Our last big trip in South Africa was Hartbeespoort. “Harties” is located in the North West province, along the Magaliesberg mountain range. Its name means “pass of the hartebeest” – hartebeests are a species of antelope. Only an hour from Pretoria, this makes for a great day trip! We rode on the aerial cableway, visited the Snake & Animal Park, and viewed Hartbeespoort Dam.
Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway
The Harties aerial cableway is the longest mono-cableway in Africa. This 1.2 km (0.75 mile) cableway stretches to the top of Magaliesberg, providing panoramic views of the mountains, Hartbeespoort Dam, and the surrounding area.
Aerial Cableway
2020 Price: R230 ($14) per person
Up to 6 people can fit per cable car; although, we had a car to ourselves. Hang on to your ticket, you will need to have it scanned again to ride the cableway back down.
Once at the top, you can walk along the 1 km (0.6 mile) Dassie Loop. Educational signs are along the trail detailing the area’s history and landscape. The best views of the town and the dam can be seen from here – truly magnificent!
There is a restaurant, pizza shack, curio shop, and kid zone on the mountaintop. For those looking for more adventure, you can paraglide or hang-glide from the top. Since the cableway station is situated right next to the 360 Degrees restaurant and lookout deck, we were able to watch others arrive while we ate lunch.
This was my second time in a South African aerial cableway. Check out my Cape Town blog about riding to the top of Table Mountain.
Hartbeespoort Dam
One of the main attractions to the area is the 1,620-hectare Hartbeespoort Dam. In South African English, the word dam refers to both the wall and the reservoir or lake created by it.
Many visitors enjoy water sports on the dam, which is fed by the Crocodile and Magalies Rivers. The Transvaal Yacht Club has been operating here since 1923.
Hartbeespoort Dam Snake & Animal Park
After the aerial cableway, we drove a short distance to a private zoo called Hartbeespoort Dam Snake & Animal Park. It lies on the eastern shore of the dam. Free parking is available in front of the park.
Snake & Animal Park
2020 Price: R130 ($8) per person
For such a compact park, there were a lot of animals for viewing. The zoo houses Cape vultures, tigers, leopards, lions, spotted hyenas, meerkats, Cape foxes, bat-eared foxes, chacma baboons, capuchins, gorillas, rhesus macaques, mona monkeys, marmosets, parrots, Aldabra giant tortoises, lizards, Nile crocodiles, and so many snakes!
Visitors can also take a scenic ferryboat cruise on the dam. If you don’t want to pay for a ferry ride, there is an excellent view of the dam from the back of the animal park. We enjoyed watching the boats.
Two other Harties attractions are The Elephant Sanctuary and Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary.
Also nearby are the Cradle of Humankind and Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre.
Pretoria
We stayed at our favorite Airbnb in Pretoria again. After so many days of moving around and waking early for activities, our last two days in South Africa were spent relaxing and watching TV for the first time in over 2 weeks.
Airbnb – Kingfisher Retreat
2020 Price: $132 for 3 nights
Flying Home
Our plan was to fly out of South Africa on Monday, March 16, 2020. On Sunday evening, South Africa’s president declared a national state of disaster and announced “urgent and drastic measures” to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He also announced that starting March 18, travel would be prohibited from “high-risk” countries including the United States. Once again, enhanced precautions were announced the night before our travel! We worried that this would impact our flight but we ended up having no issues.
Because our flight wasn’t until 9 PM, we didn’t turn in our rental car until 5 PM and ate dinner in the airport. The only additional precaution was to have our temperature checked at security and again at the gate.
Then it was a 16-hour flight back to Atlanta! We watched a lot of movies and nibbled on several meals.
I always get up to stretch my legs every few hours due to my condition. Everyone should do this to avoid blood clots. I typically walk the aisle to a spot near the bathrooms (since there is often space out of the aisle here) and then do some basic stretches for my legs, neck, and arms.
Just like my last trip, I loved my time in southern Africa! I can’t recommend the places I visited enough. I would love to continue exploring these and additional African countries on future trips.
We were close to Pretoria too when we went! The cable car looks like so much fun – what a great way to get some incredible views! This has me longing to get back to South Africa!
It was so much fun Sarah and relatively inexpensive! South Africa is such a beautiful country that getting to see it from higher vantage points really does make a difference.
Your photos are stunning! I may have to add South Africa to my travel list.
Thanks Linda! I definitely recommend South Africa as a travel spot. So much to do and see 🙂
Glad you got back safely! I’ve wanted to go to South Africa for a while now! Hopefully next year will be the year! Great post!
Thanks Alycia! Hopefully next year we can all get back to traveling – especially to Africa. East Africa is next on my list 🙂
This is so sad. I’ll miss S. Africa. I’m going back over your trip’s pictures and descriptions. They have been a great staycation.
I’m going to miss South Africa too! I’m glad you’ve been able to enjoy them at home 🙂