It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the skies couldn't have been any bluer when we left for the 55,000 hectare reserve. It was about two hours drive out from Jo'burg to Pilanesberg so we were thankful to have a little time to take a snooze along the way. The van had a TV unit and in between shut eyes we were entertained with music video clips of Beyonce strutting her stuff. Two hours later, we arrived at the entrance to Pilanesberg where a craft market showcased their goods. We stopped for souvenirs.
Left: Craft market where we bought hand crafted mahogany salad bowls, ladels and other wooden ornaments. Right: Rose puffing on a wooden pipe!
We didn't realise till now that our trip into the reserve wasn't going to be a rough and tumble ride on a open safari bus like in the movies. No one is allowed outside their vehicles in the reserve and so we sat safely in our air-conditioned van and looked out the windows as it cruised through its set path.
Vast, dry planes of Pilanesberg.
A lake where we found some hippos. Try spotting them in this photo! Our faces were plastered to the windows as we can tried to spot as many wild animals as possible. Thankfully, my camera with a 280mm zoom could also double up as a binocular! We were all so excited when we spotted our first zebra from afar.
At maximum zoom! That's a zebra looking right at us.We found buffalos grazing and a pack of gazelles!
Soon enough, my eyes started to play tricks on me. Every rock and shrub looked like an animal! Our tour guide then somehow found us some hippos resting by the lake. It's amazing how he even managed to spot them as they looked like a bunch of rocks, that is until I zoomed right in with my DSLR and saw it's little ear twitch!
Yup, those grey humps are hippos!We also spotted some black rhinos, bush pigs and plenty more zebras!
Towards the end of our little 'safari' tour, we were became disappointed that we didn't see a giraffe. But soon enough, a cute giraffe was spotted behind some bushes, it's neck extended far above it. Set against the vast plains, the giraffe didn't look very massive at all! But of course, we knew better. It was really cute as the giraffe spotted its audience and only started to move when it saw us drive away.
Out of the big five, we only saw the black rhinos, giraffes and buffalos. No lions, leopards or elephants could be found!
Next to the reserve was Sun City Resort, Palace of the Lost City. It is a themed casino and entertainment resort, where we stopped for lunch. Think of Sun City as an African Wilderness version of Disneyland. It reminded us of cross between Genting Highlands and Sunway Pyramid in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Me and Rose posed in front of the hotel.
Sun City wasn't exactly mind-blowing compared to Disneyland but we did enjoy our short stay there. Soon after lunch, we happily made our way back to our hotel reminiscing of buffalos and giraffes.
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