Sediba Kwele

The staff at the school where I'm at, has two annual break-away weekends. The one is for the men, and the other for the women. I went on the one for the women. Naturally. We booked into Sediba Kwele, a place where, I am led to understand, we normally take the kids for leadership development camps. What an experience it was! I tell you more about it in today's blog.

One of the teachers in the group prides herself on her abilities to mix a mean cocktail. This being early in the day, and school property, I found the virgin cocktail quite refreshing and tasty.

I opted to include the sign at the entry to the grounds for the sake of those of you who may wish to take your own groups to the Sediba Kwele. It is located a couple of kilometres past Britz, depending of course on where your point of origin is. We came from the direction of Johannesburg.

I found the bird watching to be quite relaxing and, being a novice at it, wondered why other people felt the need to use binoculars for this exercise.

It was hot. You know it's hot when even the reptiles lift their feet from the ground.

The lowveld sunsets were spectacular, as they always are.

Despite the heat, we could not resist having a bonfire going almost the whole weekend, especially as there was a stacked pile of wood conveniently located close to the fire pit.

It turned out that we were not the only ones who found the stack of wood a convenience. A spitting Mozambican cobra had opted to make it his home, as well. Fortunately one of the rangers spotted it, before it spotted us, and they opted to kill it, as these snakes are territorial and would simply return if released into the wild. They could not risk that happening.

Our (not too) early Saturday morning walk, led us to this pretty picture of a bird quenching its thirst in one of the dams. This time the bird was slightly smaller than the ones we spotted at the camp site upon our arrival the previous day.

Our walk also led us to the discovery of one of the obstacle courses on the premises. We wisely gave these a wide berth.

We then came upon two dung beetles with a beautiful ball of dung which they were placidly rolling along their way. I use the royal we here as, in truth, one of the beetles opted to shirk his/her responsibilities in this task, and merely dug into the ball of dung, where it clung on for dear life, while the other did all the work, including carting around the weight of its mate.

A building that had me rather skeptical at first, was the outdoor toilet/shower combo. The toilet was on the inside of the spiraling building, but the shower was right in the entrance. I could not imagine taking a shower there, being thus exposed to the world.

But then I gathered my courage when I got out of the pool to get ready for a late afternoon game drive. Clad in my bathing costume, I got under the shower where I was rewarded with the most fantastic view, when the kudu chose that precise moment to come and graze right outside the shower opening. It was the best shower of all my life!

The game drive offered the usual array of African wildlife, which I will never tire of watching.

The most spectacular sight however, was when we spotted a fish eagle perched high up on a dead branch of a tree. I looked majestic as it regally sat there, etched against the African sunset.

The ranger opted to stop the tour at a popular watering hole where we could watch the last rays of the day fade away over the water.

We were even awarded with a fire to make the already tranquil scene even more special.

A couple of minutes later, the scene had changed completely as nature unfolded its most beautiful garments to wrap the fading day in.

The kudu seemed to have developed a liking for us, for they opted to stay close to our camp until the Sunday when we left for our return home.

But before we returned, we took one more early morning hike to the main camp. This short hike, took us across a wide river that stretched onto the horizon.

We came upon more daunting man-made structures that towered into the air, or slid into the abyss. Again, we wisely avoided these monstrosities, making mental notes to bring some of the more 'difficult' learners here for an outing some time.

We then relaxed on an upper deck at the main camp, overlooking the water, where we enjoyed a brilliant breakfast buffet.

We took one last group picture, with the bus driver who brought us here, and came to fetch us again.

This sign at the gate of the main camp, seemed to summarize the spirit of the weekend.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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