Page 340 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - South Africa

338  GU A TENG , LIMPOPO AND MPUM ALANGA

such as giraffe, wildebeest Environs
and warthog. A good network of game-
viewing roads and walking
O Marakele National Park trails through the 32-sq-km
Tel 014 777 6928. (12-sq-mile) Polokwane
∑ sanparks.org Game Reserve on the
O Nylsvley Nature Reserve southern outskirts of town
Tel 014 743 6925.Open May–Aug: provides an opportunity
6:30am–5:30pm daily; Sep–Apr: for close encounters with
6am–6pm daily. ∑ nylsvley.co.za white rhino, giraffe, sable
antelope and several other
reintroduced large mammals.
8 Polokwane Bordering the reserve, the
Bakone Malapa Open-Air
Road map E1. * 135,000.
n Cnr Thabo Mbeki & Church. Museum offers informative
Tel 015 290 2010. ∑ golimpopo.com guided tours through a
faithful reconstruction of a
Polokwane, a Sepedi name traditional Pedi (North Sotho)
meaning “Place of Safety”, is homestead as it would have
An orange-breasted bush shrike and its the capital of Limpopo, South been in the 18th-century.
chicks at Nylsvley Nature Reserve Africa’s most northerly province.
Established by the Voortrekker E Hugh Exton
7 Waterberg leader Andries Potgieter in Photographic Museum
1886, it was named Pietersburg, Church St. Tel 015 290 2186.
Road map E2. Tel 014 736 4328. Open 9am–3pm Mon–Fri.
∑ golimpopo.com (after Commandant-General
Piet Joubert of the Transvaal O Polokwane Game
The 14,500-sq-km (5,598-sq- Republic), until 2005. The Reserve
mile) Waterberg massif is a Hugh Exton Photographic Main entrance on Silicon Rd
UNESCO biosphere reserve Museum, set in a late 19th- about 2 km (1 mile) south of
that rises to around 1,830 m century Dutch Reformed town. Tel 015 290 2331.
(6,004 ft) some 200 km Church, offers revealing insights Open May–Sep: 7am–5:30pm;
(120 miles) north of Gauteng. into the town’s early history Oct–Apr: 7am–6:30pm (last
An attractive but rather (particularly the Anglo-Boer entrance 2 hours before
unfocused region, it supports War, when a British closing time).
a mosaic of farms and private concentration camp housed E Bakone Malapa Open-
nature reserves, as well as the 4,000 prisoners) through the Air Museum
provincial Mokolo Dam, a thousands of images captured R37, 8 km (5 miles) out of town.
popular site for water sports. by its namesake between 1892 Tel 073 216 9912. Open 8am–
A focal point is the 670-sq-km and 1945. 4pm Mon–Fri.
(259-sq-mile) Marakele
National Park, which protects
90 mammal species including
elephant, lion, leopard, black
rhino, white rhino, giraffe and
a wide variety of antelope. The
proximity to Gauteng and the
absence of malaria make
Marakele a popular choice with
families.
Environs
A worthwhile stop en route
between Gauteng and Water-
berg is the Nylsvley Nature
Reserve, which protects the
Nyl Floodplain, one of South
Africa’s most important water-
bird sites. More than 375 bird
species have been recorded in
this small reserve, including
the rare slaty egret and rufous-
bellied heron. Walking trails also
offer a chance to get close to
non-dangerous large mammals A male and female giraffe at Polokwane Game Reserve
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp390–91 and pp410–11

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