Tent Travels: Not too far from the madding crowds

IT was Africa Bike Week, the biggest free, annual motorcycle rally in South Africa, and Margate and its neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal South Coast towns were playing host to thousands of bikers over the long weekend.

There is a fabulous vibe on the South Coast during Africa Bike Week and it is a really good for our local tourism industry. Co-hosted by Hibiscus Coast Municipality and Harley-Davidson, its bring in many visitors and provides us with an excellent opportunity to showcase our beautiful area as a holiday destination.

So it is all good. It is also quite noisy and busy. We don’t really mind, but when we heard that the Oribi Rust Bucket Museum was hosting an open long weekend we decided to escape some of the madding crowds by packing our tent and and heading inland to spend a long weekend camping in the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve area.

There we’d enjoy a bit of walking, a bit of birding, visits to the museum and a chance to watch some of the polocrosse tournament the Rust Bucket was also organising as part of its open weekend. We’d even see some of the bikes. The Rust Bucket was an official Africa Bike Week outride destination.

The Rust Bucket is a private museum and was only recently established by a group of guys who just love anything mechanical. It houses a wonderful collection of stationary engines, all sorts of antique machines, farming equipment, a vintage tractor, a few vintage and classic cars and motorbikes and a couple of rust buckets.

It is not always open to the public, but the owners hold regular open days and weekends. They have also laid out polocrosse fields in the museum grounds and the Rust Bucket has become home to the Paddock Polocrosse Club. There is plenty to see and do in the Oribi area and the community is renowned for its hospitality. We always look forward to spending some time with the Paddock and Oribi folk.

Early on the Thursday morning of the Africa Bike Week long weekend, Bill and I enjoyed a leisurely walkabout through Margate. It was a public holiday and the official Africa Bike Week opening day. The laid-back seaside village of Margate was almost unrecognisable.

Decorated with kilometres of orange and black bunting, it had been transformed into a vibey biker village, with all sorts of pop up motorbike stalls, shops and showrooms, food outlets, restaurants, pubs and entertainment venues.

This annual celebration of all things two-wheeled was just beginning but already the atmosphere was electric as the South Coast settled down to enjoy the biking festival. By evening, Margate would be in full party mode and the fun wouldn’t stop for the next few days. Great if you were in the mood for a party, but Bill and I preferred a quieter option. We said goodbye to Margate and, our vehicle packed and ready for a camping excursion, we headed for the hills.

Half an hour later we were putting up our tent in the attractive little camping grounds at the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve hutted camp. Although it is so close to home, we love coming up here for a relaxing weekend and we often have the whole camping area all to ourselves, although the self-catering chalets and cottages are becoming more and more popular. Selfishly, we quite enjoy the solitude when the camp is empty but it is an underrated little camp and not as well used as it should be. For that reason we were pleased to see it was almost fully booked over the long weekend.

The route between the hutted camp where we were staying and the Rust Bucket Museum is via the road through Oribi Gorge. Perhaps the loveliest road in our area, it winds its way through pristine indigenous forest, across the Umzimkulwana River via a low-level bridge then up again out of the gorge to the grassy plains beyond. In places, it narrows into a cool green tunnel. Massive cliffs, the walls of the narrow gorge, tower over the bridge and nearby picnic area. Driving through the gorge is always such a treat.

It is the Umzimkulwana River that is responsible for the famous Oribi Gorge, around which the nature reserve has been established. Over the eons it has patiently cut a deep, forest-filled, 24km gorge into the surrounding sandstone. Elephants once walked alongside the Umzimkulwana. Although they are no longer there, an echo of their ancient footsteps remains as the road follows an elephant route through the gorge.

After putting up our tent, we did a slow drive through the gorge, stopping to look at some interesting birds and to watch a couple of samango monkeys playing in the trees next to the road. There had been plenty of summer rain and although autumn had arrived, the gorge was still looking green and pretty.

At the museum, things were already humming. The ‘Bucket Bites Kitchen and Cafe’ and the bar were open for business and quite a few motorbikers were tucking into substantial lunches. They were raving about the road through the gorge and about the natural beauty of the Oribi area.

After a look around at the mechanical marvels on display and a pleasant ‘Bucket Bites’ lunch we headed home to spend a leisurely afternoon back at our lovely little camp. As well as the birdsong that always fills the hutted camp, we could hear plenty of distant motorbikes travelling through the gorge and along the surrounding country roads. We were pleased to know that Africa Bike Week was also putting the less well known Oribi area on the tourist map.

On Friday morning we woke early to the sound of birdsongs and even one or two motorbikes. Obviously not all Margate’s biking visitors had partied the night away. After a cup of coffee, we dug out our hiking boots and did a lovely walk along the short and sweet Baboon trail that starts at the hutted camp. The route takes walkers across a stretch of grassland that in summer puts on a splendid wild flower display, to viewsites at the edge of the gorge. It then twists its way down a steep section into a magnificent stretch of forest and back to the starting point. There are many other lovely, longer walks and trails in the nature reserve and this, coupled with the excellent birding makes Oribi Gorge a winner for nature lovers.

After a leisurely breakfast Bill and I decided to do a little sightseeing of the area. Over the last few years it has really become a much more popular tourist destination and there was plenty to keep us occupied that day.

The well established private game reserve, Lake Eland, not far from the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve, has really accelerated the growth of tourism in the Oribi area. It also offers excellent birding but it is the eco-adventure activities that have really put it on the map. As well as its famous suspension bridge across the gorge it now offers an incredible zip line that is proving very popular. With no dangerous animal residents the reserve also caters for strollers, hikers, flower people and the adherents of the growing sport of mountain biking.

Visitors to the area should look out for the Cape vultures that breed in the cliffs. Local farmer, Mike Neethling maintains a vulture restaurant for these beautiful (yes, these vultures really are beautiful!) but endangered birds. There is now a vulture hide that is run and maintained by our local Birdlife Trogons birding club. Visits to the hide are fascinating and are booked through the club.

Another incredibly successful tourism enterprise here is the Leopard Rock Restaurant, overlooking the magnificent Umzimkulu River Gorge, the area’s other, lesser known gorge. It is amazing how many day trippers this scenically situated little spot has attracted to the Oribi area.

The old Oribi Gorge Hotel too has played a role in bringing more visitors to the area. It was completely revamped a few years ago and, along with it viewsites over the gorge, now offers a gorge swing and other eco-adventure activities. An attractive guest farm, a luxury spa and a new hunting lodge are now also helping to grow the inland South Coast tourism industry.

After spending much of Saturday morning communing with nature in camp, we once again drove through the beautiful gorge to the friendly little Rust Bucket Museum where the polocrosse tournament was in full swing. Thanks to an excellent commentator who explained exactly what was happening on the field, we soon started to understand the rules and to enjoy what we were surprised to find was a great spectator sport.

The sun was sinking as the last game wrapped up and a golden light tinted the surrounding farmlands and rolling grasslands. We joined the polocrosse players and our Oribi friends for scenic sundowners on the upstairs deck then drove home through the gorge as darkness was falling. As beautiful as the gorge is by day there is something magical about it at night. We hoped in vain to see an Oribi leopard , but still enjoyed the magical drive.

One of the Rust Bucket events was a ‘park and show’ so we spent most of the next day at the museum with friends who had motored up from the coast in an assortment of classical, vintage and other interesting vehicles. Bill and I would normally have joined the car run in Bill’s zippy Lotus 7, but as we were spending the whole long weekend at Oribi and the Lotus is not exactly a practical choice for a camping trip, so it had to stay at home that Sunday.

We packed up our tent, enjoyed a bit more polo and socialising with the car group and Oribi people, then slowly drove home. It took us just half an hour to reach our home in Uvongo but what a wonderful weekend getaway we’d had.