The Ranch – both a resort and a wildlife conservancy
Our first stop was just south of Polokwane (former Pietersburg), about two and a half hours drive north of Johannesburg.
We stayed two days at Protea Hotel The Ranch ( now a hotel by Marriot) – a lovely resort in a nature conservancy. This place turned out to be one of our favorite stop-over to or from The Kruger National Park – for later visits.
The Ranch has 150 rooms which includes 20 two bedroom self-catering units on the 12 Hole Par 3 Golf Course overlooking the Waterberg Mountains. Impressive range of facilities – including four swimming pools, pool-side lapa and bar, two restaurants, kids’ area, fitness center and more.
Activities include game drives, golf, horseback safari’s, walking and cycling trails, spectacular game viewing and birding.
A nice place to celebrate New Year’s Eve – our first day on our South Africa trip!
This resort is situated within a 1000ha nature conservancy and they offer game drives and lion tours. Animals on the premises: 25 species of antelope including the rare and endangered sable antelope, hyenas, giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, impala, nyala, buffalo, lion sanctuary and over 200 species of birds.
We went on a “Game drive & Lion Tour” and the most special experience was the meeting with the lions. They are not together with the other wild animals, but in a big fenced in area.
The Ranch has been active in wildlife rehabilitation since the 1960s when organized conservation was in its infancy. The Ranch Resort continually offers shelter to orphaned or injured wildlife which cannot be released into the wild.
The Ranch has trained lions for taking part in international movies, documentaries and commercials. This old male lion in this picture has starred in movies including “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, “King Solomon´s Mines”, “Incident at Victoria Falls” and “The Lion child” among several others.
One of the most popular activities at the Ranch is/was walking with lions – which is under the supervision of specialist rangers. I have never had this experience – but in connection with the Game Drives at later occasions we had other exciting experiences – such as : Meeting with tiger cubs, lion cubs and a cheetah among others. Here are some pictures from these experiences:
2011 – Lion cubs and tiger cubs:
2013 – Lion cubs, both tawny and white ones:
2017 – meeting with a cheetah:
Next stop was the Kruger National Park. The third largest game reserve in Africa. We stayed 5 days in the park. Follow us:
