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Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
One of the most accessible South African game reserves. It is located a 1½-hour drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria, outside Rustenburg. It is the fourth largest national park in South Africa and is set in the Pilanesberg range, traversing the floor of a long-extinct volcano. Pilanesberg conserves all the major mammal species including lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo.
The Pilanesberg National Park is located north of Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa. The park owes its existence to a rehabilitation project which started in 1979, and the subsequent Operation Genesis, which introduced game animals of various species. It constitutes the fourth biggest game reserve in South Africa, and has become a popular wildlife destination due to its relative proximity to Gauteng. The park is administered by the North West Parks and Tourism Board, while concessionaires operate its rest camps, bush lodges and lodges. In the south it borders on the Sun City entertainment complex.
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A game lodge where you can do guided lion walks and other encounters with nature (touch a tiger, interact with lion cubs, etc). Servals, caracals, cheetahs also live here. Bookings essential.
A little museum showing the way things were back in the day when Paul Kruger worked on a farm called Boekenhoutfontein, before he became president of the Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek, the Dutch South African Republic circa 1852-1902. The museum shows exhibits pertaining to the Boer farming life and heritage.
A wild animal park home to lions, tigers, black jaguars, hyenas, as well as the only strawberry leopard worldwide. You can take tours of the animals as well as spending intimate time with cubs, lemurs, and adult lions and cheetahs. Tours are kind of spendy but the goal of the park is to take in abused and neglected animals.