single large dam which I, as a resident of the Bontle camping site, was off limits to me. But the most notable thing when driving into this part of the park are the high mountain peaks and craggy cliffs creating some amazing landscapes. The single tar road ends in a very beautiful scenic climb up one of the mountains ending at the top near a radio relay station with some spectacular views. Here you can also spend a while looking at the family of white backed vultures that fly gracefully around the valley and often come to glide above the viewpoint giving birders and photographers some great opportunities.

There is only one tarred road in the park. For the most part it is reasonably maintained except where it starts to rise up the side of the mountain leading up to the view point where you can encounter some tricky potholes. All other roads are dirt tracks of varying conditions. Most roads can easily be accessed by normal cars but some of the roads in the predator section are certainly uneven and can be very bumpy, and in some cases my require some careful navigation. There are a couple of marked 4x4 roads and certainly I wouldn't recommend low clearance cars trying them, but only the 4x4 track in the north eastern part of the park requires a capable 4x4 and a driver with some experience.
Overall the park is a lovely place and was not very busy when I was there, which is perfect. The guards and game rangers were friendly. Animals in the non-predator section were plentiful but the predator section was less eventful in this regard. But the spectacular scenery made up for that. Many of the local bird species appear in the park, of note are rollers, vultures and hornbill. Places like Pilanesburg probably have a higher density of animals, but Marakele has better scenery and certainly has its own charm that should not be ignored.

Greatest experience ever

Every thing during our stay was fantastic. From the accommodation (tlopi tented camp) to the warm welcome from every employee we met, not forgetting the wild life and great sceneries.
Thanks to our guide Tinyiko, we almost saw all the big fives. We had the chance, the first evening and next morning at the camp, to see a group of more than 20 elephants of all ages, come and stay two hours by the pound side, drinking, bathing, playing. It has been the most beautiful show we ever saw.
The evening dinners cooked on the braai was perfect, with the wild as soundtrack for this three nights / four days stay.
We would highly recommend this national park to anyone dreaming of wildness, peace and beauty.

If you are in the vacinity it may be nice to spend two or three hours here. It's in quite a nice part of the country as far as the scenery goes. But please keep in mind this is a subjective rating and others may have had a greatly different experience.