The Great North West is a rugged expanse of bushveld, pioneer people and surprises around every corner. From its modest cities to its highway villages to its fun spots and cherished wilderness reserves, this is a province of friends and fantasy. Just ask the victorious Australian World Cup cricket team who set up HQ in Potchefstroom and built a firm relationship with its locals. Just ask the Japanese tour groups who return to the Legacy Group lodges in the Pilanesberg season after season, piling eagerly into trucks for end-of-day game drives with their guides and their cameras.
Just ask the high rollers who swarm the corridors of the Sun City – Lost City complex day and night, in search of lost African legends and some occasional casino treasure. Just ask the foreign airline hostesses who make it a point to spend at least two days in the Madikwe Game Reserve each time they fly to these parts. Just ask the avid Herman Charles Bosman fans who flock to the Groot Marico area and sate themselves with the voorkamer tales of Oom Schalk Lourens and the devilish mampoer distilled liquor. You’re talking repeat business here. International and local people who cannot seem to get the Northwest out of their blood…
We head westwards, to Rustenburg, home of the massive platinum mines that help run South Africa’s infrastructure. Platinum also comes with five allies: palladium, iridium, osmium, rhodium and ruthenium – the Platinum Group Metals, or PGMs. It is not only excellent for exotic objets d’art and pieces of jewellery, but it has practical applications: the air-cleaning catalytic converter, for one. And then there’s the newcomer to the techno world – the fuel cell.
Just west of Rustenburg, the good times begin with your first glimpse of the Palace of the Lost City at Sun City. This five-star fun-drome built in a dormant African volcano is a hybrid of Las Vegas, the deep jungles of everyone’s African fantasy and the forgotten journals of Rider Haggard. It is so hugely, wonderfully over the top that the world loves to play here – be it serious golf, good times or a few nights’ punting in the Salon Prive.
With innovations like the Valley of the Waves, it has also been transformed over the years into a high-energy family destination where the kids are fully catered for all day while the folks are at play. And just in case the complex hasn’t rocked your world, there is a simulated earthquake available every 30 minutes over at the Bridge of Time. By night, the entertainment centre sizzles with live shows as the conventioneers, regulars and weekenders mingle in their thousands. And just outside the grounds, if you listen closely to the African night, you will hear the roar of lions.
Which, invariably, comes from one of the North West Superparks: the Pilanesberg.
We stay over at Bakubung – “Place of the Hippo” –a luxurious bushveld haven in the middle of malaria-free Big Five country. The beauty of Bakubung is the combination of exotic Africa (the lodge exteriors, the dazzling array of foods, the game experiences) and ultra-sophistication in the rooms: satellite television, instant-office facilities and air conditioning.
The Pilanesberg has become a recent chosen spot with wildlife photographers because of the variety of game and the stunning settings. And if you really want to blow your mind, then book a balloon flight over this wondrous old crater…
Next we head west for the Groot Marico, to learn about the writings and habits of Herman Charles Bosman, visit the fabled Eye of the Marico River, see how crocodile-farming works and taste some locally brewed mampoer – which Americans call moonshine.
At Zeerust, we drive north to Madikwe Game Reserve, which was born in 1991 with hardly a single wild animal left on it save the leopards and jackals the original farmers had been unable to wipe out. Since then, more than 100 000 animals have been translocated to the park from other parts of the country. It currently boasts the second-largest concentration of elephants in South Africa.
At the time of its inception, Madikwe signalled a huge leap forward in South African conservation. Madikwe benefits three main stakeholders, in a partnership between the state (Bop Parks, which became North West Parks & Tourism Board), the private sector (that has erected lodges) and the local communities (the villages of Supingstad, Lekgopung and Molatedi).
Madikwe inspired South African conservation, and what was revolutionary then has since become the model that other provinces are adopting today. It lies in the transition zone between Kalahari sandveld and Marico thornveld and because of its rehabilitation from barren farmland to lush wilderness the reserve is a true miracle zone’…
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