Wild Africa


| eyewitness |


Animal magic


A self-drive option in South Africa converts reluctant safari-goer Christopher Beanland to the call of the wild


Big cat sightings in Pilanesberg


As we drive through the gates of Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa’s North West Province the sky is particularly eye-catching. I feel like we’re closer to the sun somehow. Pilanesberg is high above sea level: perhaps it’s not as much of an illusion as it seems. The stark natural beauty of the place contrasts


sharply with the realities of South Africa that rarely make it into magazines. As we drive from Johannesburg we pass shacks and shanties, petrol stations, scrubland, factories, and assorted roadside wanderers carrying bags and buckets. It’s an easy two-hour drive but you feel like you’re in a diff erent country. And for a while it was; this


was the so-called ‘homeland’ of Bophuthatswana in Apartheid-era South Africa — its sovereignty recognised by only one country, South Africa itself. Pilanesberg is the colour of autumn: grey dirt


roads, brown muddy creeks, golden rocks, dark green bushes and trees. The intense light shows everything at its best. There’s a kind of brooding quality to it all. The truth is that I’d never really wanted to


come on safari anyway. It struck me as a clichéd, touristy thing to do, but this seems diff erent. We drive our small white hire car along the main road into the park and the vehicle instantly feels out


countrybycountry.com | ABTA Magazine 63


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