I took the day off work to take the boys and their friend Ewan to Pilanesberg National Park. It’s school holidays and we haven’t gone away and they needed a break from FIFA 😉

It was such an amazing day out with them. We got to the park at 9am and left at 4pm! A full day of animal spotting. 

Pilanesberg is just over 2 hours from our house so it was completely doable in a day, although I was exhausted last night after all the driving. 

And guess what? The entire day (apart from the petrol) cost less than a trip to the movies would have cost! The park entry fees are so reasonable.

My favourite sighting apart was the black backed jackal that was sunning himself in the road as we came around a corner. My photos through the window of him were not great though 🙁 

Anyway, on to some photos because that’s why you’re really here…

This was as close as we got to hippos. This dam was awesome and had hippos, crocodile and Impala.

Pilanesberg trip 013 Pilanesberg trip 015 Pilanesberg trip 014 Pilanesberg trip 016 

We stopped at the Pilanesberg centre for lunch and had fabulous food at the Zebra Crossing Restaurant. This was the view from the deck with blue wildebeest in the foreground. 

Pilanesberg trip 035 

This was the funniest, this bird was waiting for titbits from Bradley’s plate.Pilanesberg trip 038 

We didn’t see many giraffe, in fact we saw more elephants!

Pilanesberg trip 042 

This is Mankwe dam. It was so very dry and the hide was very far from the water. Pilanesberg trip 057 Pilanesberg trip 055 

The views were just amazing! 

Pilanesberg trip 063 Pilanesberg trip 056 Pilanesberg trip 046 

We were so really lucky with our sightings of rhino. 

Pilanesberg bw 001 

And the Ellie’s! Oh how I love and respect them. We made sure we were really quiet close to them

Pilanesberg bw 010 Pilanesberg bw 009 Pilanesberg bw 008 Pilanesberg bw 007  Pilanesberg bw 005  

Loved this rhino crossing 😂 we saw many zebra crossings too though. I think this is possibly my favorite photo.Pilanesberg bw 002

It’s such an awesome day out with kids. 

They kept a list of everything we saw…Giraffe, Duiker, White rhino, Zebra, Hippo, Waterbuck , Wildebeest , Banded mongoose , Grey mongoose , Mountain reedbuck , Tsessebe , Warthog , Elephant, Impala, Eland, Black backed jackal, Chacma baboon , Vervet monkey, Secretary bird, Heron, Egret , Great egret, Francolin, Crocodile , Turtle, Sacred Ibis, Kudu, Springbok, Red hartebeest, Tree squirrel , Jameson’s red rock rabbit,  Steenbok , Gemsbok, giraffe