Pilanesberg in June

Bakubung Bush Lodge

June 16th was a South African holiday so we drove up to Pilanesberg with Elder Chris & Sister Sue Johnson, the Area Auditors. We drove around the park during the day and saw most of the familiar animals - giraffe, zebra, impala, rhino, hippo. We didn't see any elephants that day. We spent the night in Bakubung Bush Lodge in Pilanesburg. We checked in at 2 pm so we could go on the guided game drive at 3, The drive was nice and we saw klipspringer antelope on the rocks at one point, but just about the time to head back to the Lodge, our guide found lions! There were 3 female and a male stalking some wildebeest, Usually we only see sleepy lions, but it was exciting to see them slinking through the dusk. there were so many vehicles the lions finally just lay down to patiently wait for all the people with their cameras to leave.

Lion at Dusk

Lioness

Klipspringer

Warthog

On Saturday, June 17th, after a big buffet breakfast and admiring (?) the warthogs at the Lodge, we spent the morning driving around the park. We saw other missionaries who were also visiting. We saw a large number of elephants and one even came very close to the car! We also saw lots of hippos. It was also our best trip for seeing birds and I'll include a few of our best bird photos.

Go-Away Birds at waterhole

Southern Hornbill

Glossy Cape Starlings

Elephant eating (he's looking at us!)

Elephant walking in front of our car

Same elephant as above in front of our car; photo taken by Sister Gaten in the car in front of ours, See how big he is compared to our Toyota!

There can be traffic jams as you can see with the elephants and also below with the lions the night before.

On the way home we stopped at a fruit stand to buy some oranges, avocados(huge!!!) and pecans. We passed some orange and avocado orchards. While it gets cool (maybe even in the high 20s infrequently) at night the day time temperatures at Jo'burg have been high 50s to high 60s most days. At Pilanesberg and that area it is somewhat warmer. So there are citrus groves. When we were near Kruger we saw even more citrus plus banana plantations. The oranges were only about $1.50 for a big bag.