Enraptured by the magic of Limpopo

Published Feb 16, 2006

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By Bridget Hilton-Barber

If you still think Limpopo province consists of a few old towns and a lot of dry bush, think again. South Africa's wildest and most unexplored province is hot, hip and happening. Here's a handy A-Z guide through the wild frontiers of this amazing province.

A

frica

Limpopo is an essentially African province, a province of mythology and legend, ancient cultures, wild animals and great beauty. Africa's Eden, as the province has dubbed itself, recently hosted World Tourism Day, which included the official opening of the new Mapungubwe National Park and world heritage site.

Mapungubwe was the greatest African kingdom to have flourished in South Africa, and the hilltop ruins date back to the 12th century when the area was inhabited by Bantu-speaking people who moved down from Zimbabwe and settled along the banks of the Limpopo, Luvuvhu, Shashe, Shingwedzi, Letaba and later the Sabie rivers.

B

ushveld

Beyond the escarpment in the north of the province, the hot, lazy lowveld stretches out in vast tracts towards Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, and the region offers an abundance of wildlife and bushveld destinations.

The towns of Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa are the hubs of the bushveld region, known for top-class reserves such as Klaserie, Thornybush, Kapama and Garonga.

C

oach House

The Coach House is famed for its mountain views and the best breakfasts south of the Limpopo River and has been one of the province's premier country hotels for more than 20 years. Its elegant, white-washed buildings are set in luscious gardens overlooking the glorious northern Drakensberg.

Deep green forests dance at the feet of wild blue crags and purple cliffs, creamy clouds soothe the tops of charcoal mountains. Attached to the hotel is the Agatha Spa where Roman hydro-therapy meets modern holistic health treatments. You get to be massaged, pampered, oiled and rubbed while gazing across at the mountains. Purrrrrrrrr...

D

esign

Limpopo is renowned for its arts, crafts and design. Carol Boyes, celebrated for her trendy pewter cutlery and objects, has a factory in Tzaneen, which exports her work worldwide. Limpopo is also home to Kaross Embroidery, the brainchild of Irma van Rooyen, which exports hand-embroidered linen and cloth.

Invader Craft makes a range of functional art and furniture out of alien or "invader species" such as bluegum and wattle. The Venda region is famed for its artists and craftspeople, like Noria Mabasa, Jackson Hlangwane, the Ndou brothers, Philip Rikotso and John Baloyi.

E

ugene Marais

Eugene Marais, the author of Soul of the Ape, who lived in the Waterberg area in the early part of last century, was the first person to conduct a study of primates in the wild. A poet, philosopher, doctor, lawyer and morphine addict, Marais lived near a troop of about 300 wild chacma baboons and came to the conclusion that baboon social behaviour marked the dawnings of consciousness in primate evolution.

"I learnt the innermost secrets of their minds," he wrote to his editor. "You will be surprised to learn of the dim and remote regions of the mind to which it led me." Indeed.

F

lowers

Azaleas, clivias, cherry blossoms, St Joseph's lilies, agapanthus, wild flowers... Limpopo has tremendous floral diversity. In spring the mountaintops light up with wildflowers and Haenertsburg's azalea and cherry trees burst into a blaze of Impressionistic pinks and pastels.

G

olf, wild style!

Under the gaze of monkeys, hippos and warthogs, golfers teed off at the Hans Merensky Golf Course in Phalaborwa. The 18-hole course winds its way through indigenous bush next to the Kruger National Park and course keepers regularly have to chase game off the fairways.

H

uman Origins

Humanity evolved beneath the canopy of African skies on the immense card table of the African Savannah. So wrote author Robert Ardrey. At Makapansgat, outside Mokopane (formerly Potgietersrus), you can return to the days of our hairier, heavier-jawed ancestors.

Makapansgat is a world-famous archaeological site where the fossil remains of Australopithecus africanus, a 3,5 million-year-old apeman, was found by Raymond Dart in 1948.

The Makapan caves are full of fossils and archaeological remains and you can take a tour of the caves and area. Significant investments are being made by the province into developing Makapansgat into a contemporary heritage site.

I

vory Route

The African Ivory Route is a self-drive route through the wildest heart of Limpopo province. The route features a series of rustic, self-catering camps that follow in the footsteps of historical characters and legends, including the rain queen Modjadji, King Makgoba, Coenraad du Buys and elephant hunter Jao Albasini.

The route forms an arc that follows the peripheral borders of the province bordering Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and includes the far-flung reaches of northern Kruger National Park.

J

umbos

Apart from the wild herds of pachyderms out here, Limpopo was also the first province to offer elephant back safaris. At Camp Jabulani, a specially trained herd of 12 elephants offer guests the chance to enjoy an unforgettable ride.

Camp Jabulani is set in 13 000 hectares of prime "big five" country in the Kapama Private Game Reserve, one of the country's most exclusive. Camp Jabulani comprises six luxury tents, with individual splash pools, private decks and silver-class service.

K

ruger National Park

Almost two thirds of the Kruger National Park falls within the border of Limpopo, and the recent declaration of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park will see fences coming down between South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to create the world's largest transfrontier park.

The park links Mozambique's Limpopo National Park, the Kruger National Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park through a series of land corridors.

L

apalala Wilderness

Lapalala Wilderness is run by the famed conservationist "Uncle Waterberg", Clive Walker. The bush camps here have been a balm to wearied city souls for years. No electricity, no cellphones, no e-mails, no other people - the sort of place where you get to go back to basics and reaffirm your respect for nature.

There's also a rhino museum here - it was Walker who reintroduced the species into the area after it had been absent for 100 years - and a museum dedicated to Eugene Marais.

M

agoebaskloof

From a kloof of mists and secret enchantments to a veritable Garden of Eden, Magoebaskloof has been called every flattering phrase in the travel book. It's hard not to suspect that everyone who writes about this place hasn't been to the same Miltonesque School of Pastoral Hyperbole, but Magoebaskloof is just so beautiful.

From the hamlet of Haenertsburg, the Magoebaskloof Pass winds down the mountain towards Tzaneen and every bend greets you with a different and delicious surprise - a silver lake, a signpost to a waterfall, bright green tea estates and fruit plantations.

Amble around the gardens at Cheerio Halt, visit the organic Wegraakbosch Cheese Factory and take a sundowner cruise on Ebenezer Dam. The Magoebaskloof forests are a hiker's delight and you can gaze in amazement at the tallest bluegum tree in the country. Planted in 1905, it's a dizzying 82m high.

N

ylsvlei

In the rainy, summer season, run-off from the Waterberg mountains transforms the grasslands of Nylsvlei into a warm, tea-coloured lake that stretches for kilometres. These wetlands and floodplains attract the largest number of birds in the southern hemisphere and Nylslvei becomes an international bird airport. Whistles and whoops, honks and squalls, the place throngs with bird chatter.

There are north-south travellers from Europe and Asia, migrant birds from the African continent, local wayfarers in need of an altitude change. Pretzel-legged herons step carefully through the reeds, clouds of startled weavers explode from the rushes.

You almost expect bird announcers to say: "The paradise flycatchers from Europe have landed on the eastern shore", or more likely: "Would the last lesser gallinule holding up the Mpumalanga flight, please report at once ..."

O

lifants River

This mighty river is the centrepiece of the valley of the Olifants, a region that includes the Drakensberg Mountains, the escarpment and parts of the Kruger National Park, and offers a range of varying landscapes, accommodation and adventure.

P

eople

Limpopo has some of the nicest, friendliest people in the country and a diversity of cultures, including Sotho, Shangaan, Venda, English and Afrikaans. Also peppadews, the cheeky fruit that is adding zing to everything from pizzas to paellas, is grown in the subtropical farmlands around Tzaneen.

Q

ueen Modjadji

The village of Modjadji, near Tzaneen, is home to the legendary rain queen Modjadji and a slope of rare cycads that date back to the time of the dinosaurs. Even the great Zulu warrior King Shaka quivered at the mention of Modjadji's name. She was not content to brew beer for her brethren and fled from Zimbabwe in the early 1800s and took with her the powerful "rain magic". She settled amid the spectacular setting of cycads and started her own matriarchal tribe, the Lobedu.

R

omance

There's no shortage of romance in Limpopo and the most romantic retreat is Kingswalden Lodge near Agatha. Its gardens were voted the most romantic of the decade by House & Leisure magazine and are full of spirits, souls and wild imaginings.

The lodge overlooks the purple-blue spines of the northern Drakensberg and shimmering stretches of the lowveld. Arrange a picnic hamper and head to the garden for a day of gentle, soulful contemplation.

A series of stone paths lead to romantic white gardens and aromatic herb gardens, mysterious sunken gardens, formal Italian rose gardens with wall mirrors and memorial busts, on whose heads the monkeys sit.

From the pool, wide stone steps lead through an acre of agapanthus to a lake called the Bibigar (place of spirits), which is guarded by a pair of full-breasted sphinxes.

S

outpansberg

South Africa's northernmost mountain range rises abruptly in the west, near the forgotten village of Vivo, and stretches east for 130km in a series of wild peaks and troughs, before petering out in the northern part of the Kruger National Park.

The western region is semi-arid and scrub but as you move east it slowly turns into a high-rainfall zone with thick mists and deep forests. The Soutpansberg is home to a range of game reserves, mountain-top chalets, remote retreats, and spectacular hikes.

U

pside-down-trees

The most loved symbol of Limpopo is the upside-down-tree or baobab (Adansonia digitata), many of which are more than a thousand years old and play an essential part in the mythology and history of the province.

North of Makhado, just before Musina, is the strange and surreal Baobab reserve where you can drive through a forest of these trees.

The baobab is most useful if you get lost or temporarily distracted. You can eat the leaves, make coffee and paper from the bark and even whip up a quick cream of tartar sauce from the pulp.

V

enda

The area of Venda, near Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt) is one of the most heady, creative parts of the province. It is home to a number of artists and craftspeople, fascinating mythology, ancient ruins and amazing places to stay.

Visit the sacred Lake Fundudzi, the place of birth and creation in Venda mythology, and the holy forest of Thathe Vondo, which is home to Venda's ancestral spirits and royal burial sites, protected by Nathathe, a supernatural lion.

You can also visit the Dzata ruins, which were built around 1700 and last ruled by the great Thohoyandou (the head of the elephant) who forged the Venda nation from the existing clans in the area. If you didn't believe in python gods and supernatural lions before visiting Venda, you definitely will afterwards.

W

aterberg

The Waterberg, a well-watered range that forms the shoulder of a plateau of wilderness that rolls all the way to Botswana, was recently declared a Unesco biosphere reserve and has become one of our most important conservation areas.

The Welgevonden conservancy in the southeast is the "new" lowveld, and the rich, famous and foreign are visiting it in droves.

Welgevonden has about 20 commercial lodges and several private and corporate hideaways. Makweti and Mhondoro, Shidzidzi, Shibula, Sediba... the names roll off the tongue in delicious African fashion.

X

X is for the X-factor, which Limpopo has plenty of. Where else in the country do you get such a combination of scenery, mythology, culture, history and magic?

Y

es!

A resounding thumbs up to Limpopo for turning itself from being Mpumalanga's poorer cousin into the most wild and wonderful province.

Z

en

The wilderness is a place of reflection, said conservationist Ian Player, and nowhere do you feel that more than in Limpopo, where the skies are big, the spaces vast and the bush wild and untamed.

- This article was originally published on page 6 of The Sunday Independent on October 17, 2004

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