Pilanesberg National Park
Veld Condition
in Pilanesberg National Park
Pilanesberg National Park
Veld Condition
in Pilanesberg National Park
March 08
Have spend 3 days in the last 10 in the Park. The Mankwe dam is finally as full as it was 3 years ago, but can still take some water. Most days are partially cloudy, with a bit of rain here and there. I could see the water level drop in some dams in the space of a week. The elephants are back in full force from the Wilderness area. From not seeing any on the 1 day, we saw 70 in the space of a couple of hours. The grass is extremely long and starting to seed, and the Park is extremely busy. Many people are travelling too fast around blind corners, so take it easy. Some places even 4x4's are covered by the grass. The Impalas were late giving birth last year, and their rutting season is also starting late. Look out for the males taking each other on in the next 2 months.Jan 08
More rains, and mist some mornings. The veld is looking fantastic. Mankwe dam still empty but fuller than in Dec, with all other dams full.
Nov 07
More rains, but totally weird. Though Weather SA has no recorded rainfall for PB, there has been small falls nearly every 2nd We had huge hail friday 23rd, half the size of apricots. Several car windscreens and tents in Manyane was wrecked. More hail Saterday 24th as well. Huge mist over the centre and surrounds that only lifted 10am. The main dam stays empty but the others fullish, except Rathlogo, where the hippo left. Saw the 1st Impala arrival wednesday 21 Nov but no signs of any others - was in the park 18 - 25th open to close. Growth is lush, as there is a bit of regular rain. Spotting is already extremely difficult, so go extra slow for the next 5 months. Also saw young tsetsebe & red hartebeest, and signs of a steenbok born that day, but didn't see the youngster. Springbok and wildebeest should be there any day! Beware of 2 irritated male ele's in musth. Though both in 1st phase stay 30m away from any big ele's for the next 6 months. They will charge - 10 m in 0,9 seconds!
Oct 07
More rains till mid month with no rain the last week till 23rd, so most water in the veld has dried up. Dams as below with Ratlhogo also pretty full. Hippo in Rathlogo for the 1st time in 5 years, probably a young male. Park is looking awesome with lots of food. Start looking out for animals on their own early morning - calving season is just about here!Sept 07
Unnatural rains since end Sept, so there are huge pools of water everywhere. All marked dams except the main Mankwe dam are full to the brim (didn't see Ratlhogo). In fact I can't remember when last the dams were this full, very weird for Pilanesberg, especially for Sept. The Park has started to turn green and the next 2 months it will turn into a lush paradise. As 2/3 of the Park has been burned (not planned, nature), it will make for excellent viewing. Forget about seeing the sable and buffalo again till dry season next year. Go really slow from end Sept, the bush will be thick.Sept 07
Even more dry, but we had some rain the night of 18 Sep, about 5 min, just to scare us! There was very little sign of it the next day, totally soaked up. The only side where it was still bone dry was the south western side. Will give the veld a small kickstart, but we need at least 2 more light falls like this before monthend for it to have any effect. The veld on the south side east of Kubu had a burn on the 19th, so this will be a good area to view in the next 2 weeks. Viewing continues to be awesome, I'll try post pics. Getting warm, crocs and hippo are disappearing, but ele's went into the water 1st time since winter. Go slow, and you have a chance of finding black rhino (2/last5)
Aug 07
The Park has never been so dry ever! Though the Park doesn't look like much, not very eyecatching, the sightings have been absolutely awesome. Have had incredible sightings the last 5 months, but believe me it was not easy. Right now there's been like 5 days in a row where no one saw lions or elephants. I would say the animals are not behaving normally. The Ratlogo pump has been running just about every time I was there since May. Had some more Sable coming from nowhere - seen 12 on 1 day. Out of the last 10 days I was in the Park I saw Eland and Buffalo 3 times, and Caracal an unbelievable 5 times! Saw the 2 lion cubs everyone though got wasted in June. Do yourself I favour - you don't have to come with me but you HAVE to go to Pilanesberg in the next 10 weeks!April 07
Good rain Su night 8 April & sporadic bits of rain the next week. Got hail at Manyane when driving out Fr 13th. You can clearly see the grass starting to grow at most burnt places and it should look awesome in the weeks to come. Still warm and actually much warmer in the morning than 1 month ago; so we will get at least 1 month of good growth. Absolute excellent sightings - saw 9 sable(the only ones in the Park) as they are out their normal area, about 12 steenbok with half of them mating thanks to no grass where they can hide, kudu mating, waterbuck trying to mate, herds of elephants and brown hyena 3 times, the elusive eland quite close. Dam levels as below. The only downside of the fire is that the 2 lion cubs got taken out by the buffalo. The buffalo are back in the wilderness area though thanks to the rain.March 07
Have done about 15 days in the Park before the fire that just ravaged half of the Park just now. Was there Saturday 17 March when it started, drove through it Monday 19th & still saw smoldering bits on Sunday 25, a week later. The water level in all dams except the full Dithabaneng is the lowest I've ever seen it. Half the Park burned down, but I expected worse. Though the Park looks pretty bad in general the next 2 months will be an excellent opportunity to view game. The long grass is missing in half the Park, enabling everyone to view steenbok & similar game with ease. There is nothing so easy as seeing a leopard cross a blackened bit of earth. The grass next to the roads are already growing again, thanks to the heat - saw the green shoots next to Tau link. All we need is a bit of rain and the Park will look absolutely amazing, like in spring. If you are considering not going to the Park think again. Saw lion & steenbok each 3 times on Sunday, giraffe eating still nutritious dead leaves, my 1st ever Abdim's Stork out of about 250 full days. And there was no grass stalks in the way messing my focus up, only the ever present 4x4 diesel idiots that still doesn't know that their key can also turn their engines off..... Most the western side is burned, and half of the north eastern quarter.Dec 06
Though there has been constant rain, levels are still low. Believe there will be a serious water problem by Aug 2007. Bush is thickening. Hailstorm just after Xmas & incredibly hot.30 Oct 06
Most dams are at the lowest level I have seen. Only 49 mm was recorded for Oct and most were soaked right up by the soil. The short previously burned grass looked pretty bad till the rain in the last week. The advantage is unusual sightings like 8 steenbok on 1 day but buffalo sightings are still rare. So are eland, sable and oryx. Rhino are everywhere. Several sightings of small predators like serval & caracal points to an increase in their numbers. I also had the privilege to see a magnificent pair of African Hawk Eagles on the 30th.1 Aug 06
A huge part of the southern part of the Park caught fire. NW Parks were doing controlled fire breaks on 31 July with no wind on the menu. The wind however came up from nowhere and it was out of control in a flash. The wind died overnight but at about 10am on 2 Aug it was howling again. Thankfully about 2pm the whole area got lots of rain (not normal) and the fire basically died out. So just about the whole southern side of the Park between Kwa and Bakubung has been burned. Of the rest of the Park about 1/3 has been burned as well and has short green grass giving excellent viewing opportunities for steenbok and all others. The dams were all emptier than normal except Rathlogo and Malatse that was pretty full for this time of the year. I 'll have to check the level after the rain as I left thanks to the wind & rain. Don't even think of doing an open vehicle drive in the next week - you WILL turn into a block of ice!Mid May 06
The color has radically changed from 3 weeks ago, the grass is already yellow. Water is already scarcer and a few of the smaller waterholes have already dried up. Already cold enough for the hippo to come out in the day but the crocs are still in the water. The Ellies have been scarce but are starting to come out. Already had the 1st fire, the area/block on the Pilanesberg Center side. Note the Pilanesberg Canter burned down beginning of April and the incidents are not related. Another successful BEE initiative.....
Mid March 06:
Rainfall in Feb was 183mm, so the last 2 months provided 2/3 of the ave yearly rainfall. Just note that it is the same in Kruger - both Parks are flourishing grass & plantwise. There is still a lot of water all over the Park and the grass is even longer than 3 weeks ago - didn't believe it was possible. If you are "brave" enough to go don't even think of going faster than 20km's /h - saw a Toyota Hi Ace that was charged by a hippo in a rest area - the holes in the body are bigger than my thumbs and the jawspan marks on the body was between 60 & 70 cm. Also be extremely careful not to run into a moody male elephant. There is one that took out a BMW about 4 weeks back. If you don't know what you are doing, rather if you are not qualified or experienced, avoid going for the next 2 months.25 Feb 06:
Heavy rainfall is evident and is not stopping. I won't be surprised if we have floods in Mozambique in March. Don't even bother going if you are going in a sedan; the grass is the longest I have seen it. We had an excellent lion sighting 7 m from the road, but no one other than Kombis, 4x4's and trucks could see it. So don't throw your toys out your cot if you drive a sedan, you won't see it anyway. And remember, 1st sighter has right of sight. All dams are pretty full except Ruighoek and Manwke; that is still quite empty. Animals are scarce; or rather not visible. Surprisingly the roads are in good shape for volume of rain, with only a couple of potholes.14 Feb 06:
The Jan rainfall was 181mm, more then double the ave, and on 14 Feb we already had the ave Feb rainfall. I even ran into severe hail in Jan. The strange thing is that most dams are not as full as they should be; there were lots of soft rain. Spotting is extremely difficult, grass is long & lush. Most elephant breeding groups have moved off to the Wilderness area - if they are around you probably won't see them. If you drive yourself be extremely careful & don't speed. If you want to do a walk rather not - they had to shoot a charging black rhino 2 weeks ago....- 21 Nov 05:
Just had some good rain all over the Park but the dams are still low. Better than average chance to see buffalo than normal - 12th time of 200. Fewer animals around the dams than before as there are some puddles in the veld. Very warm from 11am- 24 Oct 05 -the Veld Condition was:
2/3 the Park burned, extremely dry, extremely hot; with no rain yet for the last months. The 1mm that was measured over last weekend fell on the edge in the south and covered very little of the Park. Temperatures are already 32 and 34C, above the average. No chance of rain in the next week. There is only a 20 % chance of 5mm+ total in the week thereafter. Even 2mm now will transform the Park within 3 days. It is not every day where you can actually see the water levels drop visibly, i.e. Rathlogo last week - should be nearly dry by now, will check again tomorrow.. Then Tilodi dam had a 2m diameter left in the morning of 21 Oct, by afternoon there was only mud left. Also the Mankwe level is the lowest I can remember it, but this is probably as there is a leak in the dam wall that is getting worse! We have already seen young Red Hartebeest(1 Month old), Springbok(1w & 3w), Tsessebe(1w), and though anytime; elephant(3 days old, now 13 days).What is amazing is that the animal behavior is changing & adapting & I have seen more weird and exiting sightings over the last 2 weeks ( 7 days in the Park) than I normally see in a year. We've seen:
3 Grey Rhebok - there has only been 5 reported sightings over the last 5 years
Common Reedbuck twice - also never seen them in the Park before.
2 Bushbuck 8 m away - only 2 sightings before.
Caracal 6 m away- only 1 sighting before
34+ Buffalo 70 m away - with 8 of 9 previous sightings they were > 500m away
4 Klipspringer together - this just doesn't happen; always 2, occasionally 3.
4 white rhino charging and chasing a breeding herd of 12 elephant for more than 80m, I 've never heard of any guide that has seen this.
Kudu barking on 2 occasions
Steenbok 3 times on 1 day
Sable twice - 7 2 weeks ago and 6 last thursday, 1 youngster was eaten - there are now only 14 total left.
So right now is the time to go; there is some real unusual activity afoot!!
Why go to Pilanesberg with me?My Prices for day visits and 2 day safaris to Pilanesberg: Also Sun City.
Next Definite Dates 2008: Most dates not here are available.
The rest is alphabetical - if you look here before you ask you will save time - mine and yours.... and if you ask something that is not on here I will put it up!Accommodation in the Park only: Staying Friday or Saturday you have to pay for 2 nights min.
Accommodation in and around Sun City. Staying Friday or Saturday you have to pay for 2 nights min.
Airport at Pilanesberg
Animal studies in Pilanesberg
Backpacker accommodation near Sun City and Pilanesberg
Bakgatla Resort
Bakubung Bush Lodge
Balloon Safaris: In Pilanesberg National Park - R2 950pp - 1 hour, minimum 8 pax!
Binoculars needed
Bird list
Brochure request - you need a DNL reader
Buffalo in the Park
Camping - book direct at 014 555 1000, don't be surprised if you hold 15 minutes and then get cut off.
Cancellation Terms and Conditions
Condition of the Veld
Dangers in Pilanesberg
Disclosures: About vehicles used for Pilanesberg and other
Directions - see map
Elephant Back safaris in Pilanesberg.
Entrance fee - see gate times
Etiquette in Game Parks like Pilanesberg for self drives
Friends of Pilanesberg Society - Volunteers helping to maintain the Park.
Gate Times for Pilanesberg National Park
Geology of Pilanesberg National Park
Highlights seen in Pilanesberg the last 2 years:
Don't expect something like this or the animals to stand next to the road waiting. It's not a Zoo!History of Pilanesberg National Park
Idiot Gallery - Stunts pulled in Pilanesberg National Park by the mentally challenged. Other tour operators are welcome to contribute - I will give you recognition except if you don't want it!Ivory Tree Game Lodge
Kids on Safari. in Pilanesberg or other parks
Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge
Manyane Resort
Map and directions to Pilanesberg
Other Parks near Pilanesberg
Other Tour Operators doing Pilanesberg
Packages to Lodges
Picture Gallery - taken by us over the last 2 years in Pilanesberg.
Pilanesberg National Park vs Kruger National Park.
Reading - other re Pilanesberg.
Safety in Pilanesberg
Schedule - tour schedule for Pilanesberg
Seen one of the day trips to Pilanesberg - 19 Sept 2007:
Seen on a 2 day safari to Pilanesberg - 9&10 August 2004:
Testimonials from clients we have taken to Pilanesberg
Things to do in and around Pilanesberg
Transfers only to Pilanesberg and Sun City - one way: charged per vehicle:
Tshukudu Bush Lodge
Veld Condition in the Park
Weather and Climate for Pilanesberg area
What can you hope to see in Pilanesberg?
When to go to Pilanesberg: best time etc
