A lifetime experience to brag about - South African Safari
Before I went to South Africa, Safari was always on my bucket list, just to see how animals roam freely in nature. A friend happened to be South African and invited us to travel to South Africa, so the national park was naturally on our itinerary.
We went to Pilanesberg National Park, the fourth largest national park in South Africa. It's much more convenient than Kruger, about a 3-hour drive from Johannesburg. We stayed at the Bakubung Bush Lodge in the national park, where my friend used to vacation with his family.
I highly recommend this resort! It offers safari tours and hot air balloon tours. The dining area is in the national park, surrounded by wire mesh. Often while eating, you can see elephants and giraffes leisurely walking over. The park has its own Spa, which is affordable and has a great environment. There are also nightly barbecues and unique local performances.
We stayed for four days, two days with the park tour, and two days driving ourselves. Overall, I recommend self-driving. The tour vehicles are larger and louder, so some animals won't approach easily. When self-driving, you can explore at your own pace and see almost all the animals. In addition to elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, antelopes, etc., we even saw the rare sight of hyenas and leopards hunting antelopes. If you visit the park, I suggest trying different times of day, as you can often see more at dusk and dawn.
The most thrilling experience was one evening when we were planning to drive out of the park and ran into a family of lions. First, two lionesses with three cubs. We immediately turned off the car and didn't dare to move. The lionesses walked up to our car and looked in the window. The moment of eye contact, you really feel a reverence for nature. That wild look, treating you as prey, can instantly shatter your self-proclaimed position at the top of the food chain. After about 5 minutes of standoff, night had completely fallen, and a male lion emerged from the darkness. The majesty really made people fully understand their title as the king of the jungle. We wanted to take pictures with our phones but didn't dare to make too much movement. There were no lights around, only our car lights. The male lion circled our car twice, almost getting on the car door, and then leisurely walked past us, leading his family away. It was truly a memory to last a lifetime.
📝Tips:
1. Bring a telescope, as many hunting scenes can't get too close, and the telescope can let you clearly see the whole process.
2. When self-driving, you can roll down the windows but lock the car doors. There have been news of lions opening car doors before. If a beast approaches, roll up the windows and turn off the car as soon as possible.
3. If you see several cars stopping in the park, don't ask, just stop and observe the surroundings. There must be an exciting scene to watch.