Another amazing day spent in the Pilanesberg National Park with some amazing guests on behalf of Wild World Tours
The morning started off slow with only sightings of Elephants and the general game such as Zebra, Impala, Blue Wildebeest and Giraffes.
We had a great lunch at Pilanesberg Center and then headed out for the afternoon to see if we could find more interesting game. Unfortunately, we had no luck finding any of the big cats. We spoke to a number of the other guides and the consensus was that they were all hiding due to the previous nights’ temperatures that had dropped quite drastically.
The afternoon started quite slow with not much going on at all. We had gone up to Lenong view to have a look over Pilanesberg and we heard a troop of baboons making quite a noise nearby. Our guests decided that they baboons were a little too close for their comfort and we decided to move on.
As it was getting late, we decided to take the route back to the gate. We took Thutlwe Drive and as we came around a bend, we saw a Zebra standing all on its own and found it strange. Upon taking a closer look, we saw that she was quite injured.
She had a huge bite on her hind quarter and a deep gash in her neck. She wasn’t moving at all. We assumed that she had been attacked in the early hours of the morning probably by some lions. Due to her injuries, we were doubtful that she would make it through the night.
After observing her for a while, we decided to move on. Taking Tau Link in the hopes of finding something. All we came across was a Burchell’s Coucal. We stopped to give our guests a brief talk about the bird. It is believed that sometimes it can bring good luck.
We got onto Tshwene Drive and out of the blue, we saw a Honey Badger come running down the road towards us. It all happened so fast that there just wasn’t time to get a picture of it. We only saw it for about 10 seconds before it vanished into the bush. It was such a lucky and rare sighting in Pilanesberg and we could not believe our own eyes. We were all so excited by seeing it that we got our hopes up for finding something more interesting again.
We decided to take Nkwe Drive and get onto Tilodi Loop heading to Manyane gate. Lo and behold we got another surprising rare sighting.
A Brown Hyena running on the road towards us. Once again it happened so fast that we just didn’t have time to take a photo. But wow!! we were so shocked and surprised to see it. Such an amazing sighting.
We then headed for the gate without any further sightings but it certainly was a day of surprises.
Thanks go to Wild World Tours for giving Heart of the Wild Tours & Safaris the opportunity to guide for them.