I ♥ Tzaneen Because ...

I ♥ Tzaneen

Hi, I’m Natalie from Tzaneen Country Lodge in Tzaneen.

Tzaneen IS BEST KNOWN as the fruit bas­ket of South Africa and fam­ous for its trop­ical fruits and extraordin­ary scenic beauty.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Debegeni Waterfall – mean­ing the place of the Big Pot. (It’s a stun­ning water­fall with lush bush and vegetation).

THE BEST adven­ture PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Magoebaskloof Canopy Tours while slid­ing through the indi­gen­ous forest on a 2½-hour Tarzan and Jane style adven­ture.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the dam wall of the Tzaneen Dam — the pop­u­lar after-dinner walk­ing spot of loc­als. Continued

I ♥ Magoebaskloof Because ...

I ♥ Magoebaskloof

Hi, I’m Shahrzad Hone from Kuhestan Farm Cottages in Magoebaskloof.

Magoebaskloof IS BEST KNOWN FOR its moun­tains, streams, forests and exotic birds.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Debengeni Falls, a beau­ti­ful wide water­fall flow­ing into the Magoebaskloof Dam. The falls which are found at the foot of the Magoebaskloof Mountains are an ideal place to relax and recharge.  Swimming is pos­sible in the fresh water pool dur­ing the sum­mer months. The area boasts a won­der­ful bird pop­u­la­tion, includ­ing the rare grey Wagtail which is a reg­u­lar vis­itor dur­ing summer.

THE BEST fam­ily PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Kuhestan Farm Cottages in the garden of the main residence.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT Haenertsburg and sur­round­ing ven­ues. Haenertsburg is a vil­lage found on Route 71, between Polokwane and Tzaneen.  It’s home to about 350 fam­il­ies and is a well-known and pop­u­lar place for cyc­ling, bik­ing and hik­ing.  The area is known for its misty days and high rain­fall. Continued

Kruger – the low down on what to remember, where to stay, what to do and spotting the Big 5

Kruger National Park

The Kruger National Park is undoubtedly THE place to be when it comes to see­ing game in what should be their nat­ural envir­on­ment.  Even if dur­ing school hol­i­days the num­ber of people enter­ing the park is ques­tion­able, traffic fairly con­ges­ted, and the tend­ency of indi­vidu­als to do silly things like feed hyenas and mon­keys (now a con­stant pest in vari­ous rest camps) a sign that even in the Kruger, humans are encroach­ing on the free­dom of the anim­als within. Despite this Kruger Park is a fant­astic experience.

One of the world's largest game parks, Kruger has received a  myriad accol­ades for nature con­ser­va­tion and, more recently, has begun lower­ing fences that sep­ar­ate the park from neigh­bour­ing reserves, allow­ing the wild­life within even greater access to land and water, and increas­ing the chance to spot game. Continued

I ♥ Bela Bela Because...

I ♥ Bela Bela

Hi, I’m Christine Hall from Botsebotse Bush Retreat situ­ated in the Mabula dis­trict of Bela Bela.

Bela Bela IS BEST KNOWN FOR its beau­ti­ful mal­aria free bushveld sur­rounds and sub-tropical cli­mate that aver­ages 286 sunny days per year and for the fant­astic game and Big 5 exper­i­ences that are on offer. The Bela Bela area is also renowned as a great golf­ing des­tin­a­tion and is home to some of the best golf courses in the coun­try con­veni­enly loc­ated for vis­tors from Johannesburg and Gauteng’s major cit­ies. Previously known as Warmbaths, Bela Bela is Northern Sotho for "Boiling-Boiling" which is syn­onym­ous with the town's world-renowned hot water springs with hot water bub­bling out of the earth at approx­im­ately 22,000 liters per hour at a tem­per­at­ure of 53°C.

Put on your bush gear and hik­ing boots, get on a horse, quad bike or a safari vehicle GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT amongst your favour­ite anim­als. Continued

The Marakele National Park

Marakele National Park

There’s a reason why so many for­eign films are shot in South Africa. It’s not just the read­ily avail­able local skills and the cheaper prices – it’s also because of the loc­a­tion. Very few places in the world offer such diverse loc­a­tions in one place. The Marakele National Park, in the Limpopo Province is an example of a film­makers’ dream. Situated in the Waterberg moun­tain range, its dis­tinct land­scape offers every from ragged moun­tains to lav­ish grass­lands and deep val­leys. You could prob­ably shoot a fantasy epic like Lord of the Rings there and never have to leave. Continued

Limpopo — top things to do

Limpopo Province

The north­ern­most province of South Africa, Limpopo is regarded as the eco cap­ital of the coun­try and is where you go to exper­i­ence wild­life, incred­ible scenery and a lot less traffic con­ges­tion, unless the Kruger National Park in peak hol­i­day sea­son is your idea of a traffic jam.

Limpopo is also heav­ily shrouded in mys­tery and legend, an area heav­ily endowed with ruins, rel­ics, ancient forest and hot min­eral springs that invite reju­ven­a­tion. Other than a lot of farm­land and the odd mine, the Limpopo is wide open coun­try pre­dom­in­ated by game reserves that stretch end­lessly and allow one to exper­i­ence bush safaris of note. It might have a cap­ital city in the form of Polokwane, but the province's num­bers make up only 10% of the country's total pop­u­la­tion, des­pite being lar­ger than the US state of Pennsylvania and the fifth-largest province in South Africa. Continued

The Annual Marula Festival in Phalaborwa

The Annual Marula Festival – February 19^th to 26^{th —} The annual Marula Festival in Limpopo will take place in the town of Phalaborwa from February 19^th to 26^th.  Various activ­it­ies are planned for the fest­ival and these will take place at the Impala Park Rugby Stadium.

Among other events on dur­ing the weeklong fest­ival will be the brew­ing of the Marula Festival bever­age, a golf chal­lenge, a half mara­thon and an open air music con­cert.  In keep­ing with the sports trend there will also be youth rugby and street soc­cer ... Continued

Lake Fundudzi — why you should visit, and what fashion has to do with it

Fundudzi Label

What do Lake Fundudzi and fash­ion have in com­mon? At first glance, abso­lutely noth­ing, unless you regard fash­ion as sac­red, which many do.

Lake Fundudzi is a magical lake. It lies in the Limpopo, way up in the north west­ern reaches of South Africa in the Thohoyandou region, just north of The Holy Forest and west of the Kruger National Park. It is not com­monly vis­ited, well, not nearly as much as the Kruger any­way, and no-one washes or swims in it.

You wouldn't swim in a lake either if a giant python, the god of fer­til­ity, was said to live in the lake and demand an annual sac­ri­fice of a maiden. And to visit it, you need spe­cial per­mis­sion any­way. Strangers to the lake are expec­ted, when and if you do man­age to get per­mis­sion from the People of the Pool (the Netshiavha royal fam­ily) to visit, to greet the lake through your legs — that's upside down and back­wards – a greet­ing known as the ukodola. Continued

Kom pomp saam ... Say what? Get to the Naboom Windpomp Fees

Fun at the Festival

If you haven’t yet been to the charm­ing town of Mookgophong (pre­vi­ously known as Naboomspruit), then here is the per­fect reason to, the Naboom Windpomp Fees from 10 to 12 June 2010. Located at the foot of the Swaershoek Mountains this little vil­lage used to be a rest sta­tion for the Pretoria-Polokwane mail coach back in the 1800’s. The town became a hive of activ­ity in the early 1900’s with the dis­cov­ery of min­er­als and has never looked back. Fluorspar and tin are still mined in the area.

The Naboom Windpomp Fees is an annual event held at the Buffelshoek Agri Depot. The fest­ival gets its name from the Afrikaans word for a wind­mill (wind­pomp). Windmills are pretty use­ful things as they con­vert the energy of wind to rota­tional motion which in turn powers equip­ment such as wind­pumps for get­ting fresh water from under­ground. The fest­ival is hos­ted by the Euphorbia Christelike Onafhanklike Skool and the name of the fest­ival is rep­res­ent­at­ive on the fact that the school pro­duces water for itself and the excess will flow into the com­munity ... Continued

A human wallflower — from the road, by Ruan Smit

Simon & Friends

I’m usu­ally inspired by people. Landscape often inspires me but it is those people that I meet within that land­scape that helps form the land­scape. Magoebaskloof inspired me, I became a wallflower.

I sit in Haenertsburg at the foot of Magoebaskloof in Limpopo province. It is Simon’s birth­day but I don’t know him. He is cel­eb­rat­ing with his fam­ily whilst try­ing to get as much food in his mouth as his nine year old mouth would allow. Simon’s fam­ily is tak­ing pho­to­graphs of this occa­sion but he is not inter­ested in their memor­ies. On the deck of this quaint little res­taur­ant in a town that has been left in a dif­fer­ent cen­tury my head floats from the pic­ture of Simon to what I am about to see ... Continued

Elephant in Welgevonden Game Reserve (Video and photographs)

Photograph and video of an Elephant in the Welgevonden Game Reserve in the Waterberg Area. The Welgevonden Game Reserve is a pop­u­lar week­end safari des­tin­a­tion out of Johannesburg. Only 3 hours drive north of OR Tambo Airport, Welgevonden Game Reserve is a "Big Five", mal­aria free Game Reserve situ­ated in the Waterberg District ... Continued