North-West Province
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© Lonely Planet Publications 509 North-West Province From safaris to slots, the pursuit of pleasure is paramount in the North-West Province. And with the top three reasons to visit less than a six-hour drive from Johannesburg, this region is more than fun. It’s convenient. Gambling is the name of the game here, although not always in the traditional sense. Place your luck in a knowledgeable ranger’s hands at Madikwe Game Reserve and bet on how many lions he’ll spot on the sunrise wildlife drive. You have to stay to play at this exclusive reserve on the edge of the Kalahari, and the lodges here will be a splurge for many. But for that once-in-a-lifetime, romantic Out of Africa–style safari experience, South Africa’s fourth-largest reserve can’t be beat. If you’d rather spot the Big Five without professional help, do a self-drive safari in Pi- lanesberg National Park. The most accessible park in the country is cheaper than Madikwe, and still has 7000 animals packed into its extinct volcano confines. Plus it’s less than three hours’ drive from Jo’burg. When you’ve had your fill betting on finding rhino, switch to cards at the opulent Sun City casino complex down the road. The final component of the province’s big attraction trifecta is the southern hemisphere’s answer to Las Vegas: a shame- lessly gaudy, unabashedly kitsch and downright delicious place to pass an afternoon. Madikwe, Pilanesberg and Sun City may be the North-West Province’s heavyweight at- tractions, but there are more here than the province’s ‘Big Three’. Round out your journey with an exhilarating zip-line canopy tour of the Magaliesberg Mountains. Or check out the curios at the Welwitischia Country Market, one of Africa’s biggest, on the shores of shim- mery Hartebeespoort Dam. HIGHLIGHTS Stopping within metres of a pride of lions resting under a thorn tree on a sunset safari in wild and wonderful Madikwe Game Reserve ( p516 ) Writing postcards from your private deck at Madikwe’s Tau Game Lodge ( p518 ), watching a stream of elephants and zebra pass by Madikwe Shacking up with a cooler of Castles and a Game Reserve Pilanesberg pair of binoculars at a waterhole hide in National Park Pilanesberg National Park ( p514 ) and wait- Sun City ing for the animals to come to you Welwitischia Country NORTH-WEST PROVINCE Body surfing the Valley of Waves and soak- Market ing up Sun City’s ( p513 ) deliciously gaudy ambience Stocking up on wooden giraffes, masks and handicrafts at the Welwitischia Country Market ( p512 ) at Hartbeespoort Dam POPULATION: 4 MILLION AREA : 116,320 SQ KM 510 NORTH-WEST PROVINCE •• History lonelyplanet.com 0 100 km NORTH-WEST PROVINCE 0 60 miles LEGEND Jwaneng GR Game Reserve A2 Tlokweng Thabazimbi GABORONE MR Mountain Reserve Kopfontein Nylstroom NP National Park Madikwe NR Nature Reserve Ramotswa GR Warmbad Kanye Nietverdiend Klipvoor Dam ὈὈὄ r Ὀ B O T S W A N A R R e Pilanesberg Mogwase N v Lobatse 47 49 i NP Assen 1 Makopong Werda R Skilpadshek o Sun City Borakalalo ig ar Royal Bafokeng NP Temba M Stadium R565 Hartbeespoort R375 Mabule Zeerust Dam Terra Firma Swartruggens Magaliesberg Range Brits Ramatlabama Rustenburg Hartbeespoort Boshoek Kgaswane N Mmabatho R 4 M Mmabatho MR Kosmos o 53 PRETORIA lo Airport Bakerville po Mafikeng ὄὄ Rive ὈR R Ὀ R R 52 30 Piet Plessis r 49 Lichtenburg 24 Johannesburg McCarthy's N Rest Setlagole Ventersdorp 14 R378 G A U T E N G R N Ganyesa Stella R503 30 12 Kuruman River Vereeniging Severn R377 Kuruman River N O R T H - W E S T Potchefstroom N P R O V I N C E R53 3 Ottosdal Klerksdorp Sasolburg Migdol Stilfontein Vryburg Orkney N ὄὄ R ὄ 1 34 R R N 59 Vaal 31 Lykso 14 Schweizer- Wolmaransstad Hotazel R Dam 47 Reneke R Makwassie 34 Bothaville Kuruman N F R E E R R506 12 R 57 Reivilo River 76 S T A T E Taung R Bloemhof 59 To Upington R Kroonstad (147km); 31 Vaal River Bloemhof R Springbok Sishen Dam Odendaalsrus 34 Reitz (646km) Wonderwerk Christiana N ὄ ὄ 1 Caves Harts Sand Welkom Danielskuil To Kimberley Warrenton River R 26 Bohlakong Postmasburg (72km) HISTORY Diamonds were discovered in the province The North-West Province takes in much in the 1870s, resulting in an enormous rush of the areaὄ once covered byὄ the fragmentedὄ to the fieldsὈ around Lichtenburg. Mining is apartheid homeland of Bophuthatswana still important here and there are extensive (often shortened to ‘Bop’), a dumping ground platinum mines near Rustenburg. for thousands of ‘relocated’ Tswana people. The nominally independent homeland be- CLIMATE came famous for the excesses of the white Summer temperatures range between 22°C South African men who visited its casinos and 34°C and winter brings with it dry, and pleasure resorts for interracial encoun- sunny days and chilly nights. The average ters with prostitutes, which would have been winter (May to July) temperature is 15.5°C illegal elsewhere in South Africa. but can range from an average of 2°C to During the Iron Age, the province was the 20°C in a single day. The summer months site of a complex and sophisticated civilisa- (August to March) bring brief, refreshing tion centred on the ‘lost city’ of Kaditshwene, afternoon thunderstorms. about 30km north of modern-day Zeerust. The people who lived here had an economy LANGUAGE so developed they traded copper and iron jew- Tswana is the principal language; most whites ellery with China. By 1820, when European speak Afrikaans, with a minority having missionaries first visited the city, they found English as their first language. it to be bigger than Cape Town. In the end, the peace-loving inhabitants of Kaditshwene GETTING THERE & AROUND proved no match for the aggression of the The N4 is the major east-to-west highway Sotho, displaced by Zulu incursions into the across the province, connecting Pretoria with Free State. The city was sacked by a horde of Rustenburg and then Zeerust. The R47/R49 40,000 people and fell into ruins. runs south to north and its main part joins NORTH-WEST PROVINCE.