Green mountains in a valley. Picture: Jim Freeman
Snow, let me tell you, is not pretty when you’re slogging through the stuff in the middle of the night, soaked to the skin and laden with battle-gear and ammunition boxes. No, it’s far more pleasant to observe from the back of a game-viewing vehicle with a mug of rum-fortified hot chocolate in your mitts.
Every time I look at the Swartberg Mountains, north of Oudtshoorn, my mind goes back to the winter of 1979 when, as a young national serviceman undergoing a junior leader’s course at Infantry School, we embarked on an endurance march known in army parlance as a vasbyt.
It’s bloody hard to “hang tough” when you’re lost in the dark on the side of a mountain in head-high thicket, teeth chattering like a light machine gun and feet devoid of feeling notwithstanding constant chafing of cheap wet leather on heels and toes.
There’s no respite when you finally make it to your temporary base: the ground is icy slush and your sleeping bag (like everything else in your rucksack) is sodden. You’re exhausted but so miserable that sleep remains a million miles away.
And it’s only Day One of five. It is impossible to describe a winter vasbyt to anyone who’s never experienced it, so I don’t try as I gaze across the Schoemanskloof valley to where the snow-topped peaks that flank the Swartberg Pass loom in the middle-distance. I can’t help but hear the grim warning “winter is coming” from Game of Thrones. I take another swig of booze infused chocolate and banish the gloomy thoughts.
Dammit, it is an incredibly beautiful scene and I’m a lucky man to be here on Wildehondekloof Private Game Reserve in the heart of a gorgeous floral kingdom where the fynbos is bursting with life thanks to abundant rains.
Talking of rains, we’ve experienced some quite ferocious showers since we drove off from the lodge a couple of hours ago, my partner, Rose-mariè, and I are relatively protected by the Land Cruiser’s canvas roof but our dreadlocked driver-guide, Quintin Lottering, is more exposed to the weather.
Frequent drenching, however, doesn’t dampen Lottering’s enthusiasm for the veld and the countryside in which he grew up and he chatters (perhaps an unfortunate choice of word) away about the fauna and flora of the Klein Karoo.
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Like a good soldier, I first want an appreciation of the terrain and that you can only get from occupying high ground. I point at a kopje with a telecommunications mast on its ridge: can we get up there, I ask?
Lottering swings onto the muddy service road and engages low-range on the Toyota. Halfway up the steep slope, the sun breaks through the clouds and the world changes from an inimical environment to one that’s bathed in soft golden warmth.
Our cellphones start chirping excitedly as we stop at the foot of the mast and the first thing I do is take a picture of the view. Send it to my editor. “Looks like the Scottish Highlands,” is his immediate response. He’s right; swap the fynbos for gorse and you could easily be in the foothills around Glencoe or the Grampians.
Lottering is quick to point out blossoming buchu and relate its health and medicinal properties, something he repeats a few minutes later when we pass through a swathe of spekboom (portulacaria afra). “No plant produces more oxygen than spekboom,” he says, adding that the maximum rate of carbon sequestration in a thicket of the shrub is more than 5 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare per year.
The San people crush the leaves and use the pulp as an astringent for wounds and stings. Spekboom is also delicious in a summer salad. While there is plenty of wildlife to be seen, Wildehondekloof (www.whkloof.co.za) is more of a nature than game reserve.
The 4000 hectare property does not stock the Big Five, so don’t think about going there if you want to see lions, elephant and rhino. I’m sure there is the odd Cape mountain leopard as well as caracal and African wildcat lurking in the kloofs and thickets but they’re extremely shy and sightings are unlikely.
There are more than enough animals to keep guests enchanted, though, starting with a herd of placidnyala that graze on the lush lawns in front of the luxury nine-roomed lodge that includes a “presidential” suite.
There is also a self-catering family villa that can accommodate four adults and two children. All beds have electric blankets and most rooms have fireplaces. The furnishings and finishes are, as befits a four-star property, top quality but understated. The primary summer target market is European tourists – and the décor reflects this – but there’s none of the garish African “art” that can detract from the ambience.
Wildehondekloof Private Game Reserve is a recent addition to the Cape Country Routes collection of owner-operated and managed accommodation that incorporates more than 20 hotels, lodges and guest houses located on scenic and historic routes in the Western and Eastern Cape.
All are carefully selected for their character, charm and romance. “My husband, Hendrik, and I bought the place on a whim in 2019,” says co-owner Paula Potgieter. “It was something of a sentimental decision on his part because he grew up just down the road.” The first two years, she adds, were spent uprooting invasive alien tree species – among them black wattle and oleander – that choked and poisoned the perennial streams that criss-cross the property. The roads were so overgrown in places that Hendrik had to mark them with toilet-paper so the vegetation-clearing parties could follow.
With water flowing clean and unhindered off the mountains, the Potgieters began restocking the reserve with herbivore species such as wildebeest, nyala, eland, kudu, oryx (gemsbok), red hartebeest, giraffe and Cape mountain zebra. There is a diverse birdlife and other small animals abound. Apart from the guided game drives, activities include hiking and mountain biking. Wildehondekloof is popular with South African travellers in winter, particularly as a result of the outdoor activities as well as pricing offers. “It was locals that kept us going during Covid and we’re not about to turn our backs on them now that the pandemic is past,” says Mrs Potgieter.
The lodge has been designed to be cosy in winter but cool in summer. Oudtshoorn might be only 50km away but Wildehondekloof is consistently five to eight degrees cooler during the day. Nonetheless, the swimming pool provides welcome relief. At this time of the year, however, one of the greatest attractions is two cavernous hearths in the lounge and dining hall that are fed almost constantly with black wattle logs. Meals from Moroccan chef Hatim Zouhier’s kitchen are a highlight of our stay.
He pulls out all the stops the morning of our departure, laying out freshly baked bread and pastries before presenting a pan of bubbling shakshouka. To this delicious dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce, he adds a Klein Karoo touch: eland meatballs. How I wish I could have had this rather than army ration packs back during my 1979 Swartberg nightmare. v Cape Country Routes (www. capecountryroutes.com) has launched a loyalty programme for individuals and couples (R200 a year), as well as families (R500) that offers discounts and value adds from participating accommodation and activity providers.
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