Early on this past Saturday morning Joubert and I headed for the Pilanesberg National Park’s Kwa Maritane Gate. Our plan was to spend all of Saturday, most of Sunday morning and the night between in one of South Africa’s most easily accessible wildlife destinations, enjoying a bit of father-son company and shared hobbies in the beautiful surroundings far from the city’s distractions. When the Gate opened at 05:30 we set off, enjoying some thrilling encounters with the Park’s wildlife right from the start.
While we were enjoying the Pilanesberg’s sights and sounds from the coolness of the photographic hide at Makorwane Dam, Joubert suggested that we head for Bakgatla Resort to go setup camp before the day got any hotter.
With our tent pitched and our camping chairs unpacked, we could enjoy our lunch, a few glasses of cold drink and an ice-cream treat surrounded by a selection of Bakgatla’s permanent residents of the feathered variety.
The first stop on our afternoon drive was Rathlogo Hide, just a few kilometers from Bakgatla.
At Tilodi Dam we laughed at the antics of a male African Black Duck that was most impressed with himself for having chased off a White-faced Whistling Duck from “his” shoreline.
There was much more wildlife to be seen as we traveled through the southeastern portions of the Park.
At Lengau Dam a group of baboon youngsters were having great fun roughhousing in a dead tree and occasionally dropping into the water below – no doubt enjoying great relief from the oppressive heat but I was surprised that they weren’t more afraid of the crocodiles!
With the sun setting it was time to head towards Bakgatla.
On Sunday morning we packed up our camp and headed for the Lenong Viewpoint to enjoy our morning tea and rusks from a beautiful vantage point high on top of one of Pilanesberg’s mountains. The rest of the morning we spent visiting more of our favourite spots in the Park, until the day started getting really hot again. We enjoyed a quick lunch at Fish Eagle Picnic Spot and then headed for Kwa Maritane Gate and home…
Pilanesberg National Park is an easy 160km drive from our home in Pretoria.
DeWetsWild 
Tog te lekker… tog te mooi!
Julle sit my aan die huil hier in koue Ierland! 😉
Ek verstaan heeltemal hoekom jy sal wil huil, AJ.
Jy verstaan… ek nie! 🙄🙃😲
Such a richness of wildlife you have available to you so close to home!
Best thing about living in South Africa!
You certainly made the most of the time and experiences you shared and your photos are great – I really enjoyed seeing the huge variety of life you photographed. Is it as dry there as it appears?
Thanks very much, Carol!
Indeed, the veld is very dry in Pilanesberg at the moment, with even sections burned in September in a runaway fire still not showing any new sprouts. Would love to see the transformation after the first rains! All the big dams still hold good quantities of water though.
I hope the rains come soon and gently. Good though that the bigger dams are full.
The resilience of nature is always a joy to behold!
So much to see there! I liked the baboons having fun and the weird grasshopper.
We had a wonderful time in the Pilanesberg, Siobhan, gawking at anything and everything that slithers, crawls, walks and flies!
With the kind help of wildlife photographer Brian Pettit (http://www.naturepicturesworldwide.com/ & https://www.zambezicruisesafaris.com/our-blog/), the massive “grasshopper” as I first captioned the picture was identified as the carnivorous bush cricket Clonia wahlbergii!
Great photos on Brian’s site (including some of the crickets with long legs) and the Masuma River Lodge looks amazing. Glad you had a good trip!
A lovely excursion with wonderful sightings.
It absolutely, definitely was!
Gorgeous photos. What a wonderful array of wildlife you were able to capture.
Thanks Maralee – Pilanesberg has a very diverse population of widlife!
Wow! What a remarkable and action packed trip you had. Such an amazing array of incredible wildlife… thanks for sharing this adventure !
The pleasure is all ours – we got to experience it in real life and then telling you all about it is just as nice!
Oh, my, what a wonderful time and the best part was that I got to tag along (and I’m not even a father or son.) 🙂 Loved all the photos and I’ll look forward to the next time.
janet
There’s always a seat available for you, Janet!
Lyk of julle ń heerlik wegbreek gehad het as ek so na jou fotos kyk.
Dit was n fees en in n oogwink verby, Una!
My goodness, what a bounty of animal sightings. I am super-impressed with Joubert’s photo of the Pied Crow. And those spurs on the Crested Francolin… Formidable!
Pilanesberg is a gem of a place!
And thank you very much, Joubert will be so glad to hear how much you liked his photo(s)!
Pilanesberg is ‘n klein juweeltjie. Ons was ‘n maand gelede weer daar, maar dit was baie droog. Het dit al bietjie gereën? Jou foto’s is pragtig en dié oor die bobbejane is puik, Dries! Joubert is baie gelukkig om ‘n pa soos jy te hê en hy ontwikkel in ‘n kranige fotograaf.
Ongelukkig lyk dit nie of dit al veel gereen het in Pilanesberg nie, Dina – die dele wat einde September gebrand het het nog bitter min groen gras wat uitloop. Dit lyk darem of die damme goed deur die winter gekom het.
Baie dankie ook vir die gawe komplimente!
Ah the Pilanesberg! We spent many weekends there while living in Mmabatho – such a special place!
Lucky you, Anne! My first visit there was in 1998 – did you visit earlier? I would’ve loved to see it being transformed from farmland to game reserve!
We used to camp there before it was officially opened, right up to 1988.
The formative years!
Joubert is quite the photographer! I do love the sleeping elephants and the rhinos hiding from the sun. All such wonderful photos.
Thank you very much, Lois! I knew you would love the picture of the baby elephants napping 😉
🙂 You know me well!!
This is a fantastic gallery, and all in one weekend! 🙂
Thank you very much! In reality we spent only 30 hours in the Park – from 05:30am on Saturday until 11:30am on Sunday!
How nice that the two of you could enjoy a weekend trip together!
A blessing in every sense!
Thank you for all these wonderful photos of an amazing variety of wildlife! Its just mind-boggling how many different species of animals are present in your part of the world!
South Africa is richly blessed with an amazing diversity of landscapes, habitats and wildlife!
Joubert is so lucky to have a Dad like you, and to live in such a beautiful country!
Such a blessing to be able to share our love for the wild outdoors, Hien! And thank you for the kind words!
What a wonderful weekend you have had! And what beautiful pictures !!!😊
We had an amazing time, John – pity a weekend is so short!