"Jo-hassle-burg"

The inner Boy Scout in me came out this week as I went camping in the Pilanesberg National Park with Gerhard, Marlize, the girls, and Marlize's sister's family. There were national holidays on Friday and Tuesday (coincidentally Monday was a quasi-holiday) making for a long, five-day weekend. I drove out to Gerhard's on Thursday night so that we could set out early on Friday morning for the Pilanesberg National Park, which is about two hours northwest of Johannesburg, in the Northwest Province. After we arrived on Friday morning, we set up our campsite: tents, tables, drying racks, cooking gear, et cetera (fortunately, each site had electricity, which made "roughing it" a little less rough). After Marlize's sister's family arrived and set up camp we went for a late afternoon drive through the park. Pilanesberg and the surrounding area is beautiful; the contrasting colors, the rolling hills and mountains, and the vegetation is breath-taking.

On Saturday, we took a long route through the park on our way to "Sun City." Sun City is a resort settled in the valley of the Pilanesberg Mountains. It is a "Las Vegas"-esk resort, created under Apartheid to cater to the gambling desires of South Africans. It was built in a non-white area, where gambling was legal (which is why it is so far from Johannesburg). The resort is massive, with casinos, a cinema, a water park, and a themed-five star hotel, "The Lost City." It was impressive to see the creativity involved in designing this "oasis" in the middle of the mountains. We spent the afternoon at the water park, soaking up the warm weather (a good 5-6 degrees Celsius warmer than Johannesburg). Gerhard, Marlize, and I explored "The Lost City" hiking through a trail with water falls, lakes, and vegetation that eventually lead to a massive hotel that looked as if it were in a jungle in Imperial India.

We were fortunate the first few trips into the park to see a lot of animals; so much so that seeing an elephant or a giraffe became less awe-inspiring (not that it wasn't special, but we were on a mission to find more rare animals, say lion or leopard). On Sunday morning, we set off to the park as it opened at 6:00am. As we trekked through the park, we came to a family of rhinoceros and watched them graze. It was incredible how tame they were and how close to the trail they were (unlike other "safaris" you couldn't make your own trail through the veld). After a few hours of watching a variety of animals, we went back to the campsite to make breakfast, and then went out again. We ran into a traffic jam, as a lone, male elephant was blocking the road. A tour bus, determined to give its riders the closest (and most dangerous/stupidest) view, decided to pass all of the stopped cars. Intimidated, the elephant charged the bus, stopping short of ramming it (there are stories of elephants turning over cars). It's sad that these companies have to go to such lengths to please clientele (i.e. see a lot of animals, since they pay so much). After our late-morning trek through the park, we went back to the camp and Gerhard and Steven (Gerhard's brother-in-law) made "potkie" (p-oy-kee) - a dutch oven layered stew that cooks over charcoal for many hours (and you don't stir it). We had a wonderful, hearty last meal together before leaving the next (Monday) morning.

Final Random Thoughts:

• Overall, we saw (in no particular order): elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthog, jackal, kudu, springbok, baboon, and impala.
• Gerhard and Marlize really know how to camp, they were wonderful "hosts"… we had a wide variety of food/drink and they had some neat camping gear. I am looking forward to "Round Two" as we camp in the Kalahari in June.
• It was really nice to get out in nature and live more simply for a few days.
• MTN, a South African cellular company sponsored the weekend at Sun City (the South African Music Awards, were presented by MTN and took place at Sun City). One of the MTN DJs that was playing music at the water park kept referring to Johannesburg as "Jo-hassle-burg" - lame, but funny.

Packed and ready to go!

Campsite 

My tent! 

South Africa's raccoons - meerkats 

Entrance into the park

Hippo

Taking a break :)