THE PLATINUM ROUTE IN NORTH WEST PROVINCE
The Great Northwest is a rugged expanse of bushveld full of surprises making it a province of friends and fantasy, with modest cities and highway villages with fun spots and cherished wilderness reserves.
It is home to the Legacy Group lodges in the Pilanesberg where season after season visitors can enjoy guided game drives in the late afternoon. The Pilanesberg has become a preferred spot with wildlife photographers because of the variety of game and the stunning settings.
Sun City, with the famous Lost City complex is a buzz day and night where the lost African legends and some occasional casino treasure awaits is the center of attraction for local and international holiday makers. This five-star fun-drome is built in a dormant African volcano and is a cross between Las Vegas and the deep jungles of an African fantasy. With fantasy sites 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. There is a simulated earthquake available every 30 minutes over at the Bridge of Time. By night, the entertainment centre sizzles with live shows and just outside the grounds, if you listen closely to the African night, you will hear the roar of lions.
Other places of interest are the Madikwe Game Reserve and The Great Marico where you can visit the fabled Eye of the Marico River and taste some locally brewed mampoer (moonshine). Madikwe Game Reserve, established in 1991 with almost no wild animals left on it apart from a few leopards and jackals the original farmers had been unable to wipe out. Today more than 100 000 animals have been translocated to the park from other parts of the country and it is home to the second-largest concentration of elephants in South Africa. Madikwe lies in the transition zone between the Kalahari sandveld and the Marico thornveld and because of its rehabilitation from barren farmland to lush wilderness the reserve is a real miracle.
Do not forget Rustenburg, home of the massive platinum mines that fuels the economy of South Africa.