Interesting Facts About The Mountain Gorilla

Did you know: The fully adult male mountain gorilla is twice as large as the female.

Did you know: The gorilla is shy and retiring rather than ferocious and treacherous. It usually seeks no trouble unless harassed but will valiantly defend its family group if threatened.

Did you know: Mountain gorillas have a slow rate of reproduction. Females give birth for the first time at about age 10 and will have more offspring every three or four years.

Did you know: The most serious threat to gorillas is habitat loss.

Did you know: The gorilla's only known enemies are leopards and humans. Crocodiles are potentially dangerous to lowland gorillas. In western Africa, gorillas are commonly hunted for meat or in retaliation for crop raiding, but in eastern Africa they have been the victims of snares and traps set for antelope and other animals. Poachers have also destroyed entire family groups in their attempts to capture infant gorillas for zoos, while others are killed to sell their heads and hands as trophies.

Did you know: Gorillas are susceptible to various parasites and diseases, especially to pneumonia during the long, cold wet seasons.

Did you know: Gorillas rarely attack humans. But in an encounter a person should stay still and refrain from staring or pointing at the gorilla.

Source: Out To Africa

An Animal That Digs A Hole Faster Than Several People Using Shovels

Africa is so fortunate to be home to many different species of wildlife, but regrettably several of these species are listed as “endangered” or “threatened”. One of the species that is not threatened, although there is evidence that human population expansion is having a negative effect, is the rather peculiar looking aardvark (Orycteropus afer) which can be found throughout the sub-Sahara Africa. The name “aardvark” comes from South Africa´s Afrikaans language and means “earth pig”.

Aardvarks are nocturnal and as such are rarely seen. They spend the hot African afternoon in cool underground burrows, and after sunset these animals are often found foraging out in the open, systematically covering the ground in search of their favorite food - ants and termites (the only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber). Aardvarks may travel long distances in search for food, often traveling as much as 10 km in a single night. They have acute hearing and a keen sense of smell to sniff out their prey. They use their powerful front claws to dig open ant and termite nests, and use their long, thin, sticky, worm-like tongues to feast on the insects within. Aardvarks can seal their nostrils to keep dust and insects from invading their snout. These animals have a very thick skin, and seem to be immune to insect bites. The aardvark´s skin is so tough that it also protects it to some extent from bites by predators. Aardvarks are very well adapted for digging. When alarmed, they will either run away or start digging a burrow. A single aardvark can dig a hole faster than several people using shovels.

Female aardvarks usually give birth to one cub each year. The young remain with their mother for about six months before moving out and digging their own burrows, which can be deep and extensive. Permanent burrows can be as long as 13 meters with several chambers and entrances.

Image from www.Tswalu.com
(Tswalu Kalahari is South Africa’s largest private game reserve, covering an area of over 100,000 hectares)

The Best Vacation of My Life…

When it’s time to take a vacation, we usually want to make the best of it! But every year the question is always the same – “Where should we go for our vacation, and how do we decide where to go” After all, we may not get another vacation for … well, who the heck knows when! So don’t you think that you should start setting aside some time to get some planning done?

Well I have visited many places, but the best vacation of my life was, with no doubt, when I went to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. (For those of you who don´t know, I was born and lived in South Africa / Orange Free State / Welkom during 17 years) Visiting the Kruger National Park was an awesome experience - words cannot describe how I felt, it was not Discovery Channel anymore … everything around me was real and breathtaking. It was just fantastic to see the animals roaming freely in the park. During a game drive, one of the Elephants got a bit irritated with the sound of the motor and we had to escape. We had amazing encounters with “the big five” except the Leopard. One night, we enjoyed hearing the roars of Lions, before hunting. My family and I enjoyed each minute of this vacation. We took so many photos of Birds, Insects, Elephants, Lions etc., therefore make sure not to forget your camera at home. So, if you want a special vacation, take my advice and visit the Kruger National Park, you don´t want to miss that park – it´s a very special place. I know that I will never forget it.
A tip – even though it is very hot during the day, don´t forget to take loads of clothes if you go on a night safari – HAVE FUN!

Image: Nigel Dennis Wildlife Photography

Kruger National Park - South Africa

On the 26th of March 1898, Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal Republic, signed a proclamation establishing a sanctuary for wild life between the Sabie and Crocodile rivers in order to control hunting and protect the diminished number of animals in the park. The first national park in the world had been created by the Americans at the Yellowstone in 1872, but the Sabie Game Reserve (the original name of the Kruger National Park) was the first in Africa.

The park is considered one of the largest national parks in the world, occupying almost 20.000 km2 of the eastern Transvaal in Southern Africa. It is approximately 360 km long and has an average width of 65 km. This area contains various species of birds, plants, fish, frogs, snakes, reptiles, tortoises, numerous crocodiles and mammals. A large amount of mammals inhabits various divisions of the park. The most common animal species is the impala, and the second most common is the African Buffalo. Among other game scattered throughout the park are African Hunting Dogs, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, Burch ell’s Zebras, Bushbucks, Cheetahs, Common Eland, Giraffes, Greater Kudus, Hippopotamus, Lions, Leopards, Spotted Hyenas, Elephants, Waterbucks, Blue Wildebeest and many others.The Kruger National Park has a subtropical climate, the summer days are usually humid and hot with temperatures often increasing to above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The dry winter season is the ideal time to visit this region for various reasons. There is not as much risk of becoming affected by malaria and the days are calmer. Viewing wildlife is more satisfying as the vegetation is sparser and animals are attracted to the waterholes to drink every morning and evening. I guess that each month has its own character though, with innumerable fascinating things to do and see.

The Kruger National Park is a game reserve that will always be regarded as a prototype of the wild life sanctuaries in Africa. Comparisons with other reserves are inevitable, and some reserves will be praised as better, bigger, wilder, more varied in their animal populations, but the Kruger National Park sets a formidable standard. Other parks may, indeed have natural assets which the Kruger Park lacks, but its scenery, plants and animals, will always ensure that it has a unique place among the world’s game reserves.

The Vredefort Crater - South Africa

The Vredefort crater, also known as the Vredefort dome or the Vredefort impact Structure is a circular remnant of an impact caused by an object whose diameter was approximately 10km, which struck earth about 2 billion years ago. This amazing crater is situated in the Free State Province of South Africa, approximately 100km southwest of Johannesburg. It was named after the town of Vredefort, which is located near its center.

The world has about 130 crater structures of probable impact origin in which the Vredefort crater is among the top three. It is currently regarded as one of the largest and oldest known crater on earth. The original crater, which has now eroded away and is no longer clearly visible, was estimated to be about 250 to 300 kilometers in diameter. Vredefort´s original impact scar consists of three concentric circles of uplifted rock. They were formed by the rebound of rock below the impact site when the asteroid hit.

Initially, it was thought that the dome situated in the center of the crater was created by a volcanic explosion, but in the mid of 1990´s it was confirmed that the site was of a huge impact. Revealing shatter cones are often discovered in the bed of the close by Vaal River.

The inner circle with the measurement of 180km, can still be seen in the astonishing range of hills near Parys and Vredefort. In July 2005, this area was voted as South Africa´s seventh World Heritage site at UNESCO´s 29th World Heritage Committee meeting in Durban. South Africa´s other six World Heritage sites are Robben Island, the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park, the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, the Cradle of Humankind, the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and the Cape Floral Region.

The Table Mountain in Cape Town

The Table Mountain is one of the world´s most renowned sights; this remarkable landscape is a flat-topped mountain overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park. This spectacular landscape can be seen at times as far as 200 kilometers out to sea, the harbor of Table Bay was always easy to find because of the high sandstone block which is approximately 450 million years old (Silurian/Ordovician era). Table Mountain is 1086 meters high, it main feature is a level plateau around 3 kilometers from side to side, bordered by steep cliffs. The plateau is edged by Devil´s Peal on the left and Lion´s Head on the right. From a distance this great cliff seems unbroken, but the closer we get to it, we notice that the cliffs of the maim plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge (Flat Stone Gorge), which provides an easy and direct rise to the summit.

Hiking on Table Mountain is very popular; there are numerous trails to the summit, ranging from easy scrambles to dangerous climbs. The Table Mountain Cable-way, which was officially opened in 1929, makes it possible for visitors to reach the plateau at the top of the mountain, and also provides awesome views over the city while ascending and descending. More than 250.000 passengers use the cable-way each year.


The most famous animal on Table Mountain is the Dassie (rodent-like animal). There are also many other animals such as snakes, porcupines, mongooses, tortoises and Himalayan mountain goats. These goats are fugitive descendants from animals which escaped from Groote Schuur Zoo in 1936. The Main vegetation of the mountain is unique, an estimated 2.200 species of plants can be found on the mountain alone.


The flat top of the mountain is often covered by the famous "tablecloth" cloud, which is without a doubt, an awesome scenery. The "tablecloth" is a neat cap of cloud which, unrolls across the flat summit and drapes itself over the edges in a tidy, almost straight line. These clouds are formed when a south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain´s slope into colder air, where the moisture condenses.

The Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls is one of the world´s most astonishing waterfalls. This lovely scenery lies on the Zambezi River which contours the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, in Southern Africa. On 16 November 1855, David Livingstone was the first-known European to see the falls and named them the Victoria Falls, in honor of Queen Victoria. The falls were formed by a deep crack in the rock which lies directly across the path of the Zambezi River; this crack was caused by the movement of the earth, millions of years ago.

The Victoria falls are renowned as one of the largest in the world; it is 1700m wide and 100m high. The falls are divided into the Devil’s Cataract (27m wide and 60m high), the Main Falls, which in turn are divided by a projecting rock (524m and 297m wide and 83m high), the Rainbow falls (550m wide and 100m high) and the Eastern Cataract (304m wide and 96m high).

During the month of April, the falls usually reach peak volume, 620 000 kiloliters a minute thrusts over the boundary of the falls. The columns of thundering spray sent up by the water have at times been sighted 80 kilometers away. Due to this amazing scenery, many years ago the Kololo tribes-people that lived along the upper reaches of the river named the waterfall “Mosi o Tunya” - the smoke that sounds, and the Matabele called it “Manza Thunqayo” – water that rises like smoke.

A beautiful rainbow can be seen during all summer hours, and sometimes even during intense moonlight. The driest months are from August to November. The game park which borders the banks of Zambezi is home to giraffes, elephants, hippos and many other animals. When tourists launch up the river by motor, they have a chance to see wildlife coming down to drink, as well as hippos and crocodiles lying around on the sand banks in the sun.
The Rain forest, which is at the edge of the falls, is full of exotic plants, they are always green and dripping wet from the spray of the falls. Even the rail-road bridge over the gorge is often drenched with spray.

There are many awe-inspiring and phenomenal places on this lovely planet, with origins that sometimes can and can´t be explained. The Victoria Fall is without a doubt, one of those places...

The Cango Caves

In South Africa there are many interesting caves, but the ones that I admire the most are the Cango Caves which can be found a few kilometers north of Oudshoorn in the Klein Karro. These beautiful caves are among the great natural wonders of the world.
The first people to discover the Cango Caves were tribes from prehistoric times. They used the entrances of the caves as a home and painted the walls with pictures of themselves hunting wild animals, however, throughout time these have been damaged. They were unable to explore far into the caves possibly because they had no access to portable light.

The secrets that were hidden within these caves were discovered many centuries later, in 1780, by a local farmer called Van Zyl, who led the first mission deep into the caves. After wondering around for a while Van Zyl discovered the first large chamber and named it after himself - “Van Zyl´s Hall”. The dimensions of this chamber are about 98m long, 49m wide and 15m high. This breathtaking entrance is decorated with a variety of amazing formations.

The Cango Caves have become one of the country’s most popular caves; they have attracted thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. The total distance of the chambers and tunnels are more than four kilometers. The areas of the Cango Caves open to the public are as shown on the below map, however, Cango Two and Cango Three, beyond the Devil´s Workshop, are closed to the visitors in order to preserves the crystalline beauty formations that are found within these outstanding chambers. 

There are two types of tours that can be done to the caves, the "Standard Tours" and the "Adventure Tours". There are areas while doing the "Adventure Tour" where you have to crawl around on your stomach and climb up steep rock formations! Can you imagine how thrilling that must be?

One Of The Deepest Holes In The World - Excavated By Hand

The Kimberly hole, best known as the "Big Hole" is a huge open-pit situated in South Africa in the northern corner of the Cape Province. It is claimed to be one of the deepest holes excavated by hand, with the help of picks and shovels. Just for completeness´s sake, the deepest hand dug hole in the world is Jagersfontein mine, which also happens to be situated in South Africa (Free State Province)

The story of the "Big Hole" relates back to the discovery of the first diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1866 by a young boy called Erasmus Jacobs, the son of a farmer. One day while Erasmus was out walking, he happened to look down and found a shinny stone at his feet. Little did he know that the stone that he had found was an enormous and valuable diamond of 21.25 carats. It was later named the "Eurika". "Eurika" is a word in ancient Greek for “I’ve found it”. The gem called the Star of South Africa, an 83,50 carat diamond was also found, in the area where Erasmus lived, by a Sheppard boy who traded the stone for five hundred sheep, ten oxes and a horse.

People all over the world headed for South Africa when they heard of the treasure to be found there. A young Englishman serving a jail term in a British military camp in the Griqualand region was put to work digging, and like Erasmus, made a major discovery. The camp was then renamed Kimberly, and became in later years a center of the diamond-mining industry.

In this open cast 2.722kg of diamonds were mined until it closed in 1914. Today there remains only a massive crater which is about 214m deep with a surface area of 17 hectares and a perimeter of 1.6 km. The crater, has become a major tourist attraction luring people from all over the world to view this archeological wonder from a viewing platform that is exactly the size of a 19th century mining claim. The old town, has also been brought back to life, it has buildings that have been preserved or restored to their original glory.