In February, I had some work-visitors from the States who came to install an additive manufacturing system (LENS). It was nice to have people to take around. So, we made a few roadtrips over the weekend that they were around.
Our first trip was to Pilanesberg which is about a 2 hour drive from Pretoria. It is South Africa's most accesible big-game reserve and is on an old volcanic crater. You can see the "big 5" here. The big 5 include rhino, elephant, lion, leopard, and buffalo. They are called the big 5 because safari-hunters-of-old found that they were the most difficult to kill. A lot of tourists go to Kruger National Park-which is an order of magnitude larger than Pilanesberg. But, if time doesn't permit heading to Kruger and camping isn't on the itinerary, then Pilanesberg is the place! There are many nice hotels in the area, and Sun City - a bastion of Old South Africa - is nearby. Decades ago, gambling was illegal in South Africa. So, the land where Sun City now stands was annexed in order to build the gaudy casino and a music venue.
Okay, so we had a great tour guide that gave us an abridged version of South African history in the two hour ride. It certainly made it very pleasant, and plus, I was not driving. We made it to Pilanesberg around 8 a.m. and were very hopeful of seeing the big 5!
We started out seeing zebra....so beautiful! Each zebra's striped pattern is unique, and they actually have some grey stripes in between the white and black.
We also saw a lot of impala (below) and springbok here...
We were really excited to see white Rhino...in fact we saw about a twenty or so that day. They are very graceful, magnificent creatures.
We also saw two lions (sleeping). The picture wasn't great, so we didn't post it. We just missed the leopard and heard there were elephants around, but we did not see them. We also saw plenty of warthogs, guineafoul, giraffes, wildebeest, hippos, and steenbok. So, 2 out of the big 5 was still a great day to be out and see nature!
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