Pilanesberg National Park - South Africa

We arrived in Grand Rapids about 1:15 p.m. this past Friday, tired after being awake for over 40 hours and happy to be home! Now comes the adjustment back to "normal" life. The difference in time change is only part of the adjustment; more difficult is reconciling the difference in lifestyle and "comforts" back here with those in the South African communities where we spent time. I am so thankful that I could be part of this trip; God used us and taught us as well. It was an awesome experience! It's going to take some time for me to process all that I've experienced, but I did want to post a blog entry and begin sharing, so I thought I'd start with the easiest - our visit to Pilanesberg National Park. We spent the last day and a half at this beautiful game park, both to experience God's wonderful creation and also to begin to process our experiences before returning home.

Pilanesberg National Park is about 3 hours northwest of Johannesburg. We first went on an early morning (5:30-8:00) ranger led game drive and spent the rest of the day driving through the park in our vans, looking for animals. We saw three lions, two were finishing off a wildebeest they had killed the night before. Several hungry jackals were waiting nearby for the lions to finish their meal. We also saw quite a few impala, wildebeest, zebra, hippos (in the water), and warthogs, as well as an ostrich. Other than the lions, the most exciting thing we saw was two separate herds of elephants enjoying a late morning bathing time in one of the lakes. There were over twenty elephants rolling around in the water, having a wonderful time! I found out that elephants can go totally under water! We watched them for quite a while. Several of us took an early morning (4:30!!) four hour ranger-led walk on our final day. We saw two more lions right by the edge of the road at sunrise. One of the lions was only about 10 feet away from me - he was absolutely beautiful! (We were still in the jeeps, not out walking yet.) It was such a wonderful feeling to walk through this landscape and listen to the birds in the early morning. We ended our walk by observing a mother white rhino feeding with her baby. And on our drive back to camp we saw more giraffes and elephants! I was amazed at both the beauty and gracefulness of the animals (except for the warthog!) and also the way everything works together. A number of birds feed on parasites of the larger mammals and certain birds also warn other animals of approaching danger. It was also interesting to see how many of the animals in the park have adapted. They were not afraid of the jeeps or cars; they're used to those (at certain distances). But when we were out walking the animals felt much more threatened. A wildebeest way off in the distance saw us and ran farther away.

Here are a few pictures taken at Pilanesberg National Park: