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Published: April 8th 2017
South Africa has so much to offer...and I have to admit, we are loving it! We had another cheap flight this time to Lanseria. This is the second airport in Joburg. It's a way smaller one right in between Pretoria and Joburg. We are staying this time two nights in Pretoria. Price of hotels here are way cheaper than in Cape Town, and the old Sheraton will have to do it.
The plan is to do a return day into Pilanesberg. This is one of the top 10 parks in South Africa. It's just two hours drive from Pretoria, so pretty easy to do it in a long packed driving day. We did not stop this time in Sun City....but playing the top golf course is still on my wish-list.
We have been lucky to be upgraded to a decent Renault Stepway...little higher carriage than the basic rental car. Self-drive is the way to go in South Africa. If you book a "safari" here. You will drive exactly the same tracks as us, the price is just slightly different. So foreigners do book "safari drives"...and locals and organized foreigners do simply self drive! Cost for
three of us plus the car...17usd for a full day in the game reserve. Yes I know, it's cheap for the viewing we had!
So we did go around a lot. Started at 9am and we were out of the park just after sunset by 6.30pm! The Pilanesberg center has a nice restaurant providing all the basics needed for a simple lunch.
What did we spot? Well, we did not spot any lion, even if they claim to have around 50 of them in the park. But it seem that was also valid for those on the "safari drive" when we were in the park. We had a great spotting of a leopard...lazying down on his tree some 150 meters from us. Can't tell you the excitement of the ladies! The water holes are full of water...smile! And the grass is pretty high, but we still had a lot of great spotting. We must have seen 4 or 5 time groups of white rhinos. We also had some 4 or 5 spotting of either a bull elephant, or a full elephants family going around. Look at the picture and bear in mind that was
my little diving camera. Camera that has sadly been flooded few days ago. That's what is happening when you push these little toys a little to much further than what they are built for!
We also saw many hypos. The temperature was pretty high, so we had a lot of their top of the heads and backs, but not more than this as they were cooling off in the water. We also had a great moment, and close one with a huge crocodile....what an experience!
Pilanesberg is pretty big, and you will see animals all over the place. This was a first top experience for Tanya. My ladies did a great job of spotting so much all day long, while I was trying to drive careful on some of those fun tracks.
Next safari for us is only coming end of September, in the first ever game reserve ever established long time ago in South Africa. I know, these are a lot of pictures of animals here. Next blog I should have a more serious toy to bring back better quality pictures.
For now, we are
at home, enjoying our little nest, the golf, the diving, the wine and the food...and making more friends around! Never thought settling here would be that easy!
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roamingfox
Alma van As
Welcome to South Africa
It sounds like you are already have a great time in our country, but I hope you and your ladies enjoy yourselves in your new country. Stay safe! Pilanesberg is a great place for seeing most of the wild animals.