New houses, old friends and saving an nyala

9 – 13 OCTOBER 2020

On a slightly overcast Friday morning, we headed north quite early. We had some travelling to do to reach our next destination: ATKV Eiland Spa in Limpopo.

JUGGLING IS NOT MY THING

To our great relief, we found out last night that there is an access road onto the N4 near the ATKV Buffelspoort Resort. We would not have to subject Miss Daisy to the ghastly R102. But the worst navigator ever (yours truly) nearly messed things up near Brits anyway. I realised that I am not good at juggling too many balls at the same time – especially not if technology is involved!

Firstly, I was on the phone with Lars from the Clicks Pharmacy in Hartbeespoort. We had picked up our prescription for our malaria tablets there two days ago, but when we opened it last night, we saw that we only received 15 tablets each instead of the 25 tablets each that we paid for. And we were not planning to go all the way back into Hartbeespoort again, not with Miss Daisy in tow.

While I was chatting to Lars, I tried to multi-task with Sannie (Google Maps). The result was that I managed to drop the phone call a few times. In my defence – the cell signal was not great either. To avoid doing that again, I even attempted to figure out our route from our hard copy map book. But Sannie and the map book could not agree which one of the two parallel roads leading eastward was the actual N4. And then, just to knock my balls out of the air, we hit road works! (Yes! Actual road works!! Hard to believe!) The roadworks channelled us onto a detour, where we took a wrong turn, but slightly further ahead we managed to find the true N4 again.

Luckily, Lars was also able to make a plan. We could pick up the outstanding tablets at a Clicks Pharmacy in Polokwane.

NEVERENDING TOLL FEES

North of Pretoria we headed onto the N1. Our biggest shock on our way north, was the exorbitant amounts that we had to pay for toll fees. The only toll road that we frequently use in the Western Cape, is the Huguenot Tunnel, for which the toll fee is about R40. On the N4 and N1 we travelled through six or seven toll plazas and spent just more than R200 on toll fees. That is a big bite out of our budget of R1000 per day. And unfortunately, using the alternative routes is not an option with Miss Daisy, because the roads are in such a bad state of disrepair.

PROLIFIC POLOKWANE

At Buffelspoort, we chatted to a gentleman who made his fortune manufacturing bricks in Polokwane. Although he told us that they could not meet the demand for bricks, we did not expect the explosion of new development which we could see from the N1. Huge new security estates vied with each other, each one trying to be more luxurious than the next. The wealth of the upcoming middle-class was evident here in Polokwane..

We had to travel a few kilometres past our turn-off to Tzaneen to pick up our malaria tablets at Clicks in the Mall of the North, but they had everything ready for us. We then headed east on the R71. For the next 40 kilometres, which took us nearly an hour, we drove through sprawling suburban settlements which stretched over the hills as far as the eye could see. My town planner-husband found it difficult to understand how any municipality could allow this kind of unorganised development to take place. Small zinc shacks stood side-by-side with modest brick houses and huge, pillared mansions alike.

LOVELY, LUSH LOWVELD

After we passed the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church at Moria, the area became more rural. We marvelled at the natural beauty of the Magoebaskloof area and the picturesque Magoebaskloof Pass. The views from the pass were spectacular. We had arrived in the Lowveld. The landscape and vegetation were totally different from the Bushveld around Polokwane. Unfortunately, it was a bit too difficult to find an area where we could pull off the road safely with Miss Daisy to take photos.

Tzaneen is a beautiful, clean town. Even the roads are in a good condition. We stopped at the Tzaneen Lifestyle Centre to stock up on some essentials at Food Lover’s Market. Unfortunately, it was too late in the afternoon to explore more of Tzaneen.

We headed east again on the R71 until we reached Letsitele. Although we followed the directions which the resort sent us, to drive the road leading to the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve, this route is not advisable with a caravan. Some sections of the road were not too bad, but that just lulled you into a false sense of security, until you hit the next pothole.

Even though the road was bad, we were in awe of the ginormous anthills next to the road. If that is what their homes looked like, I did not wat to see the size of the ants living inside!

HEAVEN ON EARTH

Our two nights at ATKV Eiland Spa was a wonderfully restorative experience. We had a lovely camping spot next to a small dam, right where the little pedestrian bridge leads to the swimming pools and entertainment areas. The ablutions were neat and clean and close-by. A helpful lady, named Anna, also did our laundry for us.

Water is my safe and happy place. It was wonderful to relax in the warm outdoor swimming pool, especially in the early evenings. When it became a bit too hot the Saturday, we also cooled off in the cold pool. Although the indoor heated pool looked tempting, we decided that it might be a bit too risky to swim there – given the whole Covid situation, of course.   

My mom let me know that distant relations from my hometown, Oom Ferdinand Das and Tannie Freda, were on holiday there. We popped in to say hello when we arrived and spent some enjoyable time catching up with them. They joined us on Saturday morning for Andre’s famous brunch and some guitar music around the campfire. After we checked out on Sunday, Tannie Frieda spoilt us with fresh fruit salad at their bungalow.

Much to our surprise, we also came closer to nature here at the Eiland Spa. We did not know that the resort was situated within the boundaries of the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve. Herds of antelope grazed close to the campsite. We also had a special friend who came to visit us a few times at out campsite – a beautiful rock monitor (likkewaan). This was the closest I have ever come to a rock monitor and I loved watching him.

Andre had a very special encounter with nature. He went fishing in the little dam at sunrise on Saturday morning. The next moment he heard someone shouting, “Stop her! Stop her!” He looked up just in time to see an nyala cow storming towards him. When he tried to stop her, she jumped past him into the dam. Andre could see that she had been darted. The game ranger and his men, who had been chasing her, pulled her out of the water and led her away. He explained to Andre that there were too many nyala in the reserve. They were darting some of them to transfer them to other nature reserves. Andre was extremely chuffed that he had been part of a conservation operation.

IT NEVER RAINS BUT IT POURS                                                     

On Saturday evening it started raining heavily. We could just dive into Miss Daisy and heat up leftovers from our brunch. It continued raining throughout the night. The next morning, we saw that some of the tents in lower-lying areas had been flooded. We waited until there was a small break in the weather before we packed up as quickly as we could.

After saying goodbye to the Dasse, we set off for Phalaborwa. This time we drove the R526 back to the R71 – this road was so much better than the parallel road that we drove on our way into the resort! We drove all the way to Phalaborwa in the pouring rain.

When we arrived at the Phalaborwa Safari Park, A Forever Resort, we did not even unhook Miss Daisy from the bakkie. We just jumped straight in and spent a quiet afternoon and evening relaxing inside. The only hiccup happened when I tried to make tea. Each time I switched on the kettle; the power tripped. Poor Andre checked everything, in and out into the rain, lifting up the mattress of our bed to check the inverter, opening up the blue connector on our electrical lead, plugging our lead into a different socket in the mains box. Nothing worked! Then we finally figured out that it was the kettle itself that had self-destructed. We enjoyed a cheese and crackers picnic on our bed, supplemented with a huge luxury – a big packet of impala biltong that Oom Das had given us.

Luckily, there was only intermittent rain the next day. We drove around to explore Phalaborwa a bit, had lunch in the Yurok Spur (after we searched in vain for a coffee shop), did some grocery shopping and replaced our kettle.

We were ready for our Kruger Park Adventure!