Other Activities available while hunting with Cruiser Safaris

The Marakele Experience

The Marakele Experience combines visits to two remarkable parks for a full day of discovery. The Experience starts with a visit to Marakele National Park and a picnic lunch over breathtaking scenery. Then you will visit Marakele Predator Park where you will be able to see some of the predators that are found in the National Park but rarely seen in the wild.

Marakele National Park Tour

The Marakele National Park is a relatively new game reserve under the management of South Africa's Nature Conservation and National Parks Board. The park is located in the heart of the Waterberg Mountains near the town of Thabazimbi. Marakele, in the Tswana language, means a "place of sanctuary" and a game drive through the breathtaking scenery makes this one of the favorite destinations in the area.

The park contains an impressive variety of wildlife due to its location in the transitional zone between the dry western and moister eastern regions of South Africa. The park is characterized by contrasting majestic mountain landscapes, grass clad hills and deep valleys. Rare finds of yellowwood and cedar trees, 15 feet high Cycads and tree ferns are some of the plant species found here. All the large game species from elephant and rhino to the big cats as well as an amazing variety of birds, including the largest colony of endangered Cape Vultures (more than 800 breeding pairs) in the world have settled here.

Five Marakele National Park Highlights:

Cape Griffin Vulture - The park hosts the world's largest breeding colony of this endangered species. While birds may be seen in the air catching thermals anywhere in the park, the drive up to the old military tower is nearest to the colony and close encounters with these enormous birds will leave visitors breathless.
African Elephant - While some elephant had been previously reintroduced into the park, it was the release of the Tuli elephants in 1999 that captured the public and media's imagination.
Rhino - Marakele has a high density of both rhino species and most visitors should see these animals, particularly the more gregarious and diurnal white rhinoceros.
Cycads - The park is host to a number of these prehistoric plants, particularly in the sheltered kloofs.
Kudu - As browsers these antelope are in their element at Marakele. Look out for the bulls with their magnificent spiral horns.

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Marakele Predator Park Tour

Marakele Predator Park is a brand new park located just out of Marakele National Park. The entrance to the park is marked by 2 beautiful marble lions. Currently the park contains both white and tawny colored lions. They also have 2 Tigers in their own enclosure. Under construction are enclosures for Cheetah, Wild Dogs and Hyena. These should be open by the time you visit there. Guided tours are offered where visitors can walk past the secured areas. There are also 2 drive through areas where visitors can actually drive their vehicles inside the secured areas with no fence between them and the lions.

One of the highlights of this new park is their “Touch a cub” area where visitors can interact with lion cubs. (The availability of the cubs is dependent on the time of reproduction and age of the cubs.) A Bird Aviary, Meerkat area along with cages containing monkeys and Bush babies make this an exciting finish to a grand day.

Click on the small images below to see enlargements. You can use the arrows to scroll through the photos or click on the X to close the image and choice another from the gallery.