|
|
| .. |
Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
|
|
|
PILANESBERG, SOUTH AFRICA
|
Pilanesberg National Park website At 500 square kilometres, Pilanesberg, is the third largest game reserve south of the Limpopo. Since its official opening in 1979, 8000 large animals of over 20 species have been re-introduced, so that today the park accommodates virtually every mammal of southern Africa. At the entrance to the restaurant, there's a map of the park where guides put color-coordinated thumb tacks up to correspond with what animal they had seen that day and where. No one had seen any cats yet.
|
The Pilanesberg National Park borders on the entertainment complex of Sun City. The park is 55.000 hectares and is almost perfectly circular because it comprises the area of a 1200 million years old volcano crater with a small lake in the centre. We did a half day tour to Pilanesberg that was supposed to include trip to Sun City but we didn't want to go to Sun City so we skipped it. "I ain't going play Sun City!" Edward, our guide, was very cool and we talked politics most of the time. 
This reserve was quite a change from 
Then, about every 5 or 10 minutes we would find something - two white rhino, impalas, kudu, baboons, wildebeasts. We then found 3 giraffes - they are magnificant! I love their long, graceful gait. After about 2 hours, we stopped at the restaurant in the middle of the park. I got ostrich shish-kebobs and a Castle Beer (of course!). I hadn't had ostrich before - it was really good and tasted like beef to me. The restaurant area has a snack shop if you don't want a full meal and a curio shop. 
After lunch, we saw a group of 15 elephants traveling really quickly parallel to us. Edward said that they were going to the water and knew where they were going to cross the road. He was right - they crossed right in front of us (above pic) and then continued towards the lake. We followed and watched the herd of elephants for about 1/2 hour, then continued on. We saw two shy zebras and three wildebeasts by the lake. Towards the end of our drive, we came upon a mother and baby giraffe. Adorable! 
