Day 6: Pilanesberg National Park

July 3, 2019

The alarm clock rings at 7 am! Today, we have a lot on our agenda!

After breakfast, we drive to the Voortrekker Monument, which we already saw from the Union Buildings yesterday.

The monument is a massive granite structure and was built in honor of the Voortrekkers, who left the Cape Colony by the thousands between 1835 and 1854 to settle further areas of present-day South Africa.

The history of the first settlers, their trails and settlement attempts, depicted both visually and on maps and writings, can be seen on various levels in the monument.

From the roof, you have a great view of the surroundings and Pretoria. Through a colonnade, you can reach the roof from the elevator, and a staircase takes you even higher to a kind of "dome" from which you can look inside the monument all the way down to the cellar. Not for people with a fear of heights.

The garden is a colorful spectacle, with covered wagons depicted on the outer walls and flowers and plants blooming everywhere.

We spend about an hour here and continue our journey towards Pilanesberg National Park around 9:30. We have about 150 km ahead of us.

We pass townships and windmills and then follow the signs to "Sun City", South Africa's Las Vegas. If possible, we also want to visit this "South African gambling paradise". We can't imagine the big national park here yet because it doesn't look like a national park at all.

After about 2 hours, we reach the turnoff to Pilanesberg National Park. Our destination, the Bakubung Lodge, is also signposted.

We pass the entrance to the national park. We don't have to pay anything here because we can enter for free with our lodge reservation. The lodge is scenically located on a hill, in the middle of the lodge buildings and holiday homes is a huge area secured by a fence and electric fence with a waterhole in the middle. We immediately spot a group of warthogs, antelopes, and zebras. How cool is that? Our own waterhole right outside the door!

We can check into our room right away (unfortunately, not in the building with a view of the waterhole, but behind it with a view of the pool) and book the evening game drive for today. A 3-hour game drive is included per night, but you can also explore the Pilanesberg NP with your own car.

Since we've never done this before, we definitely want to try the game drive first. For tomorrow, we book a "Morning Drive" which starts at 8 am, so we have to get up early again.

Today, the lodge also hosts the weekly "Bush Braai", a barbecue event outside the lodge, on the edge of the park. Basically, "in the wilderness".

Very cool! We definitely want to be a part of that!

For lunch, we sit on the restaurant terrace overlooking the waterhole. By the way, the sun is really scorching. It's almost unbearable without a sun umbrella.

While waiting for our lunch, there is suddenly activity in the enclosure at the waterhole: we hear the trumpeting of elephants. I quickly grab the camera and stand at the fence.

How cool, now two elephants are also coming to the waterhole!

After lunch, we change clothes, pack thick fleece jackets in our backpack, and I pack up the camera equipment, then we're off to our first game drive. Quite exciting! We are the first ones in the safari vehicle, which is more like the size of an open truck, and we take the front row. We still wonder why there are thick fleece blankets on all the seats.

The vehicle fills up and is fully occupied when we depart - a total of 20 people. Vehicles in front of and behind us are also loaded, and then we convoy with 5 vehicles into the park. After the first fork, the vehicles in front of and behind us turn onto smaller paths. We continue on the "main road" towards the dam.

And it was already worth it after just a few meters! Next to us, there is a female elephant with her calf drinking and dusting herself with sand.

We continue to the dam and the lake, where we see the other game drive vehicles on the other side, standing near a herd of elephants.

A short time later, we spot giraffes next to the road and 3 hippos in the lake.

We continue into a savannah-like area of the Pilanesberg NP when our driver receives a message over the radio that "something" has been sighted. We don't know yet what it is, but the masses of cars and game drive vehicles on a field road have either heard the news or seen something.

And then there it is: our first cheetah!

A female cheetah, they explain to us, which, unlike male cheetahs, does not guard a fixed territory but explores and wanders around, is therefore equipped with a tracking collar. Our driver also explains that there are only 4 cheetahs in the entire park, and they haven't seen the females for a long time. Wow, that's amazing! How lucky we are!

Unfortunately, we are not quite as successful in the following hour. We drive cross-country on all kinds of paths but only see giraffes in the distance. Two small antelopes, called steenboks, cross our path.

At another lake, we see a black-backed jackal, and shortly before sunset, we come across a small herd of zebras.

As dusk falls - and it quickly becomes very cold - we head back towards the lodge.

At half past five, the sun sets, and shortly afterwards, it's pitch dark. Around half past six, we turn off onto a few dirt roads a few fields before the lodge, rumble up an uneven path up the hill and shortly thereafter reach the fenced-in "Bush Braai Area".

It is beautifully designed. There are covered tables with benches and chairs everywhere, many candles, even real toilets hidden behind small bush huts.

In the middle, there is a large bonfire, with small stools around it. On the left and right of the tables, there is a buffet area and several grills.

We are assigned a table. Since we are the last game drive vehicle, we are given the table right next to the entrance, far away from the buffet and the warming fire.

We have long put on our thick fleece jackets, wind jackets on top, scarves, and the husband even has a hat and gloves with him. It's really cold - freezing!

After dinner, we sit by the bonfire to warm up. A dance group sings and dances African dances for us. The ambiance is incredibly beautiful (if it weren't so damn cold).

At 8 pm, the crowds begin to thin out, and we also get into the next game drive vehicle.

The 15-minute ride back to the lodge is already a taste of tomorrow's morning drive: we need to dress warmer! Since the vehicles are open on all sides, the icy wind blows in our faces. Even in total darkness, I can't take off my sunglasses. It's pretty eerie!

After a hot shower, we quickly disappear into the cozy bed and fall asleep pretty fast. Hopefully, it won't be as cold tomorrow morning.