Pilanesberg National Park

First Day…

Guess what! After landing at 7 something in the morning, we went straight on our tour trip. No resting. No checking in to the hotel and leaving the bags, besides most of the hotel checking in time here is 2 pm. So we need to GO GO GO! Swt!
Reached and was greeted by our trusty tour guide, Mr. Mogamat Toffar. It was a personal tour, so it’s only me, mum and Mogamat. Greeting session, Hi; name;welcome.

Headed off. Wee hoo~
The traffic jam in Johannesburg was exactly like in Malaysia except theirs are mainly on the highway. We drove all the way from Johannesburg to Sun City in the Northern Part of South Africa through Pretoria which is one of the capital cities of South Africa. The national flower is Protea.
My impression of the area we drove through was SCARY. The whole driving trip, I saw people everywhere, walking running, staring. It was a sight that made me really scared even though I was in a car. I think the shows in TV influenced my perception. You could see them standing at the side of the road crowding around a small fire to heat up. But I didn’t let that get to me, as they were friendly. You need to make the first move by smiling. A smile can take you far. But that is not always the case. We were warned of the crime rates in Johannesburg, so we were very careful.

Next stop ,SAFARI! Yeap~ That was what I was waiting for. We entered the game park through the Bakubung Gate. I thought we would be sitting those big high trucks+trained driver+a rifle, but we didn't. Instead we went in the Game Park with a normal car.I started winding up all the windows pretending it was cold. actually takut the lion baham me~It was the best 2 hours ever. Live animals living in their own habitat, how cool was that. Being 5 metres away from a giraffe and a rhino! Woosh! Can’t explain the feeling..
Didn’t get to see the lions and cheetah though cause of the time limit.But I’m not complaining.If I was living in South Africa, i would drive in the Safari everyweek, as the feeling of spotting animals from a far in their natural habitat is so satisfying+exciting+scary all at the same time.

The BIG 5 means the Lion, Leopard,Elephant, Rhino,Bufallo

the bakubung gate

zebra (1st animal spotted)

herd of zebra and springbok

a giraffe ( spot it! - can only see itz head)

the 2nd giraffe ( no zooming involved-we were that close)

deers hiding! (cant hide from me..muahaha)

hippo

Elephants


White Rhino ( no zooming)

we thought the rhino wanted to charge at us, actually they just wanted to cross the road, *relieved*

Finally, the day ended with a meal at the ANAT. I had a shwarna. The concept is exactly like Subway where you can choose what you want in your meal. The difference is that they have something called chick pea paste which taste quite good and a few different sauces. The chilli one was superb. Shwarna is something like kebab with sandwiches. It has kebab meat but the filling of sandwiches. You get what I mean. The ANAT shop was actually beside NANDO’s but I promised myself NO Nando’s. But, it was really tempting. Btw, NANDO’s is from South Africa and is much cheaper there, of course.

shwarna

Stayed in Southern Sun in Johannesburg.

Btw, Kubu means hippo and tankie means thank you in one of the African language. See I have been talking African all this while, Tankie for reading.