Happy New Year, everyone!
We kicked off 2021 by spending time with the most adorable family of Bat-eared Foxes here at Mountain Zebra National Park. We have lots more photos of the 3 cute pups and the 4 adults watching over them to share when we’re back home.
During our drive through the Addo Elephant Park this morning we were fortunate to encounter this confrontation between an elephant bull and two spotted hyenas who were trying to hide the remains of their prey in a water trough.
With it being a rather hot day in the Addo Elephant National Park today another of the Park’s star attractions – the Addo Flightless Dung Beetle – were out in their numbers gathering food for their progeny.
Sadly, our time for exploring the Pilanesberg National Park has very nearly run out by the point we make one final pit stop at the Mankwe Hide. From here it’s only a 12km drive to the exit at Bakubung Gate, and however we try to dawdle the last few miles along Letsha and Kubu Drives the gate still comes into view too soon for our liking…
Mankwe Hide to Bakubung Gate
It is 18:02 as we drive out the Pilanesberg National Park at Bakubung Gate. We’ve spent exactly twelve amazing hours exploring the Park, most of it in drenching, cleansing rain. If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
Now it’s just short of a two hour drive back to Pretoria and, as good a time as any, I think, to look back on how this Park came into existence. More than a billion years ago what is today the Pilanesberg National Park was an active volcano that, during its final eruption, collapsed in onto itself and the remains of which is visible from space as a range of concentric hills in South Africa’s North West Province.
NASA image of the Pilanesberg
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilanesberg_Game_Reserve#/media/File:Pilanesberg_Ring_Dike_Complex_(19921993221).jpg)
Humans have been living in this area since the Stone Age. When the first European explorers, missionaries and eventually settlers arrived here it was ruled by Chief Pilane of the Bakgatla clan, hence the given name Pilanesberg (Pilane’s mountain). The Pilanesberg quickly became transformed into farmland. In 1961 South Africa’s apartheid government declared the homeland of Bophuthatswana for the Tswana-speaking people and Pilanesberg was one of the pockets of land incorporated into the new nominally independent “country”.
The Bophuthatswana Government started planning the Pilanesberg National Park in 1969 already. The 550km² reserve only opened on the 8th of December 1979 though, following the relocation of the farming communities that lived there originally, the removal of almost all human-made structures and exotic plants, fencing of the entire perimeter, provision of tourism infrastructure and the introduction of nearly 6,000 large wild animals from all over Southern Africa in the epic Operation Genesis.
With the dawn of a democratic South Africa in 1994 Bophuthatswana, and the Pilanesberg National Park, once again officially became part of the country.
We’re driving along Tshwene Drive in the Pilanesberg National Park and have just passed the Korwe Link turnoff when we see two vehicles up ahead, driving very slowly. Is that ANOTHER LION in the road in front of them!? We can’t believe our luck at yet another lion sighting – our fourth for the day – and such an impressive specimen too! He proceeds close to the road for a while with his adoring fans following faithfully, then moves deeper into the veld but still more or less parallel with the road, requiring us to continue along in first gear for the occasional glimpse.
About 200m further along the road we notice a herd of giraffes, and the lion is heading right towards them. Slowly we venture forward to find the best vantage point for the impending attack, but the lion is spotted by his lofty quarry and can only roar about his disappointment… Perhaps the tsessebes another few hundred meters further along would have been easier prey, if he didn’t tell all and sundry he was there with that load roaring!
We decide to pay one last visit to the shores of Mankwe Dam, and guess what? MORE LIONS! These two are doing what lions do best – sleeping. Our fifth encounter with lions in one day at Pilanesberg is decidedly sedate compared to the others, but we appreciate it nevertheless.
In quite a contrast, our next sighting is of two lesser striped swallows serenading each other with the chirpiest tunes at the bridge over the Mankwe stream. It’s so sweet seeing each taking a turn to listen with eyes closed to the other’s melody!
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Tshwene Drive to Mankwe Hide via Hippo Loop
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow, with the final installment.
One of the most scenic parts of the Pilanesberg National Park, and there’s stiff competition, is the area around the Tilodi Dam near the eastern entrance at Manyane, and we just have to go see what’s around there even in the pouring rain. We find a nice spot looking out over the water and just take in the peace and quiet for a while.
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Mankwe Way to Tilodi and back
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow.
It’s 2pm when we see our first warthogs for the day at the junction of Tau Link with Tshwene Drive. These plucky pigs are usually a common sight in the Pilanesberg National Park but as they do not like cold or wet weather they probably stayed in their burrows for as long as they could before being forced to venture out in search of food. A kori bustard striding the plains near Mankwe Dam is another unexpected and very welcome sight. At the dam itself, seen from the aptly named Hippo Loop, the chubby denizens of the water have taken advantage of the overcast conditions to start grazing early, while an elephant munches leisurely on a tree at the side of the road.
Heading onwards again we opt to go see what’s happening at Mavuso’s carcass, and find that the black-backed jackals and brown hyena are still in attendance at the feast.
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Tau Link to Mankwe Way
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow.
After lunch, getting back to the parking area at Rathlogo in the Pilanesberg National Park, we’re welcomed by a very friendly slender mongoose. Normally these animals are exceedingly shy, so this one’s unusual familiarity with humans, and in this specific location, could only mean one thing – that it is being fed by visitors to the hide (a practice that really does not do the animal any favours by the way and should be strongly discouraged).
We head north from Rathlogo towards the northern boundary of the Park, turning right just before the Bakgatla Gate to travel along a loop of the Moruleng and Korwe Drives and then back past Rathlogo to the Tau Link Road. With the rain letting up for a short while there’s a few more birds appearing in the open, though some of them are still so wet and scruffy as to be unrecognisable!
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Rathlogo Hide to Tau Link via Kgabo, Moruleng and Korwe drives
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow.
Eventually our own hunger pangs motivate us to leave the scene where the now satiated lions are no longer gorging themselves with the same gusto as an hour ago. We decide to head for Rathlogo Hide, following Sefara, Tlou, Thuthlwa and Kgabo Drives, as at least we should find a bit of shelter from the rain for our picnic lunch there.
Along the way we see another buffalo, giraffes, impalas, jackals, another brown hyena, a big herd of blue wildebeest, and numerous birds, and all of this while surrounded by amazing scenery.
A leopard tortoise coming to drink from a puddle in the road reminds us to also keep our eyes peeled for the smaller fry. Incidentally, while by now we’ve ticked four of the “big 5” this fellow is our only encounter today with one of the “little 5“.
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Nare Link to Rathlogo Hide
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow.
We’re still on a high from our sighting of Rain the cheetah and her cubs when we turn from Nare Link into Sefara Drive in the Pilanesberg National Park, following the road uphill. Before we even crest the rise we become aware of the sound of thundering hooves moving at speed…
“Buffaloes!”
The Park’s buffaloes are so seldomly seen that they’re known as the “ghosts of the Pilanesberg”, and any encounter with them is a thrilling treat. Even more so these particular buffaloes, as they are in quite a rush to get away as quickly as possible, allowing only a few photos as they run past us, thankfully without smashing into our vehicle. Was it us who scared them?
As the buffaloes stampede down into the valley, we get back our composure and drive on. We don’t get very far however before Joubert yells out, again, “Lions!” Could it really be our third lion sighting of the morning!?
Indeed, there obscured behind some twigs and branches, are a pride of 5 lions wrestling with a buffalo cow on the ground! Now the stampeding herd of buffaloes we saw half-a-minute ago makes perfect sense!
As the bellowing of the cow dies down, no longer to be heard above the sound of raindrops on the car’s roof, and her feverish kicking stops, it’s clear that the fight is all over. In the excitement it takes a while for me to figure out that if I drive past the scene we’d have a much clearer view of it looking back. Just as the feeding starts one of the younger lionesses gets up and walks off, presumably to collect the pride’s cubs to join the feast. While we wait almost an hour for her to return, she doesn’t, so the cubs must’ve been quite some distance away. In the meantime the sights and sounds of the lions tearing the buffalo cow open and apart is as bone-chilling as you can imagine.
And to think we’re only half-way through our day in the Pilanesberg!
If you’d like to follow along as we explore the Pilanesberg, a map may come in handy (for a large format version click here)
Scene where we saw the buffaloes and lions on Sefara Drive
If you need to catch up on our drive through the Pilanesberg National Park, you can read all the previous posts here.
To be continued tomorrow.
