Pilanesberg National Park - View of Mankwe Dam from picnic site

Due to popular demand, we are now offering wildlife day safaris in Pilanesberg National Park – and the Soccer World Cup was an ideal time to kick off our new nature-based tours, giving clients and excellent opportunity to see a wealth of game including some of the Big Five during a one-day visit to the Park.  Here we report back on some of our recent experiences in the Park.

On our first visit with World Cup visitors from Finland on 11 June 2010, the day started off quietly, with a few herds of impala and little else.  But the bush always surprises and a quiet start does not necessarily mean that the day will continue that way.  We drove westwards through the Park and were pleasantly surprised to happen upon a collection of tourists and operator minibuses at a place where a dead rhino seemed to have collapsed beside a dam (of natural causes, there were no signs of hunting injuries).  The carcass had been found by two Pied Crows – and a lion, which skulked beneath the trunks of two nearby trees, presumably guarding the prey.  Not much could be seen of the lion which, typically, was sleeping and the most we saw of it was the top of its mane and ears.  Then, it yawned, tilting its head back, and we got a glimpse of its face!  We went on to find a host of general game including warthog, baboons, herds of impala and giraffes.  The latter were eating old bones – not part of their regular diet of leaves and browse - which we presumed theywere doing in order to obtain additional calcium.  This is quite unusual to see, so as guides we found this quite interesting.  We stopped at a hide on a large dam, where we served up hot coffee and rusks and the clients found the terrapins swimming in the water below rather engaging.  Then we saw

Hippo heading for water

the hippo.  This was out of the water and seemed to have a calf with her – we watched her plunging repeatedly into the water and getting out again, perhaps encouraging her calf to do the same.  We guessed that as the calf was quite young, it might not have been able to remain underwater for long as the dam appeared relatively deep.  (Hippos do not swim strictly speaking but walk along the bottom of the dam or river.)  We saw a variety of general game after that including impala, wildebeest, zebra, springbuck and various other animals.  As usual, we had our delicious picnic lunch at a picnic area overlooking beautiful Mankwe Dam, before finding various white rhinos en route to the hide.  Things at the hide were quiet, although we found Pied and Malachite Kingfishers, Great Egret, Reed Cormorant, African Darter, Little Grebe and African Fish Eagle there.  We had still not seen elephants and one of the clients really wanted to see these, so we took a drive around a loop road to find them.  We found white rhino extremely close to the road and a lot of signs of elephants (broken trees and dung) but none of the gentle giants.  As the sunset deepened to dusk, we finally found a small herd next to a tar road – together with the day’s surprise: a rhino with a calf which could not have been more than two weeks old!  Clients were ecstatic and it again demonstrated that Pilanesberg is a prime game viewing area a mere 2 hours from Johannesburg.

Springbuck are found in the Park, which is a transition zone between the bushveld and the arid west

On 18 June, we took our next group to the reserve.  This time, the tournament was at its height and we saw several tourists and game drive vehicles stopping to view a number of individual rhino near the road from Bakubung Gate.  We also chanced upon three or four elephants.  We went to see whether we could find the lion guarding the hippo – and found that the carcass had been reduced to smelly bones (after only a week) and the lion naturally was gone.  We did see a lot of general game after that including a herd of  hartebeest lying down (it was a very cold day) together with a steenbuck and male waterbuck as well as the usual springbuck, wildbeest and zebra in the vicinity of Mankwe Dam.  We also chanced up on a lioness sleeping in the grass some distance from the road on the way in.  The hide was the busiest we had ever seen it as several groups had elected to stop for lunch there, so there was not much there by way of animals and birds and even the resident African Fish Eagles seemed to have deserted the place!  We headed out to our usual lunch spot overlooking the dam and were pleasantly surprised to find it deserted except for us.  We enjoyed a quiet lunch there and scattered breadcrumbs, which attracted a host of birds including Arrow-marked Bablers, Grey Hornbills, a Pied Kingfisher and several others.  After lunch,we found more rhino, a sleeping hippo attended by Red-billed Oxpeckers and a family of giraffes.  We headed down a loop road and found that the reserve was burning a block to improve grazing and veld conditions during summer.  The fire attracted flocks of Fork-tailed Drongos (which flew into the flames), Lilac-breasted Rollers and even a Black-headed Heron, all feasting on the insects and small creatures disturbed by the fire.  We found two herds of tsessebe in this area, grazing on the newly burnt grass to supplement the carbon in their diets.  We left the Park at sunset again but did not see much else.  It had nevertheless been a very full day and when we tallied up all the species we had seen, we realized that clients had seen over 20 different animal species.

Pilanesberg Elephant

On 23 June, we took a group of Chinese students into the Park.  Soon after entering the Park, we saw several large herds of zebra and wildebeest, together with a small herd of giraffes.  We stopped at Mankwe Dam for coffee and rusks, seeing the usual suspects (Pied Kingfisher, Great Egret, Reed Cormorant and African Darter), together with a Grey Heron and a small flock of Egyptian Geese on the far bank.  We stopped to admire two Crimson-breasted Shrikes on the way out.  We drove on, to find hippo, again out of the water, on the banks of the river feeding the dam.  The hippo carcass was again not generating much interest and a drive through some scenic hills did not reveal any of the reserve’s wild creatures.  On descending to a large dam, however, we found herds of impala, wildebeest and zebra, together with several white rhino in different areas.  En route to our favoured picnic site, we saw some klipspringers (rock jumpers), antelope which are found in rocky areas, where they negotiate boulders and anything short of sheer cliffs with ease.  We had often surmised that they should be in the area and this time we found them.  The lunch spot proved rather busy that day but once the crowds had gone we enjoyed showing our clients several of the birds that were hanging around in search of scraps and breadcrumbs: Grey Hornbill, Southern Boubou, Fork-tailed Drongo and several others.  After lunch, we went down to a river course where we had seen a herd of elephants just before stopping for our meal.  Several other people had also discovered them and our clients were able to photograph the huge animals drinking and socializing at relatively close quarters.  We drove into an area which was filled with general game including hartebeest, springbuck, impala, wildebeest and zebra before heading out on our usual loop road. 

Small herds of giraffe are often seen in Pilanesberg

Today, we discovered the tsessebe herds, as well as a large herd of giraffes, which gave us endless photographic opportunities and were hosting numerous Red-billed Oxpeckers.  The bush saved the best for last – at a rapidly drying salt pan, we found a lioness in the bush but in full view; she had recently killed an ostrich, which she was eating.  Our clients were delighted, as were we, by this rather unusual sighting.  It was certainly the cherry on the cake for our clients, who were leaving South Africa a few days later.

Pilanesberg National Park offers excellent wildlife viewing, even during very busy periods.  At present, we are seeing several rhino, as well as elephant, hippo and lions besides a host of general game including herds of hartebeest and tsessebe, springbuck, impala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck and even more unusual antelope such as steenbuck and klipspringer.  Besides these, the birdlife is awesome with over 400 recorded species, so clients can expect to see a wealth of birdlife.  Non-birders will be entranced by colourful bushveld birds such as Lilac-breasted Roller, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Red-billed Oxpecker, Golden-breasted Bunting as well as the rather comical antics of Grey Hornbills, Fork-tailed Drongo and Pied Kingfisher, as well as the majestic Giant Egret.

Full day tours cost ZAR 1 350.00 per person and include transport in luxury mini-bus (pick-up and drop-off at accommodation), reserve entry fees, picnic lunch, soft drinks/bottled water, services of a qualified, registered national nature guide & separate driver.  Open vehicle game drive option available in summer (Sept – May) in late afternoon/evening to see nocturnal animals.  Tours take up to 8 people.  Click here to make a reservation with us.