The Utrech Balele Community Game Park

The Utrecht Balele Community Game Park surrounds the entire town of Utrecht, making it a town within a game park. No fences separate the town and the game park, which covers an area of more than two thousand five hundred hectares. The park is home to no fewer than fifteen game species, which include kudu, blue wildebeast, red hartebeast, impala, blesbuck, nyala, bushbuck, burchell's zebra, eland, mountian reedbuck, waterbuck, warthog and giraffe, as well as a large variety of natural predators such as caracal, serval and more recently leopard.

The Utrecht Balele Community Game Park also boasts an impressive and prolific birdlife with an estimated total of over two hundred and fifty species being recorded in the area which include Fiscal Flycatcher, Goldenbreasted Bunting, Blackthroated Canary, most species of robins, Bush Blackcap and several Kingfishers. Recently a wetland area has been rehabilitated, which features a bird hide and has already attracted a variety of new bird species to the park. Habitats in the park vary from open vleis and grassland, to dense Acacia woodland and thickets, all the way to mountain grassland on top of the mountain plateaus.

The game park provides visitors with a relaxing, scenic destination, ideal for quiet picnics, and for more energetic folks, there are a number of guided walks and game drives also available. The game park is also equipped for tailor made holidays and team building and/or conference experiences. The park also offers opportunities for visitors to assist in the management of it, by allowing limited numbers of game to be hunted by qualified hunters. With the registered game abattoir ready to prepare a bag to the hunter's requirements, they offer the prospective hunter the ideal hunting destination.

The Game Park itself offers a variety of accommodation, which includes the Kiepersol Lodge situated high on the mountain slopes over looking the park, with its four luxury self catering lodge units and newly built secluded Safari Tents, all built around a magnificent lapa that incorporates a massive indigenous fig tree and the nearby cascade swimming pool. Each of these units is unique in its style and design, and caters for both individual families or large extended groups of up to 28 people. There is also a rustic bush camp and overnight hiking hut for those who want to enjoy a raw bush experience.