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Nice pics Gwen
This is one of the parks we still have to visit

You live practical on its doorstep

Love the Bontebokpic

Cannot explain why we skipped this one
But we are planning to visit the parks we have not visited yet

Nice pics Gwen!

@Oumie: Where about is the park? Maybe we can add it to our list next year.

It is about 200kms east of CT. We always pass it and say we must visit there when we drive to CT from EL.

Thanks DB. Don't know the location of all the parks yet!
We will need to make it another time then.

We stayed at Bontebok for one night. It's a very small park, as you can see on the map. We loved the campsite. We thought it was the absolute best of all SANParks campsites we visited on our trip.
There isn't any electricity, but most of the individual sites are private and secluded. The sites are surrounded by lovely green trees and bush. There are no fences around the campsite and some of the buck visit regularly.
We saw bontebok , grey rheebok, red hartebeest, a fish eagle, a secretary bird, robins, weavers, 2 blue cranes (yes francois, the other 60 pairs were all in the neighbouring fields), and a mouse.

I have been there and camped as well.

The bontebok sometimes lie down under shade in the camp, but are not as 'friendly' as the remaining bush buck at Timbavati picnic site. 3 metres is about as close as you can expect to get to study them.

We saw paradise flycatcher, malachite & lesser double collared sunbirds, black shouldered kite, jackal buzzard, Cape robin, southern boubou, goldentailed woodpecker, Namaqua dove (WTM) and a few others, mostly in the picnic site.

It is good for an overnight stay. Why not......

Good birding and a great river to swim in

Definately a charming park, dynamite comes in small packages!

My first visit to a National Park, as a young boy, was in 1964 - it was to Kruger. My dad bought a book at Phalaborwa gate called "Mammals of the Kruger and other National Parks". I was in love with Kruger right from the start. After returning home (in the Boland) I became sick of hankering to all the wonderful things we experienced during our short visit. The mentioned book was a slight consolation.

Paging through it on numerous occasions, I made lists of different mammals to be found in the different parks. The Bontebok Park was the nearest park to us (still today). I persuaded my dad to visit this park - and I was hooked on it from the very first visit. The only "Big 5" mammal occurring in the park (those days) was buffalo. The park also stocked eland and springbok. I can remember it was big news when the first buffalo calf was born in the park. But unfortunately the buffaloes kept breaking the fences and eventually it was decided to remove them. As the park was proclaimed to save the Bontebok from extinction, and the carrying capacity of the typical fynbos veld in which the park are situated, is not that good, it was decided to remove the eland too. Springbok always seemed to struggle to adapt to this area, and in the middle 70's it was decided to remove them too.

Visits to the park suddenly were not that full of expectation anymore. We lived in Swellendam for the first year after my marriage. I can honestly say that very few Sundays past during that year without driving through the park. It was in the time when Harold Braack was the park manager.

I once wrote to the National Parks Board and suggested that accommodation should be provided in the park. I don't think my letter persuaded them, but just a few months later the present chalet-vans were introduced.

I get very nostalgic about this small park. Kruger surely ignited the love for nature in me. But the Bontebok Park really set my love for nature alight.

Don't pass this this little haven next to the N2 between George and Cape Town. Don't expect something spectacular, but hopefully you will get touched by it own unique beauty.

Stoffel, as always, poetic story. I promise when in the vicinity i wont pass Bontebok

I wonder if Paul Kruger knows how many lives he touched and influenced, foreign and local by proclaiming a park.... Albeit for hunting reasons

Stoffel, great, touching story, im glad that bontebok has had such an influence on you, and so many othrs!