This post is by Shon -
We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg and were met by a driver from Thompsons to take us to the safari area. The Park area was located roughly 2 ½ hours north of Johannesburg so we had a decent ride through the country side. In Cape Town the townships you saw from the highway were small and crowded. The houses may only have been separated by inches, and there appeared to be a central bathroom area (evident by the rows of port-a-johns near the highway). Around Johannesburg the sizes of the houses may have been similar, but the plots of land were more the size of an average city lot. Most of the areas were fenced off, had at least a running water spigot, a garden and an outhouse on each lot. Some even had Satellite dishes attached to a post or the roof of their houses. I do not know the reasons for this difference, I just noticed the difference. Another thing I noticed was the large amount of people (men) selling things in the roadway. Notice I did not say along the roadway but in the road, the middle. This doesn’t happen on the main highway but on smaller roads with stop signs or traffic lights. I wonder how many people get hit by cars doing this. This area is primarily filled with mines. Near Johannesburg the mines were gold and diamonds. In the next province over there were many platinum mines with the other major industry being growing sunflowers for oil.
We stayed at a hotel called Bakubung Bush Lodge which is inside Pilanesburg National Park. It was part of the same hotel chain we used in Cape Town. As far as the hotel itself, it is very nice. It had all of the amenities you would expect. There was a pool, and a play area for kids which had an in ground trampoline. There was also a small building for spa services such as massages, facials, and pedicures. I had a 90 minute massage and a pedicure.
The hotel was what I would call motel style, meaning you can drive up to the rooms; the buildings are only two stories tall. One section of the hotel was rooms for rent while there was another group of buildings which were townhouses used for timeshares. The one thing that I did find to be different was the place had a straw roof. It reminded me of the story of the Three Little Pigs. I thought the straw was just an illusion to give the impression of being in “the bush”. I was expecting the underside to be plywood and roofing materials. It was not, it was truly straw all the way through. But the straw was 8 inches thick so I take it whomever built it knew what they were doing because the rooms were warm and it did rain while were there and no water dripped into out room.
The food at the hotel was very good also. There were not any restaurants or alternative places to eat in the area so you have to eat at the hotel dining room. There was a large variety of food served at each meal so there were many options. Room service was also available but the menu was a bit more restricted. Sometimes you had to be very specific about the way you wanted food. One afternoon I ordered room service, a hamburger and French fries. Now in America because I did not specify anything but hamburger and French fries I would receive a plain hamburger and fries which is what I wanted. Well this is not what I received. Room service delivered a bacon cheeseburger covered with a red barbecue sauce. When the server handed me the sandwich and I could see the cheese and sauce, I said “this is a hamburger and fries?” and she said “yes”. Now, the sandwich tasted just fine, there was nothing wrong or with the meat, bread or cheese but I forgot to be very specific about how I wanted the sandwich. (yes I am a weirdo when I comes to hamburgers, French fries, and lemonade.) (note from Shevvi - The stir fry night was crazy. The cook flambes everything with flames up to 10 feet in the air. While all this was going on a helper was moving around under the table within inches of the flames , and all this was under the straw roof. Teh food was not burnt at all and was the best meal I ate while there. Also one person who traveled with us was a vegetarian and hand no trouble finding options all through the trip. Vegans would have had a tough time though. )
The hotel is also less than a 10 minute drive from the resort area “Sun City”. In the brief time we spent there it seems to be a mix of Las Vegas and Wisconsin Dells. The Las Vegas part being the gambling, golfing, and many night clubs in the different sections of the resort, the Wisconsin Dells part being the timeshares, adventure park, go-kart track, flower garden, and water park areas. (Shevvi note - skip Sun City unless you bring small kids that want to go to the water park. It is expensive (except for the drinks) and cheesy)
Since the hotel touches the park there is an area outside the rooms that you can view the wildlife that happens to come up to the small pool of water in the area. The area is fenced off with electrified fence and 1 inch thick cables so the animals stay in the park area and not in the hotel courtyard. Our first afternoon there was a group of warthogs there. The second afternoon there was some wildebeests.
The morning safari drive left the hotel at 6am. Before the drive starts everyone has to sign a waiver stating the hotel is not responsible for injuries and or including death while on the safari drive. We were also alerted to rules of the drive such as stay seated at all times while the vehicle is moving, try not to make loud sudden noises (talking is fine but don’t scream or shout), and most of all do not get out of the vehicle for any reason.
Once we left the hotel area it was less than a 2 minute drive before we went through the gate of the park. The odd thing about the safari is there is no guarantee that you will see any animals. Because the vehicles stay on the roads if the animals are not near the roads or on the areas visible from the roads there is nothing to see. When an animal is spotted the driver would pull over to allow for photos and he will talk about the animal in question. Since the drive starts at dawn the vehicles have spotlights on the front that the driver uses to spot and point out animals.
When the drive started we were driving along the bumpy pot hole filled roads for about 10 minutes huddled up in blankets when the driver pulled stopped and pointed out some small deer looking animal that was 200 yards from the road. I was thinking “is that it? Is this what the next 3 hours is going to be like?” Needless to say I was dead wrong, a couple minute drive from that small deer looking animal we saw a full grown rhino and a baby rhino standing 50 feet off the road under a tree. From there the frequency of animals and the variety picked up. Since the first couple of stops everyone on the ride became “deputized spotters” so we were all looking high and low for animals as the vehicle moved. For the rest of the rides (I went on a total of two morning rides while Shevvi went on the two morning and a night ride) we saw every kind of animal such as: hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, impalas, wildebeests, zebras, eagles, various birds, lions, warthogs, gazelles, and ostriches. The one animal we did not see was an elephant. There were elephants in the park and we would see evidence that the elephants were around but we didn’t actually see one. We could tell that they were nearby severely trampled grasses and trees as well as piles of droppings which were “fresh”. So they were around but not visible.
(Shevvi note- I loved the safari much more than I expected to and this was my favorite part of the trip. This was shocking to me since I am not a nature girl at all. I missed taking plenty of shots because I was so enthralled watching the animals. This is why most people safari for 5-7 days. I would encourage anyone to take as many morning drives as possible because we saw both the day and nocturnal animals on those days. It gets so dark, so quickly on the night drive that only have of the trip resulted in any sort of sightings. )
Here are the safari pictures
