By Brendan Seery
Polokwane - An icy winds stabs at exposed fingers and knuckles, the hot coffee in the aluminium mugs barely keeping it at bay.
It’s a visitor from the Western Cape – a chilly cold front – that has turned this Big Sky country temporarily into a Big Cloud country.
Below and around us on all sides, the Waterberg folds away to the horizon like a rumpled green duvet. In most directions you look – 270º from our lookout atop the high plateau – you see no sign of humans: no houses, no roads, no power lines. The Waterberg – at least here in the 35 000-hectare Welgevonden Game Reserve – seems to be a vast, empty wilderness in comparison to the other, more well-frequented parks in the northern, bushveld parts of South Africa.
The huge 2 million-hectare Kruger National Park teems with animals, but also teems with visitors and somehow does not have the vistas Welgevonden does. Nor does Madikwe in the North West. Despite its variety of game and larger 75 000ha area, one is aware one is a relative stone’s throw away from the lights of Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, over the border.
Even when the clouds try to compress the horizon, Welgevonden offers vast vistas, and up high it’s hard not to drift away from the urban grime and drudge. It’s a place for contemplation, for drinking in the peace and solitude.
It’s something Simon Bjaloane knows. He grew up not far from here, close to what became Clive Walker’s renowned Lapalala Wilderness, one of the first places to share the special nature of the Waterberg with outsiders. As the manager and guide for the 5-star Fifty Seven Waterberg lodge, Simon spends his life in Welgevonden. Yet even he never tires of its soothing balm. “Sometimes,” he says, “when I have a day off, I take the vehicle and drive to a quiet place and just think about my stuff…”
Growing up on a farm, he learnt to track animals not long after he learnt to walk. He loves the bush. “Some people they take up guiding because they want a job, not because they love the bush. You can see it. You have to love what you do. I love my work.”
In many years of visiting game lodges, I have met few people like Simon – those who are skilled in the bush, interpreting for clients and interacting with people, and who also run a top-class establishment.
There are not many African lodge managers at this level in the industry. Simon got there because he is up with the best.
Quintin Wiehahn, managing director of the WH Leisure group. which owns Fifty Seven Waterberg, has also allowed Simon the freedom to try new ideas. The result is simply one of the best small game lodge operations you are likely to experience.
On the game drives, Simon is engaging and knowledgeable and, clearly, proud of Welgevonden.
“We say to people, ‘When you have a sighting here, you get close’.” His remarks come as we watch a young rhino bull, fresh from a mudbath, rubbing up against trees. He is so close you can hear the scraping, see him blink as he looks at us, unthreatened. His eye is surprisingly small, remarks one of those in the vehicle.
And there are other close encounters. Simon follows a 30-year-old elephant bull in musth – you can see the testosterone-charged animal’s secretions soaking the inside of his back legs. He is determined to mate.
Getting in his way is not advisable (an elephant in musth has testosterone levels 60 times as high as a male not in the condition), so Simon keeps a respectful distance.
The wind drops and changes and we are hit with the pungent smell of the huge animal. Whew! Simon is right. This is close.
The sightings in Welgevonden are, somehow, even more satisfying than those in some private reserves adjacent to the Kruger. The animals here are not around every corner. And when you have to work for it, a sighting is that much sweeter.
The reserve is a Big Five destination – although Simon reveals that Welgevonden’s pride of 13 lions were struck down by canine distemper last year. Only one cat, an older solitary female, survived .
However, new groups of the big feline predators (vaccinated against distemper) are being held in a boma before being released into the reserve in the next few weeks.
There are about 13 cheetahs, as well as leopard, whose numbers are unknown, but which must be significant, judging from how many the rangers have seen and how much prey they have killed.
The reserve has a herd of disease-free buffalo that is kept in a larger, fenced camp, as well as ordinary, free-roaming buffalo. Also kept apart from the predators are a small group of sable antelope.
It is the surprise appearance of a sable bull – apparently it crossed over from a neighbouring reserve – that starts a burst of excited chatter over the radio by rangers and guides.
Simon notes, wryly: “He will have to watch out, that one. He comes from a place where he doesn’t know lions. And he is heading for the area where that lioness is.”
He expects the sable will be captured and returned to its owners.
The very ethos of Welgevonden is different. The reserve’s central website – www.welgevonden.org – is straightforward.
“Private game reserves have an opportunity and thus responsibility to make a significant contribution to the protection of the country’s biodiversity.”
But the financial pressure means that, often, property owners run “high-margin, low-volume recreational tourism” that is dependent on the quality of game viewing on offer. “Consequently, biodiversity objectives are frequently compromised to satisfy short-term game viewing demands, and inappropriate management practices have resulted in severe habitat deterioration in numerous private reserves.”
The conflict in ecotourism between the economy and ecology “threatens to undermine its promise as a sustainable land-use practice for private conservation areas. This conflict almost certainly represents the single biggest challenge for private conservation.”
Welgevonden “does not rely directly on tourism income for its financial security”, so it can take a “longer-term approach to ensure the ecological integrity of the reserve… and… that the tourism product retains its vitality and competitiveness well into the future.”
The approach is as different as Welgevonden’s location.
So, too, is the experience at Fifty Seven Waterberg different from that other game lodges.
When we return from a stimulating three-hour drive with Simon, we have a quick freshen-up and dinner is served.
What chef Lucas Letsebe conjures up is a pleasant surprise. Here in the wilderness of the Waterberg, he introduces fine dining.
I have had plenty of steaks at bush lodges over the years, but the fillet he produced – for once medium rare – was a stand-out experience. That was just the main course. The starter and dessert (a lovely, deconstructed lemon meringue) were simple, elegant and tasty. You don’t expect three-course fine dining in the bush.
Born in the Vaalwater area and educated there, Lucas started out as an assistant cook in a coffee shop and discovered the love of his life. Food. After training at a further education and training college, he was taken in by the WH Leisure Group.
“They took me to Pretoria (to the group’s 5-star Menlyn Boutique Hotel and its Black Bamboo fine dining restaurant) and they showed me things… and I learnt.”
Learnt he has – but you cannot teach passion. The soft-spoken and shy Lucas has that passion for food. Dinners, lunches (he whips up a light, zingy chicken salad at a moment’s notice) and breakfasts (mine’s an omelette!) are out of the ordinary.
The food puts the bow on an extraordinary show by Fifty Seven Waterberg and Welgevonden.
As I nose the car out of the West Gate at Welgevonden towards the road back to Vaalwater and Modimolle, I feel strangely different.
Normally, I am slightly depressed to be leaving the bush. And especially the Waterberg, which is one of my favourite wild places in South Africa.
Now, though, there is a cautious optimism instead – the wildlife and game lodge experience is alive, and thriving, at Welgevonden and Fifty Seven Waterberg…
l www.57waterberg.com
Easy journey to bush escape
The Welgevonden Game Reserve is part of the 4 000km2 Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, which gained this special Unesco status in 2001.
It is in a malaria-free area and is about three hours’ drive from Joburg (up the N1, then R33 through Modimolle and on to Vaalwater), or about 45 minutes in a light aircraft to the airstrip in the reserve. The altitude varies from just over 1 000m in the lowest sections to more than 1 800m in the higher areas.
The climate is mild to warm all year, with frosts occurring in the depths of winter in low-lying areas, but the average minimum in winter is about 3ºC degrees. Visitors are advised to bring layered clothing in the cooler months. All lodges provide ponchos or blankets for chilly morning and evening game drives.
The wet season is from November to April and some parts of the park are not accessible by vehicle during this time of year.
Welgevonden has more than 50 species of mammals, and 300 bird species have been recorded there.
l www.welgevonden.org
Saturday Star