Pilanesberg was always going to be a doozy at the tail end of winter. The months without rain mean barely-there foliage and animals on the hunt for water with little to hide them in the usually dense bush.
And, oh joy, it also means no mozzies.
So when the call came to hit the Platinum Highway roaring into North West, my hand went up before my brain properly engaged. The plan was to fly into OR Tambo International Airport in Joburg, pick up a car from Pace Car Rental and shoot up to Lush Private Lodge in the Black Rhino Game Reserve, a private concession sharing an unfenced boundary with the national park.
The thinking part came later, mainly in the form of driving-Jozi-highways anxiety. I’d heard a lot of talk about potholes down here in small town Cape Town, with its dinky byways and — perceived — more laid-back attitude.
I need not have worried. The drive was a breeze and the other road users splendid. The only potholes I saw were on a short stretch through Tlhatlhaganyane on the very rural R565, but I do wonder when the new lanes on the Platinum Highway will be finished. I saw not a single roadwork going on, construction in limbo while cars and huge chrome trucks slowly rumbled on the single-lane N4.
The air was hazy with dust, and everything — the hills, the trees, the straggly goats, even the quarries — sagged with heat. It was 36°C and so dry outside I could feel the moisture being sucked out of my skin.
No matter, I was cool as a cucumber in a fetching burgundy Haval H6, air conditioning cranked to the max and tunes blowing through the cabin. I was stuck in my disco period; no-one can listen to Barry White and not be in a good mood. Round it off with Thelma Houston and you’ve got a recipe for happiness.
The ride was smooth and the Haval ate up the kilometres, ticking along like clockwork. Comfy, too. Pace had met me at arrivals, as they do all their customers, and walked me to the car. It’s a personalised service, much nicer than having to wait around in a queue at the car rental office.
Lounging at Lush
It’s not a short drive to Black Rhino, and after more than three hours I was mighty pleased to be pulling into Lush Private Lodge, to be welcomed by a cool, damp towel and an invigorating ginger drink.
Lush is seated on Tamboti Mountain, surrounded by tamboti, shepherd and blinkblaar-wag-’n-bietjie (Ziziphus mucronata, buffalo thorn) trees.
The tree represents life. The young twigs are zigzags, just as life does not go in one direction. And there are two thorns at the nodes: one faces backwards, where we came from, the other forwards, where we are going to.
I headed for my suite for a quick dip in my private plunge pool to slough off some of the heat and dust before our sundowner game drive.
Lush was named to represent “luxury in the bush”, operations manager Clinton Calitz tells me. It’s owned by the Lupini family, and the emphasis is on Italian flair. Think warm hospitality, gorgeous décor, good food and wine.
There’s even a wine cellar, a cool and inviting space on such a hot day, and I was more than happy to trip down the stairs after sommelier Phindile Singwane.
I was glad I’d raced through a wash and change of clothes after the game drive. Dressing for dinner is not expected, but a wine-pairing repast led by a sommelier in a cellar on a game reserve requires a bit of sartorial gloss.
Singwane also hosts tastings, with the cellar stocked almost exclusively with SA’s finest. There is a small selection of Italian and French wines, too.
The lodge spreads across several levels in keeping with the topography. It is not disabled-friendly. Steps lead to up the rooftop bar and down to the cellar, up to some of the suites and, of course, to the private roof lounges of the deluxe suites.
There are lounge spaces, a dining room, an alfresco dining space and a boma. Materials are natural — wood, granite, marble, copper, cane, cotton, stone — and the décor is best described as Afro-chic, with Ardmore fabrics adding their fever-dream aesthetic and pops of colour. Lush is big on comfort and everything is easy on the eye.
Each suite has a private splash pool and outdoor double showers; the deluxe suites each have a viewing lounge upstairs and an outdoor bath to stargaze from the tub (yes, I did). There is a well-equipped gym should you feel the need to work off the teatime chocolate cake. The spa opens to the elements, the birds and cicadas the soundtrack to your treatment.
Game reserve glamour
Pilanesberg itself is something of a natural wonder, with unique geological features. It’s in an ancient, near-perfect volcanic alkaline ring complex formed about 1.2-billion years ago by loads of volcanic activity and subsequent tectonic and erosional processes.
It’s like dropping a pebble in a puddle, says Clinton. It forms concentric rings going outwards. Each of the multiple concentric rings of hills that make up the complex is from a different rock type.
There are only a few dozen alkaline ring complexes on Earth and, at 530km², Pilanesberg is the largest and most clearly defined of them all. Its concentric ring structure is visible from space.
The geology, soils and topography have created a mosaic of habitats that supports high biodiversity in a transition zone between the dry Kalahari and the wetter lowveld.
And then there are the animals, of which we saw many. In 1979, Operation Genesis, one of the world’s most ambitious restoration projects, transformed the area into a wildlife reserve, reintroducing indigenous species and restoring ecosystems.
The park now sustains more than 7,000 large mammals, among them the big five, with both black and white rhinos, and a rich diversity of plants and birds, including endangered wildlife. It’s also rich in Iron Age and Stone Age archaeological remains.
It’s malaria-free and close enough to Johannesburg and Pretoria for a quick break from the city. This makes it popular, and we were joined by up to six cars at a lion sighting, where a female and her two sub-adult male cubs had taken down a wildebeest.
The Black Rhino Game Reserve is less populated, and if you’re staying at Lush, you get to traverse both parks, as well as Pilanesberg’s limited-access wilderness area. It was set up for the protection and breeding of this critically endangered animal.
On the camera role
Diverse landscapes of syenite koppies, forested ravines, lightly wooded areas, bushveld and rolling grasslands make homes for a wide variety of rare and common species, such as the nocturnal brown hyena, cheetah, sable, giraffe, zebra, hippo and crocodile.
We saw plenty of elephants going about their ponderous elephant business, and hippos lolling in a waterhole. Those lions, impala, kudu, vervet monkey and even a baby boomslang peeping out of a hole in a tree.
The sole cheetah cub on the reserve, too. All enjoyed to the cacophony of birds: there are more than 300 species recorded and they all want to be heard.
It was better than disco.
• Kearney was hosted by Pace Car Rental and Lush Private Lodge.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.