Hey Fashionistas,
This is part 5 of my Travel series. We made it to South Africa, Johannesburg to be more exact. We arrived at the airport at 2 AM, called an Uber. The Uber driver asked us if it was ok to run the red lights. I didn’t really care because I thought to myself, well it’s not my ticket. Soon after he explained that it is absolutely legal to run the red light after 10 PM because people slam your windows and steal stuff out of your car while you’re waiting on a red light - well go ahead and run those lights.
On the internet, it looked like our hotel was in a nice area with lots of stores and restaurants. In reality, everything was empty and abandoned. Our hotel was nice, the room was very spacious. We arrived at the hotel at around 3 AM. We got a few hours of sleep before we got picked up for our last chance to see rhinos at the Pilanesberg National Park.
Our guide told us that we shouldn’t walk around our hotel. The crime rate is still bad here that’s the reason businesses decided to move away from this area. Well, that would explain the abandoned buildings.
We drove around 3 hours to the entrance of the park. We made a stop at a gas station to get some breakfast. Hubby’s and my stomach didn’t do well for the past couple of days so we kept our breakfast light. I also bought some biltong, similar to beef jerky at the gas station. Biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern Africa. I got some game sausages and beef biltong - both tasted pretty yummy. Side note: My cat, Peggy ended up eating all the sausages and leaving me with nothing. She was able to open the package while we were out of town for a week.
Arrived at the Pilanesberg National Park we realized that the vegetation was very different compared to Tanzania. The grass was super high which made it more difficult to spot animals. Also, keep in mind that’s it’s currently winter in South Africa. We drove with a Van inside the park, not an open jeep game drive. For me, it didn’t matter because I pulled my window down and the view was as good as with any other vehicle.
From the beginning, we told our guide that we are here to see rhinos. While he couldn't tell us the exact numbers of living rhinos in this park, he still low-key promised us to see them. We drove around for hours. We got up close to a herd of elephants - the gentle giants are absolutely amazing and I could stare at them all day long. We also saw giraffes, zebras, wildebeest and plenty of pretty birds.
The plants and trees were dipped in yellow, brown and reddish colors making it very picturesque for me. Out of a sudden, our guide stopped the car and told us he might have spotted two rhinos. Excitement broke out in me. Eric grabbed the binoculars and tried to search the wilderness for rhinos. I snapped some pictures. Turned out we just found rhinos - very very far away - but we found them. On my photograph, the rhinos looked like two gray dots. I thought ok that’s it, we’ve seen them.
Our next stop was lunch. We ordered a salad and an ostrich burger with rooibos relish. I can strongly recommend ostrich burgers, super lean and very tasty.
We continued our game drive. I turned my head to the left to see two rhino butts disappearing into the high grass. Our guide immediately stopped the car and turned around but it was too late, the rhinos vanished. Our guide turned the car around a few times in the hope the rhinos would come out again but no luck. So our guide continued the journey and while he was turning the car towards a waterhole we spotted the two glorious rhinos. I can’t believe it! Two rhinos drinking water at the waterhole. Some people probably don’t understand my excitement but it is extremely difficult to find rhinos in the wild. These precious animals are hunted for their horns and are almost extinct.
Seeing the rhinos checked the last box on our “Big Five” list. We’ve seen them all. What a successful Safari Trip! This also marked the end of the day trip to the Pilanesberg National Park. While we were on our way out we made one last spot at a water hole close to the exit to see one adult elephant and two juveniles drinking water and yet again our beloved rhinos. What a magical moment. This is nature at its finest.
On our way out the road was partially blocked by a huge elephant. Our guide turned the car off and told us he wanted to wait until the elephant crosses the road. He was very uncomfortable passing the gentle giant with the van. A few months ago an elephant smashed his back windshield with his trunks. So we waited a few minutes until the elephant eventually decided to cross the road. I didn’t realize but the steps of an elephant are almost quit.
This really marked the end of our trip and we continued back to our hotel. We had dinner at our hotel and went to bed shortly after. The morning we drove to the airport to continue our journey to Cape Town. At the airport, we indulged in Belgium waffles before boarding the plane. A two-hour plane ride later, we arrived in Cape Town. To be continued…
Thanks for stopping by!
