Pilgrims Rest South Africa Safaris

SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARIS AND PILGRIMS REST

Pilgrims Rest is surrounded by mountains, grasslands, forests and open plains; located on the Panorama Route on the Eastern escarpment (Mpumalanga Province)… This town (Pilgrims Rest) boasts historical findings while allowing travellers to experience South Africa’s history on organised safaris.

This region refers to the famous ‘gold rush era’ of South Africa…Pilgrims Rest was declared a National Monument in 1986; in memory of the gold-rush days between the 1800’s and the early 1900’s. In 1870 Alec Patterson found gold in this South African area; immediately after this, mining areas were setup and Pilgrims Rest became the popular social centre for the gold activities... Pilgrims Rest (Beta Mine) closed down in 1971 and was re-opened in 1999 by a mining company wanting to find more gold, this mine is still active today.

Pilgrims Rest boasts the most amazing and fascinating historical buildings, such as; an old Anglican church, a digging museum, a gold panning area, dredzen shops, a House Museum, a historic cemetery, the Joubert Bridge (at the entrance of Pilgrims Rest, built in 1896) and Mount Sheba Nature Reserve just to name a few…

Besides gold tours and historic holidays, travellers can enjoy many Pilgrims Rest activities, such as; walking trails, a round of golf at the local golf course, horse riding, hiking and even trout fishing! But for those that love the ‘gold-rush era’ you can learn about the extraordinary nuggets that were recorded in this region, such as; the Breda nugget which weighed 214 oz and the Lilley nugget which weighed 119 oz! Over 50 years, in the late 1800’s, Pilgrims Rest produced over 5 000 000 oz of gold – becoming one of the most valuable areas in South Africa!

Mount Sheba Nature Reserve is below the Pilgrims Rest Mountains and consists of grasslands, forests and natural gardens. This premier Birding area is world-renowned for its amazing birdlife sightings, such as; African cuckoo hawk, crowed eagle, mountain wagtail, forest canary, gurney’s sugarbird and so much more.

Pilgrims Rest has rainy summers and dry winters. Most of the rain falls in the summer months with January being the wettest month and June being the driest. Pilgrims Rest has an average temperature of 17ºC. The summer months reach 23ºC and the winter months drop down to 4ºC!

Have a look at our South African safaris that include Pilgrims Rest below. There are also other South African attractions beneath that you might want to visit on your South African Safari.

• Kruger National Park
• Garden Route
• Cape Town
• Winelands
• KwaZulu-Natal
• Addo Elephant National Park
• Greater St Lucia
• Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park
• Overberg
• Pilanesberg National Park
• Ukhahlamba
• West Coast
• Aquila
• Table Mountain
• Cango Caves
• Cape Point, Cape Agulhas
• Drakensberg
• Gods Window
• Kapama Game Reserve
• Kirstenbosch
• Knysna
• Madikwe Game Reserve
• Robben Island
• Soweto
• Sun City
• Karoo South Africa
• Wild Coast
• V&A Waterfront
• Johannesburg
• Gansbaai
• Tsitsikamma
• Valley of a 1000 Hills
• Inverdoorn
• Cederberg
• Kimberley
• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
• Zululand
• The Battlefields