On a very still and warm Sunday 26th October, Tony and I leave Waterberg Wilderness Reserve, setting the Garmin for Haenertsburg near the Magoesbaskloof area of Limpopo. We have heard so much about this village from friends, so, when a recent issue of House and Leisure magazine contained an article on Haenertsburg celebrating spring, that sealed the deal for us.
Anyone who has camped reasonably often will tell you that the success of any trip is in the planning. So when we pulled into Haenertsburg village on an overcast Sunday afternoon, asking the locals if there were any campsites around, we got some fairly strange looks, and a lot of encouragement to take a chalet somewhere. 
Unperturbed by this guidance, we continued with the spontaneous theme and made our way to Zwakala Campsite which
is located on a river, on a private farm about 11 kms outside Haenertsburg,
belonging to a lovely couple, Robbie and Denise Tooley. Two things we had not
researched - the general climate of the area (cold) and the weather forecast (rain). By the
time we reached the campsite it was drizzling, and once our tent was up, it was
raining (and very COLD !!!!). The average temperate in the
Haenertsburg area is apparently a good 10 degrees lower than elsewhere in the vicinity.
Luckily for us, the campsite offered the use of an
indoor room with fireplace (no glazing in the windows though !) and we
proceeded to make our dinner of jaffles right in the fireplace.
> Still life with Jaffle (and a bottle of wine) !
< Zwakala campsite fireplace, stove and oven.
The next morning it is still raining, so we make our way from the farm along the Cheerio Road into Haenertsburg for breakfast at The Village Cafe (I think) and once the weather clears, we take a drive through the timber plantations of the scenic, George's Valley. We drive to Ebenezer Dam built on the Groot Letaba River which boasts the Mountain Yacht Club (sounds strange, doesn't it ?) and their very own northern suburb of Clearwater Cove, see below.
Then it is off to visit Cheerio Gardens, which is the chief reason we have come to the village of Haenertsburg. Don't you love the name Cheerio ? In mid- to late September, the area is ablaze with Azalea, crab apple, flowering cherry blossoms, and the village celebrates with their Spring Festival and even though we are a good few weeks late, the riot of colour is still very much in evidence.
Cheerio Gardens has an amazing, haphazard appearance, with very few formal garden structures, giving it a very special appeal. Tony and I wander around the farm for some time before we realise that it is actually not open to the public on Mondays ! Next door to Cheerio is Sequoia Gardens which we learn is every bit as beautiful as Cheerio, and will have to be included on our next trip to Haenertsburg.
Sunland is a nursery, and it came with the baobab, so the owners rent out Jungalows (I kid you not!) so Tony has his birthday present - a proper bed with outside shower, and a slap up birthday dinner under this enormous baobab. We are the only people staying over, so
we feel we own the place - particularly when we are paid a visit by the
real owners dogs.An added bonus is the birds we see - special mention for the African Paradise Flycatcher and the beautiful sunbirds, Malachite, Scarlet-Chested and White-Bellied.
The next morning we set off for the next spot on our botanical adventure - Modjadji Nature Reserve nearby. Garmin wasn't 100% sure
where this reserve was, so took us on an interesting tour of the villages in the region,
but we did eventually find the entrance. Sadly, the historical and
botanical information on display has been neglected (some even
pre-dates 1994), but the facilities of the reserve itself are quite
good - picnic areas, a small shop selling cooldrinks and moth-eaten souvenirs, and even overnight accommodation, it would seem.
The reserve boasts the largest concentration of the cycad, Encephalartos transvenosus, in the world, some of them up to 800 years old, and there are huge numbers of these cycads in the 530 hectare reserve. Cones (the pineapple-like bit) can weigh up to 34kg - that is a massive weight ! 
We took a walk around the cycad forest, and the cycads are impressive - for their size, the gnarled features, and the texture of the leaves, trunk and the cones. 
There is an illegal trade in the cycads, and to combat it, the nature reserve has set up a small nursery in a nearby village where plants may be bought legally.
The reserve is named after Modjadji, the Rain Queen, of the Bolobedu tribe, which is one of the few with a matriacharchal dynasty, and the history and structure of this tribe makes for interesting reading. Apparently the second Rain Queen was the inspiration for Ryder Haggard's novel, She (who must be obeyed!).
Our next destination is Nwanedi Game Reserve, managed by Limpopo Wildlife Resorts, in the north of the Limpopo province - again I had read an article praising this little reserve and we were keen to explore it. We travelled from Modjadjiskloof, through Thohoyandou, where we needed some assistance with directions, as Garmin insisted that we double back and travel on the N1 toll road. One of the points of our trip was to include some lesser travelled byways, so this is what we did - and we travelled through towns and villages I hadn't heard of, and found one little village offering the services of a Penal (panel) Beater (maybe our Dept of Correctional Services could use them ?). We sign in at the gate of the reserve, and travel to reception, where I am very excited - there are emerald green lush lawns, with sprinklers going full blast on a very hot day, there are very large shady trees, and the receptionist tells me that they have an a la carte restaurant, and that they sell ice - what more could you want ! Imagine our horror when we arrived at the camping site to find it almost derelict - the only things growing here were troops of baboons, millions of vervet monkeys and a fine crop of thorns.
Camp site is in the foreground, the emerald green lawns in the distance at the back. Despite the neglect of the campsite (and its ablutions - only 1 in 10 ladies' loos was in working order), there was a glorious swimming pool which came in handy when the temperatures headed for 40 degrees C.
So lets accentuate the positive - it was very scenic, lots of baobabs, some nice birds, and a (very) few animals.
The Nwanedi Dam in the distance, which was created by damming the Nwanetsi River, which eventually feeds into the Limpopo River further north. It, and the Luphephe Dam in the same reserve, were created primarily for irrigation of fruit and vegetable farms in the north of the Limpopo province. The ads for the reserve also suggest that boating, fishing and canoeing are activities available to visitors, but we saw little evidence of this.
This was the view we enjoyed from our campsite - almost enough to forgive all the other shortcomings. And I must admit that the receptionist was extremely pleasant and helpful, and even got a man to come and connect our electricity - with a very, very long extension cable directly from the distribution board. So the beers and wine were cold - small things mean a lot :-)
We stayed our two days and then on Friday 31st October, headed out to begin the next leg of our adventure - the Birding Leg when we prove that even amateurs can fake it !
The new adventure should be posted in the next few days, so please check it out. There is so much else to do, finding down time to edit photos and post these blogs is not easy!
Bird Count: Not too sure, but around 50, I would guess
Best bit: The fireplace at Zwakala
Sounds like you're having a fabulous time - especially to the working class!! Have you downloaded Roberts' Bird app? It's brilliant and keeps track of what you saw where. Also keeps a running species count. Continue to have fun and please keep blogging - I love it :-)
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