Pilanesberg Game Reserve
The Pilanesberg Game Reserve is located north of Rustenburg in North West Province in South Africa. The park borders on the Sun City entertainment complex. It is currently administered by the North West Parks and Tourism Board.
The area is defined by alternating ridges and valleys forming concentric rings, a geological formation that rises abruptly from the surrounding plains. The Pilanesberg is named for chief Pilane of the Kgafêla people, who ruled from Bogopane, Mmamodimokwana and eventually Mmasebudule during the 1800s. The 'Pilanesberg Alkaline Ring Complex' is the park's primary geological feature. This vast circular feature is geologically ancient, being the crater of a long-extinct volcano – the result of eruptions some 1,200 million years ago. It is one of the largest volcanic complexes of its type in the world, the rare rock types and formations make it a unique geological feature, and a number of rare minerals occur in the park.
Scattered throughout the park are various sites that are assigned to the Iron and Stone Ages and illustrate the presence of man during those early periods.
- 1 The park
- 2 Flora and fauna
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3
History
- 3.1 Early inhabitants of the Pilanesberg
- 3.2 Iron Age
- 3.3 Tswana period
- 3.4 Pre 1970s
- 3.5 1970s
- 3.6 1980s
- 3.7 1990s
- 3.8 2000s
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 External links
Links
Images Gallery
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Enclosures of an iron age settlement
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Burchell's zebra grazing in a Pilanesberg landscape
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Topography of Pilanesberg as seen from Lenong lookout
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Comments
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The ideal day outing for those looking for a nice bosveld experience. The park is a good size for a short trip, with a lot of game and nice picnic spots. The gravel roads are a bit bumpy for low cars and the main roads have some potholes.
2 days ago -
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Love to come to the bushveld with the big 5. Road are not in a good condition. Potholes. Picnic spots are not maintained very well but still lovely to be in the bush. Picnic spot at Fish Eagle were over crowded during lunch time.
3 months ago -
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After driving the whole day we managed to see one rhino, one warthog, one baboon, few giraffes, couple of zebras, wildebeests, impalas and some other antelopes. Couldn't spot any single elephant (their guide say it should be around 360 of them), no lions, cheetahs, hippos etc. on nice cloudy day. It was amazing how you can drive for many km and no be able to see even a single gazelle. Not sure if we were unlucky or there are just very few animals in Pilanesberg Park. It was also a bit disappointing to realize that the only food available in Pilanesberg center restaurant was horrible boerewors roll. So make sure you bring your own food.
6 months ago -
Game viewing was a bit disappointing but is still a good day outside in the wild. Fantastic landscape
2 months ago -
Very nice place. Very nice family outing to do. There are a lot of animals and if you take the time and look for the animals as some of them are a distance away for the roads. I would definitely recommend taking binoculars with as it makes it so much nicer finding the animals.
7 months ago -
Mankwe was very full! We had a lovely stay!! The roads were quite full of potholes much to my dissatisfaction and roads were quite muddy...be sure to have a car with lots of ground clearance!!
4 months ago