KAMPERSRUS The goodplace in the mountains

In the 1930s, Broer Maré bought a farm named Bedford at the foot of the northern Drakensberg and renamed it Kampersrus, meaning camper’s rest – a resting place for travellers. We got to meet some of the people who decided to settle in this picturesque place in Limpopo.

- MIA LOUW

Should you find yourself on the R531, travelling through bushveld and past towering trees in the foothills of the Drakensberg, you are pretty much travelling along the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

If you’re heading north-west, the crags and mountains will give you a proper welcome just a few kilometres from Kampersrus, with the top of Mariepskop now clearly visible. At 1947m above sea level, this is one of the highest peaks in the northern Drakensberg. Should you be completely enthralled by the sight of the mountains, however, you will probably miss Kampersrus.

This village lies about 30km southwest of Hoedspruit, sheltering among the marula, leadwood, knob thorn, weeping boer-bean and buffalo thorn trees. A sign at Fueland filling station and convenience store next to the road announces to travellers: “There’s life here! Come and have a look.”

AT THE END OF 1936, Broer and Langie Maré bought the land that is now Kampersrus. Most residents wouldn’t describe it as a village or a town; they regard Hoedspruit as the “town” and Kampersrus – with its two small shops, primary school, fuel station, church, bar and restaurant – as more of a suburb.

When Broer began laying out the erven, he changed the name of the farm from Bedford to Kampersrus, thus commemorating Louis Trichardt and those who camped here in 1838 on their trek between Schoemansdal and Lourenço Marques (Maputo today).

Some of the Maré descendents still live on the slopes of the mountain: there is Broer and Langie’s daughter, Ina Smith, as well as two of her children and some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ina, now 81, lives on the same property as her daughter, Marietjie Janse van Vuuren. Around the corner, her son, Stephan Kemp, owns and runs Littlebush Private Lodge.