I took an early am flight from Cape Town and landed in Johannesburg where I was met by a driver who took a group of us on the three hour drive to Pilannesberg National Park.
The group was all Americans and included a guy from Cleveland so we caught up on sports and the like an the drive really went by quickly.
The hotel I stayed at was called bakubung bush lodge and was extremely nice. They had a terrace that looked out over a pond where birds and animals gathered in the morning and at dusk. My tour included two safaris and the concierge recommended I go that night because on Wednesdays they do a BBQ out in the park.
I arranged my tours for that afternoon and the following morning. I got to my room and have to say, I was shocked. It was probably one of the nicer rooms I have stayed in. I changed into long pants and a long shirt to avoid the Mosquitos. At the last minute I realized I would be hot so I changed into shorts and a tshirt and threw sweats and a long sleeve shirt in my backpack. Oops.
We set out on the journey and saw lots of animals; kudu, impala, lions, close encounters with rhino and elephants, springbok, wildebeest, mongoose, giraffe, hippos, jackals and a bunch I am probably forgetting. The goal of a visit to Africa is seeing the big 5; lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino. The big five is so known because of how dangerous it is to hint them. Hippo kill more people every year than the others combined, however on a hunt a hippo when shot is more likely to retreat to the water, the big five will charge.
It got cold, real cold and then it started raining hard, like OSU at Nebraska hard, not USC at OSU '92 hard and definitely not OSU at WIsconsin 2003 hard, but hard. I put my best redneck getup that I could on, sweats over shorts and longsleeve shirt over button down but I was still cold.
They still had to BBQ in the bush but it was definitely tapered down. I got to meet a great girl from Argentina who was also traveling solo and we ended up having dinner together and sharing great conversation about world travel.
The safari the next morning, thanksgiving morning was early and we didn't see near the animals. However, I finally figured out my camera on this trip. I spent the rest of the day at the pool and was in bed fairly early due to the late night before and the early wakeup call.
I woke at about 3am and figured I should do another safari since I was up and isn't have to leave til 11. Once again, we didn't see near the animals we had on the first night but we did take a different route and I got to see a completely different area of the park. I gotta say, I'm impressed by the interactions of the animals. The prey seems to know when the predators have had their fill and will walk within yards of them because they understand the predators have already fed. Another thing that strikes me is the coloring of the animals. Lions aren't golden and giraffes aren't brown. They are both more of a dulled color to blend in better with the environment. They are more of a gray/brown color, at least the ones that I saw. I did end up seeing some game in pictures from Kruger national park and they were more the colors that you would expect.
I left Pilannesberg seeing 3 of the big 5.
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