The floor was strewn with piled-up fragments of conglomerate rock which, in the course of ages, had dislodged from the hills to shape the faces of the precipitous walls of the gorge. Both floor and walls were thickly overgrown by big timber-trees and tree-ferns. Plants grew and thrived wherever the smallest root-hold had been gained either in the soil or in the living rock".

Thus the Waterberg's greatest adopted son, Eugà«ne Marais, described the area nearly a century ago, a description, happily, that still holds good today.

The Waterberg, "the Water Mountains", is a roughly door-shaped area covering some 15,000 square kilometres of South Africa's Northern Province. As the name and Marais suggest, the frame of the door consists of a rough and tumble mountain escarpment surrounding a high plateau, criss-crossed by rivers,many of them perennial, home to fine wildlife and agricultural land.

Just after the turn of the century the extraordinary Marais-journalist, poet and naturalist-ventured into the Waterberg to conduct his now-famous study on baboons (the above quotation is from his The Soul of the Ape). At that time the place was a man-made wilderness, having been forcibly deserted during the just-ended South African War. Today, much of the Waterberg is wilderness again, thanks mainly to the efforts of a handful of individuals and organisations who have seen the intrinsic value of the region from a conservation and an ecotourism point of view.

The Waterberg is, in fact, being rediscovered. It lies about three hours (or 300km) from the massive urban sprawl of the Witwatersrand ("water" featured prominently in old place names, just as it featured prominently in the lives of the old explorers and settlers). Thus it is a convenient "getaway" for locals and a new area of discovery for foreign tourists and residents alike. Apart from all the usual wildlife and wilderness attractions, the Waterberg has one major advantage over so many of the other Big Game destinations: there is no malaria. At a time when the incidence of malaria, particularly the more deadly strains of the disease, is on the increase again in Africa, and with anti-malarial measures being less pleasant and more costly, destinations that are malaria-free are gaining in popularity.

It is not just the absence of malaria that makes the Waterberg popular, however; it is the presence of wildlife and wilderness, and the myriad ways of enjoying them.

The mountains run in a broad sweep from near the town of Thabazimbi, northeast past Potgietersrus, then double back past Marken and Ellisras, and back down to Thabazimbi again. Virtually the entire region is now under some form of conservation, from National Park status to hunting concessions and informal conservation. These are linked by the 14,500ha Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, while the Waterberg Nature Conservancy, an association of 27 conservation-minded landowners, covers some 170,000ha. A biosphere reserve is an international concept involving the conservation of an entire biological region. There are some 320 such reserves worldwide. The Waterberg Biosphere Reserve is gradually moving towards full recognition from UNESCO.

On the western side of the Waterberg is the Marakele National Park. This is Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) country, and next to it is the Welgevonden Private Game Reserve, more Big Five country. Moving northwestwards there is a patchwork of agricultural land, smaller game reserves and other conservation areas, then the huge Lapalala Wilderness, the heartland and pioneer project of the region. There are also smaller private reserves, like Touchstone Game Ranch, Entabeni Game Reserve and Kwalata Wilderness. There are provincial reserves like D'Nyala, Mokolo and Doorndraai Dam Nature Reserve, and a tribal community reserve, the Masebe Nature Reserve.

The joy of the Waterberg is that its pleasures tend not to be of the resort type, but rather of the personal, hands-on wilderness nature. The only National Park in the complex, Marakele, has virtually no facilities for visitors. It is wild, rugged country-4x4 stuff, this. The Welgevonden Private Game Reserve is basically just that, private, as its many lodges belong mainly to business concerns and a few individuals. However, there are a handful of lodges open to the paying public. Two of these are the Clearwater lodges of Tshetshepi and Kudu, both offering game drives in open vehicles and walks in Big Five country. Both also offer an unmistakably "Out of Africa" lodge experience with superb cuisine and cellars. And so they should, as the owners also have the Morgenhof Wine Estate in the Cape and a champagne estate in France.

Also available is the Makweti Safari Lodge. This magnificent establishment is balanced on stilts at the mouth of a gorge, and is another of those "Out of Africa" experiences. Staying with movie titles, this is a case where "A River Runs Through It", as in the wet season a sizeable stream runs through the lodge, eventually plunging over a waterfall into the gorge below. Awesome stuff!

As a matter of interest, the interior designers of all three of these lodges, Tshetshepi, Kudu and Makweti, obtained much of the magnificent and unsurpassed African art and craft work from an establishment called the Black Mamba in Vaalwater. Vaalwater is the only town in the Waterberg and therefore the major source of supplies for operators and visitors alike. The town can also be a major source of entertainment, as it is a centre for traditional game auctions and it boasts the only actual hotel in the region.

Near Vaalwater is the Melkrivier School complex. The complex is the brainchild of another of the Waterberg's great adopted sons, Clive Walker (see Ed 9, p127), quintessential man of Africa, conservationist, artist, author and visionary. The complex is a painstakingly restored farm school of the 1930s. It encompasses the Waterberg Museum (covering the fascinating history of the region, from early man, through the pioneers and the warring tribes, to the present); the Rhino Museum (the only one of its kind in Africa); an art gallery; a small conference facility; an agency of the Waterberg Tourist Association, and, last but by no means least, Walker's Wayside. The Wayside is a veritable oasis in the region-a pub, restaurant and tea garden within the Melkrivier School complex, a place for parched throats and aching feet.

All of this is very close to the Lapalala Wilderness, which Clive established about 15 years ago in partnership with a businessman friend. It was the first serious conservation area in the Waterberg and today covers some 36,000ha of prime wilderness. It includes the Wilderness School, through which some 40,000 children from all backgrounds have passed on their way to becoming better citizens for the experience. It also houses about a dozen camps and the most important private sanctuary on the continent for the endangered black rhino. The biggest of these is the 16-bed self-catering Kolobe Lodge, then there are ten smaller, tented self-catering camps, and finally the fully-catered and exclusive Rhino Camp. All offer walking, rhino tracking and canoeing in spectacular mountain scenery, and, simply, wilderness.

Apart from wilderness walking and canoeing, there are also self-drive or escorted open-vehicle game safaris, popular horse trails through the wilderness (Equus Horse Safaris, operating on Lapalala), mountain biking, fantastic birding, photographic safaris, and good river fishing. Many of the other reserves in the region have luxury lodges, fully-catered and self-catering, cottages, tented camps or rustic trails camps, as well as conference facilities. The community Masebe Nature Reserve has a self-catering camp, and the advantage of staying here is that you know that you are directly helping a local community.

The Waterberg is a new and exciting destination for those who love the African wilderness. As Eugà«ne Marais said nearly a century ago: "Waterberg had always been associated with all the wonders of unpeopled veld, and to us who were born and grew up on the outskirts of the wilderness it represented the ideal theatre of manly adventure... even now, with invading civilisation marching across the hills in seven-league boots, Waterberg still holds its charm." It does indeed.

Waterberg factfile

The Waterberg is about three hours' drive north from Johannesburg.

Climate
During winter (May - August) the country is dry and the sunsets spectacular. The nights can be freezing but the days are pleasantly fresh. Summer (October - March) brings hot days and the rains. A good hat, sunscreen, cream, insect repellents and sturdy walking boots are recommended.

Northern Waterberg
In Vaalwater there are two hotels, bed and breakfast and self-catering facilities. Mogonono Bush Camp is known for walking trails. In the privately owned 24,000ha Lapalala Wilderness area there is the upmarket Rhino camp, a tented bush camp and 10 self-catering riverside camps. The latter are remote, unstaffed and unpretentious. The rondavels at Kolobe Lodge are ensuite where meals are served beneath a giant fig tree. Equus Horse Safaris run 3-8 day trips out of a luxury tented bush camp while Horizon Horse Trails offer less luxurious and less expensive 1-3 day excursions.

Clive Walker (See Ed. 9, p 127) masterminded the Lapalala Wilderness, where walking safaris are offered. Unescorted hiking and canoeing in the bilharzia free rivers are permitted. The world's only dedicated Rhino Museum is at Melkrivier.

Private lodges in the area include: Makweti Safari Lodge in the Welgevonden Private Reserve, which has been refurbished recently; Touchstone Game Ranch, offering a variety of accommodation from self-catering to exclusive lodges and Mabula Game Lodge, with ensuite thatched chalets and tented camp.

Smaller lodges on equally conservation-minded private reserves include Kololo Private Game Reserve (with its self-catering chalets) and the tranquil Ant's Nest-a converted farmhouse set deep in the bush. A number of self-catering camps have access to reserves for game walks or drives.

Southern Waterberg
The relatively undeveloped Marakele National Park dominates the area. The only place to stay in the park is a tented camp on the banks of the Matlabas River but a 4WD vehicle is needed to get there.

In Thabazimbi, the area's centre, there is an hotel and an unsophisticated resort. In Ben Alberts Nature Reserve there is a shady rest camp and full board and self-catering bush camps at Rhino Bushveld Eco-park.

David Holt-Biddle is a leading South African travel and conservation journalist and broadcaster.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Eleven: Spring 2000 Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)