A South-African journey: Pilanesberg National Park (act I)

After almost 3 months in South Africa, I finally went to a National Park to make some game drive, and see what Europeans only see in Zoos and textbooks. Simon took me to the Pilanesberg National Park, in the North West province, about 2h drive (Simon style) to Johannesburg.

Towards Pilanesberg
We left on Saturday morning at 7am, stopped for breakfast in a restaurant with a nice view on the Hartebeespoortdam (please, note the nice Afrikaans style names ...) on one side :

Hartebeespoortdam lake

... and the Magaliesberg (mountains) on the other side :

Magaliesberg

Between the Magaliesberg and the Pilanesberg, there is a large plain, with a lot of platinum mines and very poor areas (tin houses, etc.). As always, the contrast between the wealth brought by extraction of platinum and the poverty surrounding the mines is quite impressive. And yet, according to Simon, the living conditions really improved recently - I don't want to imagine how it used to be.

At the edge of the Pilanesberg National Park is Sun City, "Africa's kingdom of pleasure", where people mostly go for gambling. We didn't stop there, and continued towards the Bakubung gate, located in the south of the park. We quickly checked in and booked game drives for the afternoon and the next morning, and then we went directly into the park with Geraldine's car :

Kubu Road

In the park, there are two main roads, and several secondary paths that we cannot really call roads, for a total of 200km of roads. But it's usually easily accessible with a "city" car.

Beyond the obvious "safari" interest, the Pilanesberg National Park has both historical and a geological particularities.

History
The Pilanesberg became a reserve in 1979, but before that, it was inhabited by the Tswane tribes in the 1700s, and later by European settlers. The land was very good for agriculture. In order to make the 552 sq. km of Pilanesberg a natural reserve, the inhabitants were relocated, and all signs of farming removed, which includes extracting the vegetation brought by the farming activities, and reintroducing indigenous plants. Then, close to 6000 animals were introduced into the park. Our ranger said that most of the animals we see today would be naturally present in the area, except for elephants.
There are also signs of presence of man in the area dating back to between 40000 and 200000 years.

Geology
The Pilanesberg is in the crater of an 2 billion year old extinct volcano, forming the "Pilanesberg Game Reserve Alkaline Ring Complex". This type of alkaline complex is very rare, since there are only two others in the world (in Greenland and in Russia).

Flora
In winter, the grass is very dry and not too high, which makes the observation of animals easier. There are also many types of trees (350 identified species) and grass (70 identified species).

What I really like there is when rocks are visible on a hill, with the vegetation around. It is really beautiful - and it's the kind of place where you can find a leopard ! Also, the weather was sunny and warm on Saturday, and a bit cloudy on Sunday, so we could enjoy both kinds of weather and light conditions.