Wednesday 28 February 2018

Willems Rus Caravan park - February 2018

February and its time to go camping, but somewhere close to Johannesburg.
We wanted somewhere quiet, nice and nearby. We thought of Golden leopard, who run the camps in Pilanesburg National Park, but last time we were there the ablutions were a bit run down. It also gets very full and noisy over weekends.

So, I thought about looking for camping resorts in Dinokeng Game Reserve. Its a relatively new reserve and its in Gauteng.
 I foubnd
So, I started searching Dinokeng Game Reserve. According to their website :- The Dinokeng Game Reserve is the first free-roaming Big 5 residential game reserve in Gauteng – and probably in the world – next to an urbanized area. It is a private/public initiative for which planning and development started in the early 2000’s. It was officially opened on 22 September 2011 after the introduction of four of the Big 5. The last of the Big 5, the buffalo, were introduced in late 2012 and they have settled in well.

I found a few camping sites and we decided on Willens Rus. Their website : Willem’s Rus is a privately owned caravan park situated in the malaria free Dinokeng Big Five Game Reserve and it is perfect for getaways from the rush of city life. It is an outdoor experience in beautiful indigenous bushveld that will help you relax. This is the only free roaming Big 5 Game Reserve in Gauteng, a mere 45 minutes drive from Pretoria.

You can be certain to relax and spend quality time with friends and family around a camp fire under the cosmos of stars. Willem's Rus camping experience is unique in the sense that it is possible to spot the big five from your own campsite, only 35km north of Pretoria.

So we headed out with our Jurgens caravan, towing with the Chevrolet Trailblazer. Its only a short trip, at 124 Km's.







We had a good trip over. We had booked site 12, which has a write up as follows on the website :
This site offers beautiful Northern views of great bushveld scenery and the second waterhole. While building the camp a leopard walked a mere 3m away from this site on the opposite side of the fence at 11h00 in the morning.















We arrived and were welcomed at the reception. 

You could just see, from the look of the place that t was well run, well managed and that we were going to have a very nice peaceful weekend at Willemsrus.
We enjoyed the bush feel and the ablutions were 5 star.
About the only downfall is the dirt/gravel road from the main tar road up to the turnoff to Willensrus. This road is very badly corrugated and with a road caravan you can only drive at about 10 to 20 Kmph. However, luckily its only a a short 1.5 km stretch.

But back to Willemsrus. The bird life is amazing and we were able to identify quiet a few birds.

One nice thing is that the caravan park provide a very nice big braai to each caravan site. We had two enjoyable braai's.




The owner and his wife strolled around the park in the early evening to ensure that everyone was comfortable. Also, you can purchase ice and wood from the reception and the staff will bring  that straight to your site. The braai and bins are cleaned at least twice a day and we really enjoyed the comfortable settings.

There is a very nice swimming pool, which is kept clean. The surrounds are also nice and clean.



All in all, we really enjoyed the weekend camping and we will definitely be back at Willemsrus.












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