Marakele National Park

The scenic beauty is the best of this place

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.

Nice experience, great lodge.

Great camping experience

The wildlife in the park self wasn't that great, but it was almost the end of our holiday en maybe we had seen enough. But the campside was great! No amazing. Great view of a little lake with al kinds of animals like rhino's! And Ostrichs walking around the campsite, real fun.

There is a unfenced tented camp, beautifully situated at a lake where we stayed a couple of days. You can drive up the mountain for a lovely view, or drive into the bush to see rhinos and other animals from nearby (watch my video of Marakele at youtube). Mix of dirt and tar roads.

Beautiful scenery, but unfortunately we didn't spend long enough to appreciate it to the full

A reat destination in South Africa. Excellent for Photography. The Waterberg is a must.

The best part of Marakele is the Scenery. It is not overpopulated like some of the other National Parks in SA.

When I camped at Marakele the roads were bad in wet weather and not having a 4 x 4 we got stuck several times. It is a relatively new reserve with no big game but good bird life.

Lots of animals for such a small park. It can't beat the Kruger but as it is small and very quiet, the experience is better. And scenery is awesome too.