Marakele National Park is a

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

, part of the Waterberg Biosphere in

Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Flora and fauna

The park is accessible to all passenger vehicles, with the camp and tent sites on good roads. Also, approximately 80 km of roads within the park are accessible to all vehicles, the balance requiring a four-wheel drive vehicle. Marakele is home to the big five (buffalo did not exist in the park, but 20 disease-free buffalo (nine cows and eleven bulls) were re-introduced on 15 October 2013) as well as sixteen species of

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

s and over 250 species of birds, including the largest colony of

Cape griffon vulture The Cape vulture (''Gyps coprotheres''), also known as Cape griffon and Kolbe's vulture, is an Old World vulture in the family ''Accipitridae''. It is endemic to southern Africa, and lives mainly in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and in some p ...

s in the world (around 800 breeding pairs). The

Matlabas River The Matlabas River is a river in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is a tributary of the Limpopo River. The river's catchment area comprises 3,448 square kilometers. The entire catchment area of the river is located within the Waterberg Distric ...

runs through the park.

History

The area now constituting Marakele was home to several iron-age settlements which are not yet open to public viewing. Prior to its foundation as a National Park, it was home to naturalist

Eugene Marais Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

. Marakele was founded as Kransberg National Park in 1994 with the purchase of , and was shortly after renamed to its current name. By 1999, the park had expanded to .

Accommodation

Two tented camps are laid on in Marakele, namely Tlopi and Bontle. The SANParks webpage informs that between April and September 2013, eight new tented units will be constructed at Bontle camp, but that the camping sites will be kept open for visitors.

References

External links

Marakele National Park

Marakele Contractual National Park
Protected areas of Limpopo Protected areas established in 1944 National parks of South Africa {{Africa-protected-area-stub