by 
Limpopo to Mokala National Park - January 2021
ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL - PHASE 1 - LIMPOPO, GAUTENG AND NORTHERN CAPE
COVID-19 hit us in 2020 and hit hard, it did. Picture the scene, three trips booked for 2020 ….. Marakele National Park, Kruger National Park, Namibia ….. but the virus said NEIN! STAY AT HOME! Which we did, stoically.
Luckily, we had only booked camping and accommodation in the South African National Parks by the time COVID-19 gave us the “nein”, so it all went into their credit system, taunting us from afar.
We started seeing light at the end of the tunnel at the start of December 2020, so we rolled out the map and opened the SANParks website. So much to see! Diaries were consulted and an end of January, beginning of February 2021 gap in Lecturing Twit’s calendar was found. We proceeded to plan a doozy of a trip from Hoedspruit to Cape Town and back, trying to fit in visits to as many nature reserves/national parks as possible, the emphasis being on new experiences. We begged room from friends, activated our credits and threw in two stays at CapeNature reserves, leaving us with a bill of around R800.00 and still some credit in the pot. The diesel bill will have to take care of itself (yeah, right!). We were ready, set to go!
The reactivation of the Level 3 Lockdown Regulations over the Christmas school holidays set our little hearts aflutter, as we could see our road trip fading right in front of our eyes. Ears glued to the news, we waited …… in anti-ci-pation and tremulation. Uncle Cyril came to our rescue, provincial borders remained open and we could set off on our trip, sans alcohol, but in good spirits, with Tropical Storm Eloise chasing us all the way to Pretoria, via Modjadji’s Kloof and Polokwane.
Pretoria welcomed us in the form of old school friend Louise and hubby Almero, who are probably starting to wonder why we only pop in mid-road trip, however, the afternoon and evening was pleasantly spent shooting the breeze and catching up, as well as undertakings not to allow gaps between visits to be so long.
The next morning was another thing altogether, we hit the N1 in Gauteng, on a Monday morning, during peak hour traffic in rainy weather. The plaasjapies were NOT happy, not realising that the mid-COVID traffic in Johannesburg would have been child’s pay to seasoned professionals.
We persevered and survived however and breathed a sigh of relief when the N1 spat us out of the mayhem at Grassmere. From there we cruised along at a spanking pace, over the Vaal River into the flat plains of the Free State, direction, City of Flowers, aka Bloemfontein, the capital of the province of freedom. There we swung north-west, onto the N8 to Kimberly, the capital of the Northern Cape and known for its rich diamond deposits. From there our noses turned south-west on the N12 for 70km to the turn-off to the Mokala National Park, for our first camping stay of the trip.
Mokala, elusive on several previous trips, always boasting at being bursting at the accommodation seams, welcomed us with open arms this time, into undulating grass fields, liberally dotted with the camelthorn trees the park takes its name from (the Setswana word for Vachellia erioloba), all in full pod. Everywhere plains game were enjoying the bounty of nature, provided thanks to recent good rainfall.
MOKALA PODS (CAMELTHORN / VACHELLIA ERIOLOBA)
"Where Endangered Species Roam" is the tagline for this, the newest park in the SANParks stable (opened 19th June 2007) after a land-claim on the old Vaalbos National Park was accepted as valid by SANParks and a new location for the park was found in the Wintershoek area near Kimberly.
Mokala's 30 000ha landscape is mostly koppieveld (grassed hills) and large open plains. The main purpose of the park is to protect rare and endangered species and it is home to Black Rhino, White Rhino, Disease-free Buffalo, Tsessebe, Roan Antelope, Mountain Reedbuck, Giraffe, Gemsbok, Eland, Zebra, Red Hartebeest, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildebeest, Kudu, Ostrich, Steenbok, Duiker and Springbok. We also saw an abundance of birds, and for those of us with an eye for the small things, there is no shortage of insects and spiders.
PLAINS ZEBRA (EQUUS QUAGGA) 
BLUE WILDEBEEST SHOWING OFF THE SOIL COLOUR (CONNOCHAETES TAURINUS) 
SPRINGBOK (ANTIDORCAS MARSUPIALIS)
TSESSEBE (DAMALISCUS LUNATUS) 
KALAHARI SCRUB-ROBIN (CERCOTRICHAS PAENA) 
SHAFT-TAILED WHYDAH (VIDUA REGIA) 
GARDEN ORB-WEB SPIDER (ARGIOPE SP.)
The park has several self-catering accommodation options, such as bungalows in two rest camps, rustic private cottages, a large function/group venue and a lovely campsite, where we made ourselves at home. Each camping site has its own ablution and cooking facilities (including a fridge) and an outside braai area under trees. The camping sites are in a semi-circle around a watering hole. There is no electricity, and the facilities operate on gas and solar power.
Activities on offer are guided drives, self-drives and fly-fishing. There is a small shop stocking basics, but no fuel, ATM or restaurant and blissfully, no cellphone signal except a weak one at reception.
As this trip was of an exploratory nature, we were only staying for one night, but we immediately ticked off Mokala as worth another, longer visit. We had time for an afternoon drive to the Stofdam Bird Hide (although there were signs of the recent presence of water, attracting some pretty butterflies, the dam did its name justice), marveling at the large numbers of zebra and springbok (not an everyday sighting for us Lowvelders) we saw on the way, all knee-deep in the lush grass. We also saw some Gemsbok (Oryx), which elicited fond memories of the Kalahari and Namibia.
The next morning we took the Tsessebe Loop to see more plains game and an awesome sighting of a herd of Roan with playful youngsters. On the way in and out of the park on the access road, we passed herds of Sable and white Springbok on adjoining properties, as there is a focus on the breeding and conservation of rare and endangered species in the area.
ROAN (HIPPOTRAGUS EQUINUS)
WHITE SPRINGBOK
This park got the TwoTwits nod of approval and was a great initiation for much more amazingness (a Twit word) to come on this road trip. We left, noses pointed in the direction of the Western Cape, via the wonderful Karoo.
For more info:
https://www.sanparks.org/parks/mokala/
