Pilanesberg Park Safari
I am on the Board of a Company based in Johannesburg so I travel to Jo'burg for meetings a few times each year. Kate and I had discussed Ada and her tagging along for a long weekend trip to a Game Park but we were waiting for the opportunity. The opportunity presented in the form of Student led Parent/Teacher meetings which meant that the last two days of the school week were effectively days off.
We decided to go but we were a little frustrated trying to get flights, accommodation and choosing a park. Kruger park was the most famous but was a five to six hour drive from Jo'burg and the flights didn’t really allow use to maximise time in the parks looking at animals. As a result we focused on the Pilanesberg Park which, with good traffic, was a two and a half hour drive.
Our usual channels to find accommodation showing that the lodges in the Pilanesberg were full, due in the main to Indian school holidays, and the Lodge websites did not have easily accessible calendars showing room availability. Instead you had to fill out an electronic inquiry form and wait for a response.
The whole trip was not coming together and on many occasions we considered giving up but our expat FOMO (fear of missing out) over rode the desire to give up and we thankfully persisted.
We were strongly
advised to book in the Park, as opposed to a lodge at the park entry or adjacent
to the park, at a small lodge that does two game drives per day in smaller 4X4
as opposed to the larger converted trucks.
This immediately landed us in the premium end of the market, one with
which we are not that familiar. We
reconciled the cost by saying that this was “once in a lifetime”, it was only
later that we appreciate the value of the advice we had been given.
In the end we used a local travel agent recommended by some South African friends which felt a little strange as we were more accustomed to the internet and direct bookings. We shouldn’t have worried as the agent, Chic Chamberlain, was able to secure a reservation for two nights at Tshukudu Bush Lodge located within the Pilanesberg Park and organised the transfers for us.
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| It is chilly in South Africa in autumn |
After a few drama’s picking me up from my Board Meeting, we had a comfortable 2 hour drive to Pilanesberg and the Tshukudu’s sister lodge Bakabung on the outskirts of Pilanesburg. From Bakabung we were to transfer with our bags into the Tshukudu 4x4 for the drive to the Lodge.
The Lodge had been
told of our arrival time and we had been led to believe that we would be in
time for the evening game drive; however, in our only encounter with the Lodge
Manager while checking in at Bukabung, she told us that we had missed the
evening drive in a very dismissive way.
We thought that, given the price we were paying, far more effort could
have been made to get us on a game drive that evening. The attitude was even more surprising given
that there were only two other people staying in Lodge!
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| I think we were spoiled by this on our arrival |
Fortunately Chic had a quiet word with Shane, the guide who was driving us to Tushkudu and Shane was more than happy to take us the “long way” to the Lodge to ensure that we didn’t miss out on our evening game drive. As soon as we entered the Park, Shane got word over the Guides radio that two cheetah brothers had killed a baby zebra just on the edge of the road.
Even through Shane was
quick to move there were about 10 vehicles queued up waiting for their turn to
get a close look at the cheetahs.
Everyone was patient and the guides made sure that no one monopolised
the view. The two cheetahs were
indifferent to the vehicles and were more focused on feeding quickly before
they were driven off by lions or hyenas. The close up views were amazing, we
didn’t really appreciate how special this was as it was our first taste of close up game viewing. |
| Nervous Zebra's? |
After our turn, we took a slow drive back before sundown past the grazing Impalas and Wilderbeast to Tshukudu Bush Lodge which is in private section of Pilanesberg park in a small open valley with a waterhole at the centre. The lodge is perched on a small rocky ridge sitting above the water hole. It is like a private box with a sweeping view of the stage where all the action was being played out in front of you all the time. Even better this was the view from the lounge, from you balcony, the bedroom and even the bathtub!
As the lodge was on a private part of the park, there was no other vehicle traffic. This combined with no television and no internet meant that the time was a great electronic detox (although Kate got her Lucy Whatsapp fix using the intermittent coverage while on the game drives). There were only two other people in the Lodge for our two days which made the luxury experience even more personal.
The accommodation deal
included three meals a day and although the timings seemed odd 10am breakfast,
3 pm high tea and dinner at 8pm, it all worked perfectly around the two
four-hour game drives at 5.30 am and 3.30pm. The food was excellent, with a five
course dinner, and Chef Johnny was more than keen to accommodate
dietary restrictions. His gluten free
bread and poppy seed cake were excellent.
Our guide Ally was
very knowledgeable having been through the extensive guide training programme. Even better, she was a keen
birder and we benefited from her encyclopedic knowledge of every small bird
which Kate in particular loved and Ada finished the two days wanting to be a
ranger!
In addition to the
many Zebra, Wilderbeast, Impala, Gnu, Kudu and even a distant view of two
Eland, our highlights from the remaining three drives were:
- A tower of Giraffes in the late afternoon light with two young males practicing fighting or “necking”. The slow and elegant movement looked like Tai Chi.
- Being in the middle of a herd of elephants including a number of babies after sundown while they calmly fed. Some were less than 10 meters away.
- Waiting for a white rhino to cross the road in front of us
- Seeing the black flash of two honey badgers as they crossed the road in front of the vehicle
Unfortunately, it was
all over too soon. Ada did not want to
leave and Kate and I wanted another afternoon between drives lounging on the
deck from our room overlooking the stage.
