Soul Dancing, Limpopo

Crooks Corner at sunset. We drink G&T and jump in the air. This is the northern Kruger, meeting of three countries South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, intersected by the Limpopo and the Luvuvhu rivers. We talk about the early tribes that would have crossed here, then pioneers, smugglers, traders, adventurers; later the dispossessed, war refugees... www.returnafrica.com

Lanner Gorge in the rain. We each take a turn to step onto a lone look-out rock on cliff’s edge - and watch as the Levuvhu River below cuts its ancient course through Lanner Gorge towards its confluence with the Limpopo River.  It’s drizzling and the views are wild; a powerful sense of history hangs in the air...so many stories from the Pafuri Triangle. www.returnafrica.com

Kurisa Moya at dawn. Spirit of the wind. True to its name it’s been blowing all night, roof creaking, trees squeaking, bushbabies shrieking. But at dawn it’s completely still and we awake to a soft, pink day overlooking the Kudu River Valley. This is one of southern Africa’s best eco-tourism spots. Good morning beautiful Limpopo. www.krm.co.za

Leshiba Wilderness in the shower. I am in the dreaming heights of the Soutpansberg mountains in Vhembe. I fall in love with a Venda prince. He is tall and muscled; his hands cupped together invitingly. He wears nothing but a loin cloth. Out of his ear comes a shower head. Aaah, my prince is a shower sculpture at the delightful Venda Village at Leshiba; inspired by legendary artist Noria Mabasa. www.leshiba.co.za

Kings Walden under the lightning tree. We drink, eat, love, laugh, weep and wonder under the lightning tree on my ancestral farm, now a boutique hotel. The tree was struck by lightning the day my grandmother died and it still stands silver-proud, an antenna connecting us to the ancestors.  www.kingswalden.co.za

Klaserie River at dawn. A whole lot of us get up at dawn and watch the river turn a steamy salmon pink. We are friends together, from around the world for one dawn and a few days in the deep heart of Limpopo’s oldest and one of its biggest private reserves. www.klaseriecamps.com

The Kruger on a soulful self-drive. We take a gentle jaunt from Orpen to Phalaborwa gate via the Timbavati River Road, one of the prettiest and most geographically diverse routes in the park. We crest the hill and there she is – behold the Timbavati River. Hippos and crocs warming up, we look out for leopard but don’t see any, damn. ww.krugerpark.co.za

Zwakala Retreat on the lawn. We eat food and drink Zwakala Beer. We are gathered in friendship, love and kin on a golden afternoon in the Magoebaskloof mountains. The sun beams us up. We are surrounded by rivers and waterfalls, forests, indigenous kloofs and mountain views. www.zwakalaretreat.co.za

Wolkberg Wilderness with a view.  I gaze longingly onto the purple blue mountains of the northern Drakensberg mountains, spine of the massive Wolkberg Wilderness area. Thick indigenous forests, dancing waterfalls, home to many a river source and mountain adventure. www.magoebasklooftourism.co.za

Someone bring me a river, a hippo and a G&T please

The Lowveld bush is my happy place. If I could right now, I’d be deep in the bush with Darling, a cold G&T in hand, cruising slowly with all the windows open, perchance to spot an impala under an ancient fig or a pod of hippos basking in the sun like giant aubergines.

Hippos like giant aubergines in the sun 

Living in Limpopo I have been blessed to be able to disappear into the Lowveld bush in between all the madness, and as that good old-fashioned bushwhacker TV Bulpin wrote: “There is nothing quite like it anywhere else on earth. There is a sense of a presence brooding over this wilderness, imparting to it an indefinable character and allure.” This presence he says, embodies all of our longing for adventure, discovery and exhilarating freedom, and is the most unforgettable thing about the Lowveld. Yebo yeah. 

Some of my best soul moments have been seeing the creatures of the bush. A very muddy terrapin in a puddle in the Kruger, a wild dog puppy with satellite-dish ears in the Klaserie. A leopard that simply slunk across our path in Garonga, a hippo dancing at dusk at Ntsiri, a herd of elephant crossing the Timbavati river road in Kruger. And the trees and the rivers, the sunsets, the sunrises, the smell of woodsmoke. 

Sleepy buffalo calf x

Loved for its bushveld spirit, the Lowveld includes the Kruger Park that stretches down from Punda Maria in the north all the way down south to Malelane near the border of Mozambique and Swaziland. It includes the luxury private reserves like Sabi Sands and Mala Mala and the humbler provincial reserves and parks; the Limpopo Valley and the meeting of the borders of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe….where it seems like the elephants an baobabs will never end, although we all know the sad truth that humanity seems ever hellbent on destroying the wild and its creatures. And thank you for the places where they are at peace. 

Pregnant rhino x

I need this virtual reflection of the bush after a befok crazy year in which I packed up the old family farmhouse, packed up dad who went off to Hermanus, packed up myself and packed, many, many suitcases and went to Jozi countless times, New York, Hawaii, Malawi, Ilha de Mocambique, Thailand, and Maputo twice.

Muddy but determined terrapin x

And as the famous South African rhino conservationist Ian Player said, the wilderness is a place of reflection. It's by considering the wilderness as a whole system that one starts to find its real magic. Everything in the bush is interconnected – from the slenderest grasses to the biggest trees - and the more greater the connection the more powerful the amazement. 
Bring me a river, a hippo and a G&T please someone…

Soul spot of note - the Timbavati River Road in the Kruger