As we booked our flight to Johannesburg from Victoria Falls separately from our flight back to Germany, we did not want to risk a 4 hour connection, so ended up with a 28 hour connection. To make the most of this time we headed north west from Johannesburg to Pilanesberg National Park, hoping for a final hurrah with some wildlife, prior to heading back to start a new job.
Our flight was very prompt, but immigration to South Africa was unfortunately not, so our timing went out the window, which was then not helped by having to go to Lufthansa to sort out an issue with my seat an then Hertz, who’s pace was glacial. This resulted in our ETA at Pilanesberg being 20:30, much later than I wanted, and honestly regretted not bailing the day before when we discussed it due to the wonderful wildlife we had already seen.
Here the sunrise a lot earlier than it had in Namibia and Botswana, so we did not enjoy our 4:40 alarm call, for a 5:15 meeting time for the game drive. The weather was unfortunately not that great for photography, but at least it wasn’t raining.
Any negativity was soon removed, when very early in the game drive we saw our first White Rhino, and were the closest to any Rhino that we had been for the entire trip. It is a shame that they de-horn the Rhino’s here to stop them being poached, whereas in Etosha it seemed they could leave them to be natural. Nonetheless, it was wonderful to see these threatened animals in their natural environment.
We were also lucky enough to see a Brown Hyena, albeit from a long distance, and some lions who were near the road, although very inactive.
After the game drive we headed back to the hotel for breakfast, before making our way back to Johannesburg to collect my paraglider from Bushlore, who we used for our truck hire for our overlanding trip, and then finally to the airport for our 6 hour delayed flight and the end out our African adventure.
- Known Animal Seen: Baboon, Waterbuck, Giraffe, Hippo, Crocodile, Impala, Steenbok, Tsessebe, White Rhino, Brown Hyena, Lion, African Hook Eagle, African Darter, Cape Starling, Grey Go Away Bird, Red-eyes Spurfowl, Red-billed Oxpecker, Zebra, Red Hartebeest
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