The Pilanesberg
Saturday December 1st
We have a night in a hotel near the airport in Johannesburg and in the morning we meet up with the other members of our tour group.
We pile onto a bus and after a 3 hour drive to the northwest we check in to the Kwa Maritane Lodge in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.
This game park is open to the public and apparently part of the enormous Kruger park. It's set in an extinct volcanic crater, with grasslands, wooded valleys and multihued rock formations.
On our first game drive I take this video, which shows a little of what the landscape is like.
The game lodge is comfortable, but very big. It functions as a time share as well as a hotel and there are lots of families there enjoying the game and relaxing by the pool. In this photo you can see the verandah where the dining room looks out on whatever game happens to be enjoying the little waterhole.
This little monkey is in the dining room when we are having our lunch.
Game drives
Every morning at 5.30 and again at 4.30 in the evening we can join one of the game drives. The vehicles are like adapted trucks - all open so you can spot the game easily and take your photos. The first time we go out I take this video of a bull elephant running down the road towards us. It looks rather scary, but our guide, Thibo, assures us the elephant is not aggressive and will stop in front of the vehicle, which thankfully he does.
The elephant looks like it is dancing down the road, but it's only doing that to keep his balance. His ears are flapping because it's very hot and that's one way they keep cool. It's an exciting start to what we are going to see.
The photo below gives you a sense of what it's like on the truck. The roads are vey rough and so it's best to sit up the front where you don't get giggled around so much.
The animals
Over the time we are at the lodge we are very lucky to see so many of the different animals. The only one we didn't see was a lion. You do realise how amazingly well each animal is adapted to the environment and so well camouflaged. The lions must have been there but hiding in the long pale yellow grass.
We saw lots of white rhino, which is great as when I went on safari nine years ago they were very rare. In this game reserve their horns have been cut off to deter poachers and this has made a huge difference to the numbers.
This image is of a mother and a baby. When the females have a young rhino they are apparently not interested in the males. Sometimes the males get annoyed with this and attack the young ones with their horns. So cutting off the horns also helps preserve the numbers. This young rhino is about 2 years old.
The images below give you a bit of an idea of some of the animals we were lucky enough to see. Just click on each one to see the commentary.
