July 28 - Visit to Pilanesberg National Park

Today was an exciting and exhausting day.  Altogether, we drove for 15 hours, saw amazing wild animals, got backed up into and became lost in Pretoria for two hours.

The day started at 5:30 with my alarm buzzing.  I quietly got out of bed, made some tea, did my hair, found my keys and left.  

I had to pick up the three people I was going with – Leti, Charity and Canye Sihle, by 6:00.  I left the college and successfully picked up everyone.  By 6:30, we were on our way.  It was a 2 ½ hour drive and so by 9:00 we were at the gate.  The drive was straightforward and I had no issues with driving on the left side or with shifting. 

 It is actually starting to seem natural.  Just hope that I don’t start driving on the wrong side when I come back to Canada. I had more issues with the speed and passing.  Imagine a road like the Blue Trail, (a single-laned highway) with shoulders that are slightly smaller than the width of a car.  The speed limit is 120, so I was going about 125 or so in order to stay with traffic.  However, there were vehicles that wanted to pass me.  Since there was traffic that was coming towards us, I had to drive on the shoulder to let the vehicles behind me pass (in Canada, we call that suicide pass!!)  It was pretty scary.  There were other times when I was the fast vehicle and so the slower vehicle would drive on the shoulder to let me pass.  At one time, I was passing a semi.  He had pulled slightly over to the side and so I was passing him more towards the middle of the road.  There was no oncoming traffic this time.  However, as I was passing him, another vehicle was passing me.  That was scary. 

Once we safely, I paid for the entrance fees and we entered the park.  The road started out as a tar road in good shape.  However, that was the main road.  In order to see anything, we needed to go on side roads.  These side roads are basically red dirt roads that are not in the best shape. 

 

But we had to go slow anyways (20 km/h), so that didn’t matter.  Within 20 minutes, we had our first animal siteing – a herd of elephants.  That was amazing.  They weren’t that close to us and we could only see there backends, but it was amazing. 

What we think is elephant droppings - the camera doesn't do justice to the size.  One of the pieces on the side are about the size of my hand. 

We stopped at a hide.  This is a building that you can go inside that overlooks a water body.  You can sit here for a while and observe as animals come to drink.   At this hide, we saw a herd of zebras come to drink, as well as wildebeests.  The wildebeests did not like the zebras there and so they chased them away.

By 12:00, we were good and hungry, so we stopped for lunch.  We had stopped at KFC last night and picked up some chicken pieces and also had bought some snacks and that.  Throughout the park, there are several fenced in locations where you can stop for lunch.  While we were having lunch, we met someone from the college who was also touring the park. 

The view from our lunch spot

Having lunch

After lunch, we continued on our journey.  We saw a lot of zebras and a variety of types of deer.  We actually saw so many zebras and wildebeests that we stopped taking pictures of them. 

We stopped at another hide where we saw a crocodile sunbathing about 10 feet away.  We watched him for a few minutes hoping to see him move, but you couldn’t even tell if he was alive, he was so still.  Someone there told us that as a reptile, he was trying to soak up as much sun as possible and any movement would take energy that he did not want to waste.   

We continued on our journey.  For about an hour, we didn’t see anything. 

We were getting worried that they were all laying down since it was the hottest part of the day (although the car said it was only 13⁰C).  But we soon spotted zebras again and also saw some rhinos really close to the car. 

We stopped at the centre for some ice-cream which Charity wanted to treat us too.  As the server delivered our ice-cream, he spilled one of them on Canye-Sihle.  He got a horrified reaction on his face and then scurried away.  He then sent one of his employees (as he was the manager) to deal with cleaning up and the apology.  We thought this was kind of cowardly of him, so we asked to talk to him.  He eventually came over and apologized and then said we only had to pay for two of the ice-creams and not all of them. 

After this, we had time to visit one more hide.  As we took the last turn to the entrance to the hide, we came across two elephants that were fighting with each other.  Their fight was taking them on to the road!! I quickly pulled over to the side as elephants can become very aggressive if provoked.  We watched for a minute or two and then decided to quickly go into the enclosure where we could park our cars.  The elephants were no longer fighting and seemed calm.  So I quickly drove there (without stalling) and we got out of the car.  We were in an enclosure that I had a wide gate in order for cars to enter and exit, and this gate was wide enough for the elephants to easily come into.  Since they seemed calm, we spent some time watching them and we took a few pictures.  They are huge!!  We then went into the hide and saw a rhino and some warthogs.  After we were done watching we went back out.  The elephants were still there, calmly eating from the bush.  There were other people there taking pictures.  They probably got within 10 feet of the elephants.  I was not quite that brave!

The elephant was deciding whether or not to come in.

Entrance to the hide

Another rhino by the water.  

We had been hoping to see hippos and lions, but it was time to go home, so we left.  As we left, we came to a T-intersection.  I was hoping to turn left, but I was having a little issue with getting my car into gear as it kept stalling.  A car that had just turned right was pulled over to the side.  All of a sudden, I looked up and this car was backing up fast.  I blared my horn, but he didn`t stop soon enough and he ran into us.  My first accident – ever.  He bent my front license plate, I have a small crack in the front grill and my driver`s door creaks whenever I open it. The guy driving the other car was very accommodating and right away apologized and gave us his info.  On Monday, I need to make a report at the police station.  I`m hoping everything works out and that there is no additional costs on my rental.  Once information was exchanged, I carefully drove away. 

The other car.

My car - there is a small crack on the left top side of the grill.  

My hands were shaking and my mind was racing – did I exchange the right information, what is going to happen with a rental, who do I phone, etc.  As my mind calmed down, I realized how serious it could have been – he could have hit me harder in such a way that my car was un-driveable, there could have been injuries, the gentleman could have been rude and obnoxious.  But I was thankful that everything turned out well. 

We then headed out the park, a little behind schedule.  The drive to Pretoria was the same as the drive to the park – a little scary with the passing and the speed, but otherwise uneventful.  We ended up taking a different accidentally, but at this point we were never lost as the sign always said ``Pretoria ___ km``

In Pretoria, Leti needed to be dropped off and this was where more excitement started.  She needed to be dropped off at a taxi stand located somewhere in central Pretoria.  She did not know the exact location, so we asked someone.  At this point, it was dusk.  We attempted to follow these directions, but it did not work.  Our map book was useless, as it did not have a detailed map of Pretoria.  We then used the GPS on my phone to get us there.  However, we were unable to find the location.  Leti then suggested another area that would work.  I entered this into the phone and the GPS recognized that location.  After about 20 minutes we arrived there and we dropped Leti off.  At this point, I was totally lost.  I did not know which way was south, north, east or west and so I had no idea which direction KwaMlanga is.  That is one weird feeling.  The ladies I was with felt that they knew where they go, so we tried to go according to their directions.  Needless to say, we spent two hours going in circles.  My GPS was not helping at all and neither were the girls I was with.  At one point, I pulled over to try to figure it out, but it still did not help.  I also could not pull over for long as I did not know if this was a safe area or not.  Eventually, I pulled over by a MacDonalds.  We needed help – my GPS wasn`t giving clear directions and we had no idea which way to even start driving.  Charity went out and asked a man for help.  He gave us directions and pointed out which direction KwaMlanga is.  So we started driving again.  However, somehow we missed the turn that he told us to turn.  But we knew we were heading in the right direction and so we kept on going on that road.  Finally after about 20 minutes on this road, we saw a sign ``KwaMlanga``.  I literally cheered.  We were now on our way home.  We were not on the regular road that we take, but it still took us to the correct destination.  At 9:30, I arrived home, exhausted, but amazed by what I had seen and also by God`s hand over us, especially in Pretoria.