Birthday Safari

Howdy Folks,
and HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK to the girls!! Veronica is now 4 and Violet is very soon to be 2. What do you get for the girls who need no excess baggage? How about some giraffes and rhinos!
As a special birthday surprise, we decided to take the girls on another quest for the ellies. We opted not to go to Kruger National Park, which is about 4 hours away and is typically booked solid anytime near a weekend in winter, but rather go to Pilanesberg National Park, which is about 2 hours away. It's right next to Sun City, which dinosaurs of my era may remember from the 1980's cassette featuring artists dedicated to boycotting the casino/resort as a protest against Apartheid.

We decided to boycott the casino too, if only because taking a girl to a casino for her fourth birthday may seem to some like irresponsible parenting, especially if there aren't enough chips to share with her two year old sister.

So we headed up to P'berg after another trip to the Rosebank Craft Market down in Jo'burg. Sorry, apart from the bouncy castles, I can't say what all we did there in order not to ruin some surprises. Then, at naptime, we headed northwest past PTA to Pilanesberg, and managed to book into an Executive Safari Tent at the Bakgatla Camp. We actually arrived at the Mankwe Camp, and decided to move on, but not until we had availed ourselves of their bouncy castle.
We did find the Bakgatla Camp, just before dark, and after driving through Goat City, which was what Veronica christened the town along the edge of the park for salient reasons.

We arrived at the Executive Safari Tent, replete with running water and electricity and debarked the provisions for the night. We wandered through the camp in search of hilarity and the restaurant for the buffet dinner. We found the playground, which was in the dark, but well enough lit for a little extra birthday adventure. We then beheld a glowing in the northeast, over the mountains, and some patience bore the rising of the bright beautiful full moon. This may have partially explained the rousing chorus of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from one of the campsites, though clearly this was not the sole lubricant of the revelers' muse.

After a delicious all one could wish to eat dinner, including a lovely desert buffet, it was off to bed. While the tent was comfortable with its beds and mini-fridge, it did turn out to be insulated as a tent typically is. Fortunately for us there was also a space heater.

In the morning we found one of the promised amenities, a trampoline, but had to wait until after breakfast for the 2200-800 curfew to pass. Another fantastic buffet breakfast and back out to the trampoline. Also on site, the superette with extra provisions for lunch. And as the grown-ups provisioned, the Bakgatla Bouncy Castle appeared and drew the jumping feet along. It was tough to get the girls in the car for a day of game watching, but we managed.

We drove into the Park proper and set off for the first hide. Not much going on there. So back in the car. Shortly later we saw our first game of the day, some blue wildebeests. A few photos and onward!

Next we came across some warthogs, rooting about.

We turned off the paved road onto a nice gravel track and came upon a roving ostrich
As well as some animals we'd never heard of,
These here are red hartebeests, and we also came across tsessebes, which are another bok-like creature. For me, the boks held little interest until you learn to tell some of them apart.

We stopped in at the Pilanesberg Centre, which is under renovation, but which did have the shops relocated to tents. The Centre was fenced and had a nice view of a watering hole with more wildebeests gamboling.

We headed off to find a suitable picnic spot, and were flagged down by a fellow game watcher to alert us to a lion sighting not to far from where we were. Lions are one of the "Big 5", and when the locals start getting excited about it, you know it's a big deal. We headed to where we were told to go, but we didn't really need to scour the landscape. The lion sighting had caused a nice knot in the traffic, with people parking on both sides of the street in the lanes to stop and gawk at the King of the Beasts. We didn't really see them, and basically got frustrated with the agog game-watchers forgetting their motoring skills. And we were hungry, so we managed to wriggle out of the traffic and head for the picnic area.
We were rewarded with an encounter with a herd of giraffe.

Let me tell you, I was pretty riled up by the traffic episode, but giraffes exude a mellowness and poise that can just put you into a state of bliss by their company. I think giraffes are about one of my favorite things. Look at this one! It even has a heart shaped spot on it!
How can you not love these things?

We stopped for lunch at a picnic spot called Fish Eagle, overlooking a watering hole. We saw these lumps that I thought were hippos, but then I thought they were rocks. Then hippos, then rocks again. Then I took a picture, but I still couldn't tell. I'm pretty sure now that the rocks are in fact, hippos. They are chillin' here with some waterbuck
After lunch it was time for a rest, and we promised the girls we'd wake them up if we saw ellies. We didn't see elephants, but we did spy some rhino (probably white rhinos, which are NOT on the Big 5, though black rhinos are).


And also some zebra (which rhymes with Deborah, in the local parlance). As the girls woke up we spied some more zebra, wildebeests (these things are everywhere), warthogs, rhino, and even some baboons.
And on another tip, we found another traffic snarl which meant lions. There were 3 lionesses there, though I only saw one of them, she was about 60 meters off, and this was the best shot I could get.

The sun was going down, and we needed to get to the gate. On our way our we saw another rhino with a baby, and back at the first lion-related traffic snarl we found the lions were still there. This time we saw them, only about 10 meters off the road. A male and a female. But it was too dark to get any good photos.
So we left Pilanesberg after a good days Safari, even if no ellies, and a great start to the Birthday Week.