South Africa's Marakele National Park

Useful Information

History

Marakele National Park was first known as Kransberg National Park when it was established in 1994, then renamed Marakele National Park shortly thereafter. The area is linked with notable figures: naturalist and poet Eugène Marais, author of “The Soul of the White Ant,” lived here; Ramolefe Boy Maotshe famously survived a 15-minute struggle with a leopard to save a calf.

The park also hosts prehistoric sites once occupied by Iron Age communities. These eastern Bantu-speaking people built clay furnaces to smelt iron and settled near the Limpopo River around 450 AD. They cultivated sorghum and millet and kept livestock such as cattle, sheep, and goats, enabling longer-term settlement.

Wildlife

Marakele is home to the Big Five, though buffalo are rare and shy. Rhino are the most consistently seen of the Big Five. Other large species you are likely to encounter include giraffe, Burchell’s zebra, and blue wildebeest. Elephant and hippo are seen occasionally. Large predators such as lion, hyena, leopard, and cheetah are present, but patience is required. The behavior of chacma baboon and vervet monkey can entertain for hours. Owing to varied habitats, as many as 16 antelope species occur, including sable, eland, tsessebe, and mountain reedbuck.

On night drives, you may spot insectivores like aardvark and aardwolf. More than 280 bird species are documented, and the park is a favorite stop on Big Birding Day.

Vegetation & Terrain

In Limpopo Province, Marakele lives up to its Tswana name—“place of sanctuary.” The park straddles a climatic and vegetative transition between the drier west and wetter east. Much of it lies in the Waterberg Mountains, with over half of the vegetation classified as Waterberg Moist Bushveld on the higher slopes, which receive relatively higher rainfall through the year.

The reserve rises to 2,088 m above sea level and descends to about 1,050 m. Mixed bushveld dominates the northern and southwestern reaches, where lower rainfall and nutrient-richer soils support much of the park’s wildlife. Sweet Bushveld covers a smaller area yet remains important for conserving large predators during the dry winter months, with western expansion planned to protect more of this key habitat.

Activities

Marakele is a birder’s haven and a popular location for birders on Big Birding Day—bring binoculars. The main attraction is the world’s largest colony of Cape vulture. A mountain pass takes guests up the Waterberg massif to viewpoints close to breeding pairs, and many other birds can be seen along the escarpment.

Game drives into the Waterberg offer the chance to encounter the Big Five; black and white rhino are major highlights. Families with young children rate the Marataba Safari Lodge highly for kid-friendly activities such as family drives, arts and crafts, and Bug CSI. The contrast between lush, moist bushveld on higher slopes and drier lowlands provides excellent landscape and wildlife photography.