Pilanesberg Game Reserve

Game feast in a beautiful mountain ringed crator with expansive views extending kilometres.

I have travelled Kruger and Pilanesberg extensively. The rhino have disappeared from Kruger. Although the vistas have limits in Pilanesberg you can access 5 hides with many more opportunities of alighting from your vehicle. All hides have toilets. While people share their sightings with other game viewers this is seldom the case in Kruger. Hides are few and far between in Kruger without toilet facilities except lake panic.
I have often seen 4/5 big five…. Buffalo are elusive in Pilanesberg…within a weekend. Big herds are not on show though as they are in Kruger.
A great advantage of Pilanesberg is proximity to Jhb 2.5 hrs drive and it is MALARIA FREE and for the animals TB free too.
The Iron Age site in Pilanesberg allows you to roam around a large section of bush which is fenced. The view points from Moloto drive are exquisite…
Pilanesberg’s only drawback is noise from the populated areas near the rest champs at night and after 3 days you will find that you travel the same routes again, not so with Kruger.

Pilanseberg is pretty good, one sees quite a bit of game, the Springbok herd is unexpected and very special.

Infrastructure Maintenance

I stay quite close to Pilanesberg National park and have been visiting the park from my childhood years. Although there are still a large variety of animals to see it is obvious that the numbers are declining especially the antelope which I presume is due to poaching from the nearby villages, not uncommon if one look at the state of the outside fencing.
What prompted me to write the review is the bad shape the park has fallen into. I remember the days where park maintenance especially roads were priority or so it seemed for the general road condition was kept in good condition. Unfortunately, that this not the case anymore. Also, the picknick sites I visited had visitors probably since there are no safety fences in place or completely discarded. Viewpoints are not getting the attention it should. I have noticed that there was some work done on new bridges, but it baffles me that the park accepted the bad quality work and finishing off concluded.
It is sad to see yet another part of government owned institution that are not receiving the proper attention it deserves and is sadly going backwards day by day.
Just whish our international visitors would put some pressure on the park management to start doing their jobs and look after the park.
PS. The decline of the park infrastructure cannot be blamed on COVID-19 like everything else as the decline has been observed for the last few years now.

We did one day safari only. We did not find the felines. We could see other big animals like Rhino, Giraffe, Elephant, zebra, etc..
My little girl became really astonished.
I recommend it!

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Great wildlife!

a beautiful day, and seen many animals

A day to never forget. Given everything we wanted to see. But also learned a lot about the animals. In short, a recommendation for anyone who wants to do a safari in a day.
Thanks to Susan, Glen and the driver Wiggie

Beautiful landscape and scenery. Small enough so that one can actually spot the animals. Loved it!

Great experience!

It was very cool.

I had luck seeing some of the 5 Big very close. The scenery and weather is very similar with some regions in Brazil, i.e, savanna (cerrado) covers a large area of the Brazilian territory and our climate is subtropical in the south. The accommodations, food, transportation and guides were very good - Morokolo lodge is perfect. I suggest to everyone to be at least two days in this game reserve. Enjoy it.