The Kruger National Park might have gold status in respect of our Big Five national parks, but the Pilanesberg is just as wild and wonderful, and it’s only a two-hour drive from Joburg.
Possibly eclipsed as a destination by its garish neighbour Sun City, this Big Five reserve offers horizons-full of primordial savannah, sublime quietude, and beautiful creatures of every shape and size. It has excellent bush lodges for middle range to top-end budgets. And it’s malaria free.
A well-known establishment in the Pilanesberg is KwaMaritane, the Legacy Group’s oldest and most famous bush lodge, largely due to its hide and waterhole linked to the lodge by a 180m tunnel.
You may remember it made headlines two-and-a-half years ago when a sweeping fire that started in the kitchen caused damage worth R90 million, forcing it to close for nine months. When it reopened in May 2009, it was bigger and better, with a state-of-the-art kitchen/restaurant/reception.
By the time the World Cup came around, this 90-room hotel was abuzz with activity, as it hosted the New Zealand, Mexico, Denmark and Japanese teams during the Rustenburg stadium games.
But the inevitable anti-climax followed. Occupancy rates could be better, and deserve to be, because Kwa Maritane is a lovely, relaxed and family-friendly lodge that isn’t out of the ballpark with its rates.
The suites have been tastefully modernised since the fire, and while the TVs haven’t yet evolved to the fashionable flatscreen, there’s no shortage of space or comfort.
A premier family unit (two big suites joined by an interleading door), costs a little more than R6 000 (dinner and breakfast included), more or less the rate of The Palace of the Lost City’s Superior Luxury Family room, a single open-plan suite that doesn’t offer much privacy.
So if you’re in the family way, Kwa Maritane is much better value in my book, considering that dinner is thrown in and the kids are better off outdoors in a jeep or swimming in the big pool than gravitating, as they invariably do, with wads more cash to the Sun City entertainment centre.
In any event, you are only a 10 minute drive from Sun City.
An inspired value-add to Kwa Maritane – and nearby Bakubung, another of Legacy’s family-friendly lodges – is the Junior Ranger’s programme. This is a fun, educational programme for kids between the ages of six and 12 that includes eight different activities focused on culture and history, the senses, wildlife, sounds, mapping, nature, birding and learning names.
On completion, each child is presented with activity badges and stickers, and gets a certificate for being part of Legacy’s resource protection initiative.
The 76-room Bakubung Bush Lodge, meanwhile, boasts 24 beautifully appointed thatched-roof studio rooms which have undergone an upgrade in the soft furnishings, while all the bathrooms are in the process of being refurbished and are due for completion by the end of May.
This is one of the most eco-friendly resorts in the country, with boilers on computerised controllers to halve electricity expenses, LED lighting everywhere, a biodiesel plant that recycles used cooking oil and saves 20 percent of the lodge’s fuel costs, and “Muffin Monsters”, industrial strength sewage grinders that improve the sewage system’s efficiency. And as staff come across foreign plants, they replace them with indigenous versions.
Bakubung has a home-grown feel about it due to a healthier-than-usual ratio of local to foreign visitors, thanks to the management’s decision to market the lodge in local media. “We now have a big Sunday lunch trade,” says GM Joel Papenfus.
For an altogether more exclusive bush experience in the Pilanesberg – read indulgent, child-free weekends – Legacy’s third lodge in the park, Tshukudu, is as five-star and as intimate as it gets.
Once a base for hunters, it’s built high on top of a rocky outcrop that you need to climb 132 steps to get to, but once on top you’re overlooking a waterhole and sweeping views of savannah plains, which you can savour even from a sunken bath in the luxury thatched chalets, sumptous hidey holes that you can’t but nurture romance in.
As there are only six of these cottages and no TV or cellphone signal, guests often dine together at a long table in the chandelier lit dining room, or make friends on the terrace, where there’s a telescope, over sundowners.
The lodge has a rock plunge pool to cool off in, and the cuisine is top rate. It’s a superlative wedding venue or honeymoon option for couples who aren’t addicted to technology, although it goes without saying you need a sizeable budget.
All three Legacy lodges are in the southern section of the Pilanesberg, so are more accessible to Gautengers, but there are some great options further north too, like the Black Rhino and Ivory Tree lodges.
Suffice to say, Pilanesberg in my estimation, should be considered right up there with the Kruger if and when you need your next bush fix.
RATES
l Kwa Maritane and Bakubung Bush Lodge: Rack rate for standard double room per night – R4 000, including dinner, bed and breakfast. Single rate is R2825.
l Tshukudu: Rack rate for double chalet per night – R9 580, including brunch, high tea, six-course dinner, all local beverages, two game activities and transfer to/from Bakubung. Single rate is R6 700.
l Pilanesberg National Park covers an area of 55 000 hectares. It accommodates virtually every mammal of southern Africa, and is home to the Big Five.
l Its creation is considered one of the most ambitious programmes of its kind undertaken anywhere in the world. Thanks to Operation Genesis in 1979, which involved the game-fencing of the reserve and the re-introduction of many long-vanished species, the park now has in excess of 7 000 animals including 24 of the larger species.
l Formed by volcanic eruptions some 1 200 million years ago, the park is embedded in an extinct volcano which is the most perfect example of an alkaline ring complex.
l The park exists within the transition zone between the dry Kalahari and wetter Lowveld vegetation, commonly referred to as “bushveld”, so unique overlaps of mammals, birds and vegetation occur. - The Star