July 31

Into the Wild on the Marataba Bushman’s Trail

July 31, 2015

The two guides load their rifles and approach our small group of hikers. “Alright guys, just a reminder that this is the real thing and that these animals are dangerous. The gorge we are walking into is used by hippos, elephants, lions, leopards, and rhinos as a kind of thoroughfare. They are the hairiest and scariest animals out there. Keep quiet, listen to the guide, and stay close.”

The head guide, Jono, is a tall man in his thirties with scruffy blonde hair. With ten years’ experience as a guide, he is completely at home in the bush. He pauses, looks around slowly and then up into the sky as if cherishing the moment, savouring the anticipation. “Michelle and I will take good care of you, but please listen carefully. If you hear a whistle, or a slap of a hand on a leg or see an upraised fist, then stop dead in your tracks. Do not move around to get a better view of the action. Just stop and wait for instructions.” Jono lowers his voice to barely a whisper and says with a little smile, “We will now be talking in our bush voices and will talk at this level. Please do not talk as we go. Get ready and keep an eye out for birds of prey flying above us, or any sign of movement.” On that note, we set off leaving our two safari vehicles to bake in the heat, and step into the wild savannah.

“They are the hairiest and scariest animals out there. Keep quiet, listen to the guide, and stay close.”

We are in the Marataba Game Reserve in Limpopo, four hours north of Johannesburg and not too far from the Botswana border. Marataba is a malaria-free 23,000-hectare private concession within the Marakele National Park. The main feature of the landscape is the Waterberg mountain range, an ancient sandstone massif that – at 1.8 million years old – is the oldest of its kind in the world. Marataba’s unique geological history attracts visitors from all over the world. We are now entering this range, hiking into one of the gorges.

Rock paintings at Marataba

In July, the dry winter savannah is a patchwork of browns and yellows, with the metre-high grass like straw and the thin, leafless branches like wire. We stalk quietly along, ducking under the tricky buffalo and umbrella thorn trees. Before long, we enter a sandy river bed and follow it towards the gorge. At a small pond, Jono points out lion prints and then takes us to a nearby overhang where he shows us 2,000-year-old bushman paintings. “If you look closely you can see the outlines of a rhino, an elephant, a big giraffe, and some men. Over the years, hippos and other animals have used this area as a shelter and rubbed up against the rock, causing the paintings to fade slightly.”

We move on, passing a rhino midden and coming to a fork where we meet a river. As we walk up the river we pass bigger and bigger rock pools and soon find some that are big enough to swim in. In the summer months, hikers can cool off in the pools and rest under the shade of the trees to miss the peak heat of the day. Luckily for swimmers, there are no crocodiles in the reserve.

On the rocks next to the river, we find the shell of a broken crab – the remnants of a Cape otter’s lunch. Around the bend, we startle a pair of klipspringers who have come down to drink at the river and bound rapidly back up the sheer cliff face in a startling show of agility, like a pinball in reverse. While our minds play with the possibility of close encounters with predators, the gorge looms larger and more magnificent with every new turn in the river. The rocks that make up the gorge are layered horizontally and cut up in such a way that they look like stacks of big Jenga blocks. In the steep cliff faces, rock fig trees miraculously sprout from crevices, their roots reaching longingly for the earth far below. White stains of dassie urine mark the cliffs while seasonal waterfalls have left eroded kinks in the face of the cliffs.

While our minds play with the possibility of close encounters with predators, the gorge looms larger and more magnificent with every new turn in the river.

After a few hours of walking, we have a rest in the shade of the gorge and tuck into our packed lunches. Some hikers doze off next to the river, while others lean against the cold rocks and quietly absorb the tranquillity. Michelle, the backup guide, is a former professional downhill skier who carries with her the confidence of an athlete as well as an endearing down-to-earth approachability. She chats quietly with a few of us and tells stories of other hikes. “I love this walk because you are able to approach the animals without them realising it. In a vehicle, they hear you coming, but on foot you can sneak up on them. The other day we spotted a leopard high above us in the gorge jumping from rock to rock. We hid behind a boulder and watched him for a while and then he finally spotted us and sat on his paws and watched us for five minutes and then slunk off. It is moments like that which make these hikes so special.”

Marataba trails hike

Marataba trails hike

Marataba Trails Lodge

After lunch, we need to turn back as our time is limited. Normally, groups will walk a little further and then scamper up a steep path to enter yet another habitat: the grassy plains that lie on the plateau of the gorge ridges. Up there, rock kestrels fly past at eye level and the terrain opens up to present a stunning panorama of the entire reserve. Hikers can encounter buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, kudu, reedbuck and eland on the plateau. Wildlife sightings, however, are merely added extras on the hikes. These walks are not intended to stalk wildlife, this is a bush hike – something the guides are eager to drive home. “If guests want to see animals they should stay at the safari lodge and go on game drives. We have the Big 5 at Marataba and the sightings are on par with the Kruger. These walks are about slowing things down, spending time in a beautiful environment and taking things as they come. Yesterday we were lucky, we saw a magnificent bull elephant, but you never know what you might come across.”

The path we are on is one of five different trails that follow the animal-worn paths that crisscross the reserve. A key feature of the experience is what awaits guests at the end of the day. Perched on the side of the mountain, the Trails Lodge has five luxurious suites with private decks and glass showers, all with stunning views of the Waterberg Valley. Solar-powered and wonderfully isolated, the lodge rests in astounding tranquillity and understated luxury.

That is where we find ourselves in the late afternoon having a well-earned drink and looking out over  the eye-catching landscape. It is at this time of day, as the sun starts to slip towards the horizon that the mountains are at their mesmerising best. Later in the evening we will enjoy an exceptional oxtail stew, but for now we stare out over the vista and get lost in the soul-stirring amber glow of the spectacular mountains before us.

s1bB_h3Xlk8eKGNDsmBkyhvBe2KffdeDNuVqEh7b73s


Tags


You may also enjoy 

About the author 

Matthew Sterne

Matt discovered a passion for writing in the six years he spent travelling abroad. He worked for a turtle sanctuary in Nicaragua, in an ice cream factory in Norway and on a camel safari in India. He was a door-to-door lightbulb-exchanger in Australia, a pub crawl guide in Amsterdam and a journalist in Colombia. Now, he writes and travels with us.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
>