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Having just spent 4 days in Mapungubwe I would like to share some thoughts on the park, first the good.

Accommodation - excellent accommodation at Leokwe camp, large and spacious. A large lounge/diner with a small kitchen. a separate bedroom with an outside shower, and a small patio with a braai. The camp is set in an ampitheatre of red sandstone cliffs. There are no facilities in the camp so take all your food and drink with you. However you do have a widescreen TV with all the DSTV sports channels in all the chalets.

Scenary - the landscapes are spectacular, red sandstone cliffs with figs clinging to the rock faces, the white bark of the figs in sharp contrast to the red rock, particulary at sunset. Lots of very large baobab trees. The two main viewpoints are the boardwalk thru the tree canopy leading to a small hide overlooking the Limpopo river, good for bird spotting to too distant for bird photography. The confluence lookout where the Limpopo and Shahshe rivers meet is fantastic, high on a hill with 4 viewing platforms. The Shashe river was dry so a broad sand river disappered into the distance. The sound of cowbells from the Zim side echoed around the hills. A great place for landscape photography.

The not so good - the roads are very very bad, corrugated, rocky, narrow, twisting, with some short but steep inclines, the roads in the camp were also bad. No place for passing in many places, not the place to meet an aggro elephant. At least the equal of the kgalgadi roads.

The confluence lookouts lacked shade so spending time there on a hot day would be out of the question, well is was for us. The hide at the boardwalk only has seating for two people although there is space for more seating.

We only saw the eastern portion of the park as we were told not to use the internal road linking the western portion as it was in very bad condition.

Jim

Hello JimS,
I agree about the state of the roads but having spent four days in Mapungubwe you should have journeyed to the eastern portion for a look. You missed Maloutswa Hide which to me is one of the highlights of Mapungubwe. Matter of fact, I'd rate it as being as good as any in Kruger. Check my last two TRs and see if you agree.

I just returned from Mapungubwe and am happy to report that the roads were great It was such a pleasure to drive around

Thanks for that Brenda

Hi Everyone,
I just reread my above statement. It should have read "journeyed to the western portion for a look" I never could get my east and west straight.
Hi BrendaK,
Good news about the roads. Which roads were actually worked on?

Also just got back from the Park on Sunday. Road between east and west very badly corrugated but we did encounter a grader at work between the western entrance and the Pontdrif road. An option when going between the two parts of the park is to use the tar road towards Pontdrif and about 1.5km before the border turn right to gain access to the western part of the park.

Unfortuantely the cows and their bells where now inside the park and grazing in the riverine forests. In fact we saw more cows and donkeys in the eastern section than we did wild game .

I do think that this Park is the "jewel in the crown", not only of Sanparks, but of South Africa.

I do know the road you talk of, Graham.

Lets just keep talking I hope things move.