Well Found Welgevonden

After a tir­ing jour­ney, admit­tedly just a 3 and a half hour drive from OR Tambo International Airport, we had finally arrived at the West Gate of the Welgevonden Private Game Reserve (near Vaalwater in the Limpopo Province) for a long-awaited game holiday.

We hap­pily aban­doned our rental car (no private vehicles are allowed in the reserve) and scampered into the back of the open 4x4 safari vehicle, while our game ranger col­lec­ted and stowed our lug­gage. Then we were off on our +/- 30 minute “trans­fer” to the lodge. Within minutes, Welgevonden lived up to the mean­ing of its name (well found), as we sloughed off the tired­ness of the trip and found that sense of peace and the true relax­a­tion that can only be exper­i­enced in the bush, with an almost imme­di­ate sight­ing of a Zebra mother and foal ...

The 34,000 hec­tare reserve is home to over 50 mam­mal spe­cies (includ­ing the Big 5), pro­lific bird­life (over 300 spe­cies) and more than 10 dif­fer­ent lodges offer­ing accom­mod­a­tion to vis­it­ors in search of the ulti­mate hol­i­day — a game exper­i­ence. The lodge we would be call­ing home for the next 3 days is Sediba Private Game Lodge. This 5 star, thor­oughly lux­uri­ous lodge is set on a rocky hill­side amidst a for­es­ted val­ley pro­lif­er­ated with trees and their warm and cold blooded inhabitants.

Arriving at the lodge, we were warmly greeted and escor­ted through the main lodge, to our own private chalet, one of only ten, all con­nec­ted via wooden walk­ways. The lodge is unfenced and we were imme­di­ately advised to call recep­tion for an escort should we wish to leave our suite at night. Though safe to walk around dur­ing the day, the lodge has been vis­ited by the occa­sional pred­ator and the adage “bet­ter safe than sorry” is imme­di­ately appreciated.

Our pala­tial suite could not have provided a more com­fort­able res­pite. The open-plan bed­room and lounge area fea­ture floor to ceil­ing win­dows and doors open­ing onto our own private deck sur­roun­ded by trees, with a Jacuzzi for 2 and an out­door shower.

Though at first dis­ap­poin­ted that we’d arrived too late to join the after­noon game drive, this was swiftly allayed by the dis­cov­ery of a troop of Vervet mon­keys which seemed to have made the trees sur­round­ing our chalet their sun­downer spot for the day. We settled into the Jacuzzi with a glass of fine South African wine and watched them leap from branch to branch. Their inquis­it­ive natures led them closer and closer (one was brave enough to scamper onto our deck), but just a move­ment or word from us and they’d dis­ap­pear, dart­ing back to the safety of the branches from which they’d come.

Nightfall brought its own won­ders. After a quick out­door shower as the sun set, we were col­lec­ted with a smile and escor­ted to din­ner. I won’t spoil the sur­prise, but let me assure you that din­ner at Sediba is an event and though you may be temp­ted to indulge in a candle-lit din­ner in the pri­vacy of your suite (some­thing I highly recom­mend), make sure that you exper­i­ence at least one din­ner in the Boma.

Although not one who enjoys wak­ing up early the 6am wake-up call had me bound­ing out of bed, eager to set off on our first game drive. Moments later we had embarked, cam­eras and bin­ocu­lars in tow. Three of the Big 5 graced us with their pres­ence over the course of the next 2 days — lion, ele­phant and rhino (Welgevonden boasts one of the largest rhino pop­u­la­tions of any private game reserve in South Africa) – but my favour­ite sight­ings are always of the “less in demand” inhab­it­ants of the reserve – a herd of Waterbuck mak­ing a hasty retreat and thereby show­ing off their target-like mark­ings on their rears, Warthog scroun­ging and dig­ging for roots, Klipspringers hop­ping from rock to rock, being intro­duced to a huge scorpion.

Between game drives, indulge in a mas­sage at the Health & Wellness Centre, take a dip in the pool or relax on the deck with a good book. If you like to sit and watch the open plains in the hopes of spot­ting some game, Sediba may not be for you. Its loc­a­tion, though stun­ning, does not offer great game watch­ing from the lodge itself — you are unlikely to look out and see gir­affe, ante­lope or other large game, though mon­keys, birds, but­ter­flies and the odd klipspringer are fre­quent vis­it­ors. But Sediba offers a tran­quil­lity sel­dom exper­i­enced else­where. That deli­cious sense of bore­dom, which leads to an after­noon nap, is so rare in today’s frantic life­style and to read for 4 hours and not feel like one should be doing some­thing more pro­duct­ive, is an unex­pec­ted joy.

Two days later, set­ting off on our return jour­ney to Johannesburg, it wasn’t long before our cell­phones began chirp­ing again and the roads became pro­gress­ively busier as we approached the air­port. I felt a sweet sense of loss — one which will only be alle­vi­ated with my return to the African bush. Peace, tran­quil­lity, relax­a­tion and an appre­ci­ation for our nat­ural her­it­age are well found at Welgevonden Private Game Reserve.

Photographs: Click on the thumb­nails to view large photographs:

Useful Links:
Welgevonden Hotels
Welgevonden Game Reserve
Limpopo Game Reserves
South Africa Game Reserves