mammals. February is one of the wetter months in the park so at times the grass was quite high making it difficult to spot animals when they weren’t close to the road, even rhinos far away could be missed. For spotting lions and leopards in the high grass we asked some of the guides and even with their expert input it was extremely difficult to spot them. We did get lucky and spot a leopard amongst the rocks on a koppie. It was a great sighting as this is a really shy animal and hard to spot in the wild even at the best of times. After the morning drive we left the park each day to have breakfast at about 9 am and then just relaxed by the pool because it was way too hot to function, let alone spot any of the animals in the middle of the day.

Happy Hour

The best time for game viewing was during our “happy hour’’ between 6 and 7 p.m. when a lot of wildlife could be seen and the setting sun really made pictures come alive. Or maybe it was just the gin and tonics.

Even though

Pilanesberg National Park is fairly small, its vegetation is really diverse with dams, waterholes, rolling plains and rugged koppies all found within the park. I have been to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and Addo Elephant Park before and must say that Pilanesberg’s interesting landscape makes it my favorite.

Though we cut it a little fine at times, we always managed to leave the park at 7 pm on the dot when the gates were about to close. Cars that arrived slightly later were locked in and received a warning before they were allowed out of the park, so make sure you get out on time but remember to stick to the speed limit as you don’t want to crash into an elephant.