Friday through Sunday (Day 19 - 21): Camping in Pilanesberg

We arrived in Johannesburg, Thursday afternoon, at the house of some of my favorite people in the world…the Joynerwoods. Gwen and Terry have been two of my parent’s closest, most precious friends for as long as I can recall (going on 20 years now). My sisters and I practically grew up alongside their 3 girls – can you imagine what vacationing must have been like…9 females and 2 men! Talk about heavy on the estrogen. So needless to say, I couldn’t wait to introduce my precious man to these precious people. We had a relaxing evening planning our weekend camping trip in the Pilanesberg.

Friday morning was spent catching up, planning and packing. Half of us headed out on Friday afternoon to set up the 4 tents before it got dark. Gwen, Terry and Taryn arrived at around 9pm with the bedding and food, just in time…within 20 minutes, the skies opened and we were almost drenched as we ran, bedding in hand, to our tents for a damp nights sleep. It was such fun going to sleep to the sound of thunder and rain pelting our tents. The side of the tent was stuck to the top of my head and my pillow was partly drenched by the middle of the night. I must say, I’ve never camped during a storm and it was a blast. Joe and I went to sleep huddled up with smiles on our faces.
We were rudely awakened at around 5:30 by our early-riser-neighbours who were loudly getting ready for the drive through the Pilanesberg game reserve. After a lazy morning, a delicious brunch and a dip in the pool, we headed off for our own drive through the game reserve. We spotted zebra, impala, waterbuck, wildebeest, and rhino. It was a delight! We then braaied as the sun set, and packed it in for the night. (oh, I forgot to mention we had a fair share of ‘wildlife’ on our side of the fence…we had impala, baboons (and a few little babies), an ostrich that walked right between our tents, 3 huge warthog that roamed freely (yikes, the tusks on those things are lethal!) and a sweet, mommy cat who had planted herself and her 5 minuscule kittens (who stole my heart) behind a bush outside the bathrooms.

We woke up early again this morning (thank, loud neighbours) and headed back into the the game reserve. This time we spotted loads of zebra, buck, giraffe and the rhino. We took a leisurely dip in the pool and headed for the Sunday buffet at the restaurant – yum! After another cool dip (before the hot trip home) we loaded back into the cars and headed for Jo’Burg.

After unpacking and lining up for the loo, we made a light dinner and sat down to watch Syriana (interesting movie). What a fabulous weekend with phenomenally fun people!