The enchantment of Mountain Zebra National Park

By Roxanne Reid
Summer thunderstorms and the exhilaration of lightning streaking across the sky. A Verreaux’s eagle soaring high over the crag. A steep pass giving panoramic views over scrub-dotted plains. A gentle dawn light stretching across the mountains while the Cape mountain zebra grazes. These are part of the enchantment of Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

---

Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock in the Eastern Cape is one of the most scenic of all South Africa’s parks, especially if you drive the Kranskop Loop. It took us across the Wilgerboom River, past the Doornhoek guest house and to a section that snaked around and up mountains until we got to Bakenkop, the highest peak in the park at 1957m. Along the way we saw baboon, common duiker and two grey rhebok bounding away from the sound of our car. 

Looking down on the Doornhoek dam from the Kranskop Loop

From various viewpoints along the Kranskop Loop, we could see layer on layer of mountains receding into shades of grey and mauve, some rolling, others more rugged with patches of weird rock formations.

Rocks, views and plants
Although animals are probably the main menu items for most visitors, for us Mountain Zebra National Park’s appeal is as much about the huge rocks, mountain views and plant life. There are three biomes here – Nama Karoo, grassland and thicket. The park has some 680 plant species, 13 of them on the Red Data List. Since many of its plants are poorly conserved elsewhere, this park plays a crucial protective role.

Stretch your legs and admire the view across mountains and valleys from the Kranskop Loop

There are at least two plants you should try to identify. One is the sweet thorn, or acacia karoo, which is in full yellow pom-pom regalia in summer. The other is the aptly named common cabbage tree. A guide told us some years ago that in the old days, if you wanted to camouflage yourself (think Anglo-Boer or Frontier wars, for instance) you wore a cabbage on your head as you skulked in the bushes and hoped no one gave you a second glance.

Take time to notice the rocks and plants, especially the cabbage tree (top right)

Then we swept on to the Rooiplaat Loop and up to a grassland plateau where there were lots of blesbok, black wildebeest, ostrich and ground squirrels. A wind pump at the top has been replaced by a solar system and submersible pump, but the wind pump still stands in tribute to the vital role it played in the Karoo in the past. Further on springbok nibbled at green shoots in a dried out pan and some Cape mountain zebra grazed nearby.

Crossing the Wilgerboom River

In search of cheetah
The next day, keen to see some of the park’s cheetah, we followed the receptionist’s advice to look in the area of the Sonnenrust 4x4 trail. They have apparently made this corner of the park their own, in an attempt to get out of the way of the two male lions introduced in 2013, which are often seen near the rest camp, around Doornhoek dam, and on the Kranskop and Rooiplaat loops.

The Sonnenrust trail wasn’t really a 4x4 trail in the true sense of the word, though a high clearance vehicle was certainly needed for some of the stonier sections and the humps. We found no cheetah, but enjoyed a feast of mountain zebras and birds like speckled mousebird, ant-eating chat, crowned lapwing, a secretary bird stalking the veld in search of food, and a Ludwig’s bustard taking slightly awkwardly to the skies near Saltpeterskop.

At the beginning of spring the veld was still dry but summer rains will turn it lush and green

An intriguing story about Saltpeterkop goes back to the Anglo Boer War of 1899–1902. British soldiers were stationed on the mountain to sound the alarm if they spotted any Boers up to their usual skulduggery. But they soon got bored so they indulged in a spot of graffiti, engraving a chessboard and their names on a rock on the koppie. Of course, those were the days before that sort of thing was considered malicious damage to property. On a previous trip, a guide told us they used to signal their moves to compatriots perched on another koppie nearby using a heliograph. There’s even a story that a local farmer used to sit on his stoep decoding their signals and playing along for fun.

Along the Sonnenrust trail we saw lots of evidence of the work being done by the park to rehabilitate overgrazed or eroded land – an inheritance from the days when this was farmland. For instance, thornbush branches have been placed over sections of the veld that have been overgrazed/eroded, to prevent animals from grazing further or even from walking there. The thorns also create a shady and fairly wind-free microclimate where grass and shrub seeds might thrive and take root.​

Driving along the Sonnenrust 4x4 trail (left); thornbush branches prevent animals - or visitors! - from walking on land that is being rehabilitated (top right)

Just after we rejoined the Link Road, we came across five eland grazing in the veld. Very skittish, four of them took off to hide behind some thorn bushes, but the fifth continued to graze unperturbed. At Ground Squirrel City – a longish mound of red sand in which there were many burrows – heads kept popping up and then disappearing again.

A storm over the park
Black clouds gathered later that afternoon and a whopping thunderstorm rolled in overnight. By lunchtime the next day the sky was blue again, not a cloud in sight, the veld washed clean of dust. After the rain, we found that rangers had chained off all three of the 4x4 routes.

A storm gathers over the Mountain Zebra National Park

We loved the Kranskop Loop so much that we drove it again in the opposite direction. This time we found two herds of buffalo, totalling about 50, one of the herds lumbering across the road in front of us.

We drove the Ubejane Loop again and again, still in search of cheetahs. One morning we saw a pair of blue korhaans, and there were certainly other good sightings. But it wasn’t until our last day that we finally saw cheetah – a mother with four large cubs. What a responsibility to raise all of them. It was a grand way to end a four-day trip to one of South Africa’s most scenically attractive parks.

Like it? Pin this image!

You may also like:
Beginner's guide to the Mountain Zebra National Park
Cheetah tracking in Mountain Zebra National Park

Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za