The Other Blouberg

Blouberg sails on the bushveld like a solitary ship, rising above the Limpopo landscape near the town of Vivo. Set your course for adventure because vultures and views await…

- Toast Coetzer

Johan van Wyk

Reserve manager, Blouberg

“Our tree diversity is hard to beat. One of the hotspots is around the fig forest, where the concentration of tree species is just spectacular, even by Bushveld standards. On the floodplain next to the Brak River, the weeping boer-bean and monkey thorn are very beautiful, too.

“I started here in 1992. Except for a short stint at another Limpopo reserve, I’ve been here ever since. My wife Michelle and I live on the reserve, and our two daughters grew up here. One is still in high school; the other is finished with school. Career-wise, it won’t make sense for me to move from here. It’s isolated, but the lifestyle is great.

“The reserve has its challenges, sure. It’s a bit like farming: You need to maintain your infrastructure like roads and fences, and the animals must have water. Luckily people like Friends of Blouberg often come to our rescue. Just recently, they tidied up the bathrooms at Molope campsite and they put up some new route markers in the reserve.”

They circle like cargo planes against a blown-out November sky. Johan van Wyk and I have our binoculars trained on hundreds of white-backed vultures about 400m above us. They don’t seem to be heading anywhere – maybe they’re just flying because they can, and who wouldn’t? They stay close to the top of the cliff, where pale blotches on the rock face indicate nest sites.