Smalkloof Guest Farm, Volksrust

Golden Light

I am increasingly drawn to simplicity, and a farm stay brings a certain groundedness to a work travel trip which I really appreciate. Smalkloof Guest Farm, just outside Volksrust, is the perfect antidote to business stress. This is a place of golden hay bales, sheep and big skies. I drive up the long drive and stop to admire a large herd of sheep. It is dinner time and they come closer, stop, stare and then I can see one of the sheep saying to the others “Play it cool, guys, but I don’t think she’s the one who usually brings us our supper.” This is of course followed by collective panic as they all run bleating away as fast as there little legs can carry them. As I said, it’s good to be on a farm, where things are simple and real.

It seems that most of the rooms have entrances out to the beautiful farm, with plentiful outdoor seating areas. The room in which I choose to stay has its own verandah with table and chairs. Inside it is warm – with glowing orange art and cushions and an indoor fireplace. It is a cold night and I am pleased to settle in front of the fire. The en-suite bathroom is well equipped and I leave the bedroom door open to enjoy both bath and fire.

Accommodation Experience

Even the richest person on earth can’t do much better than warm, buttery toast and tea, appreciated outdoors with sunny skies and a view. I make a mindful cuppa and take it outside to the table under the big tree to enjoy. I am joined by all 5 the Jack Russel dogs, who share my enthusiasm for tea and the great outdoors.

I catch myself gulping big breaths of fresh air as my eye keeps being drawn to the open skies and golden fields with awe and gratitude.

Nselweni Bush Lodge, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve

Halala Ezemvelo!

So here’s the thing – we have always loved Ezemvelo (KZN Wildlife) for their unerring commitment to conservation and community upliftment, but now we have a new reason to celebrate their pioneering spirit – the creation of beautiful bush lodges in the form of Nselweni eco-villas in Hlhulhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve. These spacious “tents” are a design success. Each little freestanding lodge faces out onto the bush, with folding back glass doors and windows across the full front of the kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom. From your twin beds you look straight out over your own verandah onto natural African bushveld. It is a twitcher’s paradise, surrounded by the sounds of Emerald-Spotted Wood Doves, Trumpeter Hornbills and African Wood Hoopoe. At night you hear lions mating, hyena whoop and elephants trumpet.

The compact, yet open design of the lodges allows you to feel connected with the bushveld beyond, even while cooking indoors. The gorgeous kitchenette has a vaulted ceiling with stylish cutlery, crockery, pots and utensils. A gas powered fridge, stove and oven compliment the safari feel. Glamping this is none-the-less, with smooth cream screed floors, a swish Nguni patchwork rug and a leather armchair. 

The bathroom is calm and spacious, with a creamy tiled shower more than a meter wide, opening full onto the bush. Brushed silver handrails, wide doorways and seamless ramps make the units wheelchair accessible. 

Nselweni is luxurious, combining both style and substance. And it is good to know that your contribution is to Ezemvelo, and speifically to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi game reserve which is widely credited to having saved the white rhino from extinction, thanks to the foresight and dedication of people such as the late Ian Player and Magquba Ntombela. Even today, you need not drive far out of the camp gates of Nselweni to encounter a crash of the great, gentle beasts.

Accommodation Experience

Being in a Big 5 game reserve, we slip easily into our very different daily rhythm, waking early for a dawn game drive, having breakfast at a picnic spot with a view, napping after lunch, going out again for an evening drive with sundowners and braaing outdoors in the evenings. The first morning I wake at 4am, too excited to sleep. We have left the curtains of the front of the villa open and the moon spills in over the bed.

As our new year resolution, now lasting well into spring, we took a decision that we do not need more “things” in our life and we came to the conclusion that what the environment needs least is increased productivity. So we pledged to take more time off work, and instead of giving one another products for birthdays and Christmas, we give the gift of experiences in beautiful and natural parts of the country.

And so, at my 4am waking, I decide to participate in this creation of a memory, instead of falling back to sleep, and I head out to my private deck. It is a quiet dawn by African bushveld standards, the lions finally having stopped their cavorting. Then I hear what sounds like a rhino snorting beyond the fence and I see a hyena glide eerily past in the half dark.

I smile in appreciation and send up a silent prayer of thanks for the many people who contributed to the conservation of the vast reserve and the creation of this beautiful space from which to enjoy it.