IT’S all rolling hills, grassy wetlands and pretty farmlands rather that majestic wilderness, but the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands is right on our doorstep and Bill and I love to go there for a gentle, relaxed weekend break.
Often a Midlands visit involves meandering around with a Midlands Meander guide at hand, visiting galleries and craft outlets and stopping for long coffee breaks at quaint little eateries. If you care to look for wilderness like we do, though, there are quite a few pockets of it tucked into the patchwork quilt of farmlands and dusty roads. A particularly interesting little spot where visitors can get in touch with nature is the Karkloof Conservation and Tourism Centre.
Open to the public, it is a thoroughly delightful get away for nature lovers and something of a birding hot spot. A joint venture between the Karkloof Conservancy, The Wildlands Trust, SAPPI, Birdlife SA and the Southern KZN Birding Route, it is run by members of the local community, represented by the Karkloof Conservancy.
The attractive centre in its pretty, typically Midlands setting, is also the heart of the Karkloof Conservancy, about 40 000 ha in extent and the preserve of local farmers, foresters and landowners interested in protecting the wonderful Karkloof biodiversity. South Africa’s National Association of Conservancies describes a conservancy, which must be officially registered as such, as a vehicle for community-based conservation. It is a voluntary association of environmentally conscious land-owners and land-users who choose to manage their natural resources cooperatively in an environmentally sustainable manner without necessarily changing the land-use of their properties. Members of the Karkloof are doing a sterling job of doing just this.
We’d heard about the centre and had long meant to visit it. Then, last December, we were invited to a wedding at one of the lovely Midlands wedding venues. We decided to make a weekend of it, setting up camp at Glensheiling, a camping and caravan park on a farm near near Nottingham Road, as our base. On the Saturday morning, with plenty of time to spare before the wedding ceremony that afternoon, we took a drive to the centre to see what it was all about.
It being mid-summer, the Midlands area was at it prettiest, greenest best, the dams and waterways over-flowing, the wetlands, soggy and humming with life. Arriving at the centre, we found an attractive building nestling in a wildlife-friendly garden with the distant rolling hills as a backdrop. We received a warm welcome from the volunteers manning it and some good advice on the best birding spots. Then we set off to explore the short, easy birding trail, aptly names Twitcher’s Delight.
Walking it was an exercise in understanding how, with some modification, a little ingenuity and a working knowledge of environmental matters, an intensely farmed area could still accommodate wildlife. The trail, on private farmland, was a lively mix of pristine or almost pristine and quite drastically man-altered habitats that supported an amazingly rich bird life. We started out along an avenue of exotic trees that took us past agricultural fields, wetlands, grasslands and a reed bed. The white storks had arrived and were happily exploring the conservancy area and we soon spotted a couple of grey crowned cranes. All three of southern Africa’s crane species occur in the conservancy but we unfortunately didn’t see any blue or wattled cranes. I adore cranes and any sighting of any of the species is always a thrill.
A long boardwalk took us to the substantial and comfortable wooden hide overlooking Gartmore Pan. Bird-wise it wasn’t too busy, with only a few herons patrolling the pan and surrounding grassland and a kingfisher doing what its name suggests, but it really was so very pretty. The Twitcher’s Delight then meandered onwards to the next bird hide, overlooking Loskop Dam, reputedly a good spot to see the illusive Midlands special, the beautiful wattled cranes. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any but the muddy shores provided a productive twitching session before we looked at our watches and decided it was time to have a quick packed lunch a the attractive picnic area before heading back to camp.
Back at Glensheiling we busied ourselves getting ready for the wedding and didn’t have time to take much notice of our rustic surroundings. The wedding was marvellous and we got back to camp fairly late but we woke early to birdsong and we soon up and about with out binocs. Once again, although the grassy campsite was situated on a farm, the birdlife was amazing.
Our visit to the Midlands was a reminder of how, even in an important and well-populated farming area, nature can be accommodated and wildlife allowed to thrive. It needs some thinking out of the box but we can welcome Mother Nature back into areas we have previously confiscated from her. Perhaps we should all make a start by taking a look at our gardens and making changes to succour our urban wildlife. Throwing away the poisons, getting rid of the invasive alien plants and cultivating a few indigenous plants would be a good start.
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