OVER the past weeks we’ve gone on a virtual meander around the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Let’s travel further inland this week, to Gauteng, South Africa’s powerhouse and the destination of an annual pilgrimage for our local petrol heads. Early every year the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria hosts a celebration of speed, thrills and motor racing nostalgia, a day of retro racing featuring racing cars from yesterday.
This is the Passion for Speed Festival, an event my car- and bike-crazy husband wouldn’t miss for the world although he usually heads off to Zwartkops with a group of like-minded friends.
This year, he decided it was time I joined him. Not sharing his passion for all things with two or four wheels, I was a little doubtful. Two days at a racetrack watching cars going round and round? Well, I’d give it a try. And when Bill decided to turn the trip to Johannesburg into a bit of an adventure by going to Johannesburg via Sani Pass, I began to feel enthusiastic about the whole enterprise.
With a full day ahead of us we set off early looking forward to our first destination, lovely Cobham Nature Reserve, near Himeville in the southern berg and part of the Maloti Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. The rustic campsite is grassed and shady and prettily situated, with a view of the mountains.
There is also the basic Pholela Hut that is used by hikers on the Giant’s cup section of the National Hiking Way, and a number of nearby caves where hikers can overnight.
I love Cobham, a simple, unsophisticated and stunning little mountain reserve offering exquisite surroundings, gentle walks, more ambitious hikes, waterfalls and crystal-clear swimming holes in the Pholela River, plus plenty of quality wildlife experiences. It being summer, we were greeted along the way by flocks of little Amur falcons and white storks, summer visitors that like to hunt and forage in the fields alongside the road to Cobham. As we passed through the gate we were welcomed by the bokmakieries who seem to like to hang around the reception office.
It was a beautiful, sunny day to be in the mountains and Cobham was looking its gorgeous best.
The campsite and surrounding mountains were carpeted in lush, emerald green grass and the full, fast-flowing river was all silvery in the sunshine. We set up a camp table and chairs and enjoyed a picnic breakfast overlooking the mountains. We have often visited Cobham and have so many fond memories of this heavenly little spot. Over the years we have also gotten to know its different, lighting-change moods. Mercurial summer, flowery spring, coppery autumn and bleakly beautiful winters all have their charms.
We’ve enjoyed many a sultry summer day, walking in the mountains and splashing in the swimming holes but we have also endured plenty of extreme weather. We’ve experienced scorching sunshine and unrelenting heat and sweet summer showers that bring welcome relief.
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Plunging temperatures have often taken us by surprise and sudden violent storms have frequently descended on our campsite, wreaking havoc for an hour or so before moving on and leaving peace and calm in their wake. Often we’ve watched thick mountain-hiding mist descends from nowhere with an alacrity that needs to be seen to be believed.
And on one visit we spent three soggy days sheltering from the endless driving rain. On one silvery, misty evening we watched the biggest herd of eland I have ever seen descended from the mountain heights to the shelter of the Pholela valley. It was a mystical, magical experience.
After our breakfast we packed up our table, dug out our hiking boots and did a gentle walk up the Pholela Valley to a favourite swimming spot. The valley and surrounding mountains were so green and pretty. The waterfalls splashed and sparkled in the sunshine and river and streams flow strongly everywhere.
It reminded me of the first time we visited Cobham as part of a party of friends and relative.
It was also summer then – in fact the last summer months of the previous millennium. We celebrated the advent of the new millennium there. It was such a special evening and a prettier party venue would have been hard to find.Since then we have paid many visits to Cobham and none have ever been the same.
Coming back to our vehicle after our walk, I reviewed them in my mind and I suddenly felt a strong urge just to put up our tent and just stay there. We had places to go, though, and people to see so we bade this special little spot a fond farewell and were soon on our way.
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