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Limpopo Attractions
3 Mins Read

Why you should take a roadtrip to Limpopo

The Limpopo province is one of the most diverse and exciting destinations in South Africa. From wildlife to nature and culture, there is something for everyone.

About Limpopo

Limpopo is the northernmost province of the country, and its capital city is Polokwane. The name “Limpopo” has its etymological roots in the Nguni language, meaning “strong gushing waterfalls”.

The province covers an area of 125,755 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 5.6 million people. Limpopo is bounded by Botswana to the west, Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The Vaal River forms the province’s southern boundary.

Why should you take a roadtrip to Limpopo?

Limpopo is one of the most beautiful and diverse provinces in South Africa (and I’m a little biased because it is my home province). From the majestic Drakensberg Mountains to the wildlife-rich Kruger National Park, there is something for everyone in Limpopo.

Here are five reasons why you should take a road trip to this incredible province:

1. The scenery is breath-taking

The Drakensberg Mountains provide a backdrop for the rolling hills and lush vegetation, while the Kruger National Park is home to an abundance of wildlife. There are also numerous game reserves and national parks where you can see rhinos, elephants, lions and other African wildlife up close.

  • Marakele National Park
  • Mabalingwe Nature Reserve
  • Welgevonden Nature Reserve
  • Kruger National Park
  • Mopholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
  • Mapungubwe National Park
  • Sondela Rehab Centre
  • Modjadji Cycad Reserve

2. There is plenty to do

Whether you want to go on safari, hike in the mountains, or simply relax by the pool, there is plenty to keep you busy in Limpopo. There are also numerous cultural activities and attractions, such as museums, art galleries and traditional villages where you can learn about the local culture and history.

  • Mukondeni Pottery Village
  • Bakone Malapa Open-Air Museum
  • Debegeni Waterfall
  • Echo Caves
  • Magoebaskloof Hinking Trails
  • Big Baobab (Gravelotte)
  • Arend Dieperink Museum

… and if you want to hike:

  • Louis Changuion Hiking Trail
  • Lesodi Hiking Trail
  • Blyde River via Dientjies Falls
  • Magoebaskloof Hiking Trail
  • Lephalale Mountain Trail

3. The food is delicious

Limpopo is home to some interesting traditional delicacies…

  • Mopani worms – dried, roasted or in a dish
  • Magege or roasted termites – dried, roasted or in a dish
  • Chicken feet & heads (walkie-talkies) with samp and beans
  • Thihove – samp and fresh peanuts ‘frikkadels’
  • Tsophi – round balls of butternut and pap
  • Umqombothi – home-brewed beer

PS. I won’t be joining you for mopani worms anytime soon!

You might want to add these to your trip:

  • Zwakala Brewery
  • Qualito Craft Distillery
  • Geluksfontein Goat Cheese Farm
  • Wegraakbosch Organic Farm
  • Kuhestan Organic Farm

4. Adventure by car or through the air

Whether you want to swing between trees, hike in the mountains or try your hand at a 4×4 adventure.

  • Letaba 4×4 Eco-Trail
  • Luvuvhu 4×4 Eco-Trail
  • Makuya 4×4 Self-Drive Trail
  • Great Limpopo Wilderness Trail

… and if you want to zipline:

  • Magoebaskloof Canopy Tours
  • Waterberg Zipline Adventures

There are so many reasons to take a roadtrip to Limpopo and I haven’t even scratched the surface in this post! So what are you waiting for? Pack your bags and hit the road!

The SANI brand was established in 1997. SANI Car Rental is a South African homegrown car rental company. Vehicles available to rent include compact cars, economy cars, premium cars, people carriers and SUVs. SANI Car Rental serves customers throughout South Africa including at all major local and international airports. Visit SANI Car Rental at Polokwane International Airport.

#sponsored

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Bush Villas on Kruger
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Bush Villas on Kruger’s very tempting offers

Get ready to make unforgettable memories with family and friends at Bush Villas on Kruger. Make your booking on www.bushvillasonkruger.com

LIGHT-THOSE-FIRES

Winter in the Lowveld is the best time of the year. Enjoy Kruger Park during the day and huddle around the braai at your Bush Villa at night. We have the perfect special for you:

Stay 3 nights in a Standard or Luxury Bush Villa and receive

  • A complimentary BRAAI PACK including meat, salads and garlic bread

Book now and stay before 4 September 2022. Valid on any day of the week.

T&C’s apply, valid for maximum 6 guests, specials cannot be combined

KRUGER PARK

Take the family for a Kruger Park holiday this winter! Search for lion and leopard at night and find the Milky Way up in the African sky.

Stay 4 nights in a Standard or Luxury Bush Villa and receive

  • 50% discount on a NIGHT DRIVE in KRUGER NATIONAL PARK in an open safari vehicle with a professional guide, including entrance fee

Book now and stay before 4 September 2022. Valid on any day of the week.

T&C’s apply, valid for maximum 6 guests, specials cannot be combined

WOMEN’S MONTH

To honour and celebrate all the beautiful ladies, we have a great special for you and your besties!

Stay 3 nights in a Standard or Luxury Bush Villa during August and receive

  • A complimentary 1-hour PHOTO SHOOT at the lodge

to the value of R1,100

Enjoy a great stay in the Lowveld and leave with precious memories of you and your sisters!

Valid for stay between 1-31 August 2022. T&C’s apply, valid for maximum 6 guests, specials cannot be combined

Magnificent midweeks

Midweeks Only – valid Monday to Thursday nights

Valid 18 April – 30 June 2022

Take advantage of these great discounts!

  • Standard Bush Villa was R2,550 now R1,990
  • Luxury Bush Villa was R3,200 now R2,495

Rate is per night for 1-6 people, minimum stay 2 nights

  • Extra adults pay R450 R330 per night
  • Extra children pay R200 R100 per night

LONG STAY SPECIAL

Our popular long stay special is back!

  • Stay 6 nights and only Pay for 5 nights

Choose between Standard & Luxury Bush Villas

Valid from 1 January – 31 December 2022

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Graceland Eco Retreat: Escape to the mountains of Limpopo

Perched atop a mountain above the Kudu River Valley, lies Graceland Eco Retreat. A place where you will find quiet, endless views and a free-roaming family of giraffes.

Graceland Eco Retreat is where your hosts, Anders and Douglas, have created a farm-style eco-friendly retreat in a beautiful setting.

Stay a while

The accommodation at Graceland Eco Retreat was designed to take advantage of it’s beautiful location. At sunrise you can watch the valley wake up while the sun slowly rises over the mountain – but if you sleep in, you might just find a curious giraffe staring at you through a window.

Enjoying your morning coffee or sundowners on one of the terraces, pergolas or at the splash pool with a view of the valley may just be one of the highlights of any stay here.

Wildlife

At Graceland Eco Retreat you will meet giraffes named Elvis, Priscilla, Lisa Marie and their children born on the farm named, Tennessee, Nashville and Phoenix. There are also Kudu, Impala, Klipspringer, Mountain Reedbuck, Bushbuck and more that you may catch a glimpse of whilst hiking.

Birding enthusiasts will be spoilt with sightings of birds such as the Verreaux, Crowned and Long-Crested Eagle, Lanner Falcon, Alpine, Purple Crested Turaco, African Black Swift as well as the famous African Fish Eagle. Since they also border the forests and plantations of Magoebaskloof and the Woodbush Forest Reserve, you might even spot Cape Parrot, Narina Trogon and Black-fronted Bush Shrike and the rare Samango monkey.

Off the grid and just 50km North-East of Polokwane

Graceland Eco Estate is totally off the grid and the sun is responsible for pumping their water, clean the pool, run their fridges and keep you connected.

The retreat is perched on the side of the mountain with the sunlit Olyfberg to one side and the fertile Kudu River Valley to the other side.

What else can you do while staying at Graceland Eco Retreat?

PAUSE to eat

Pause, a new addition to the offering at Graceland, is a converted steel barn enclosed in glass panels with views overlooking the Kudu River Valley. The restaurant has a large fire-place in the dining area with a collection of art created by a variety of well-known South African artists.

The kitchen at PAUSE aims to create meals through a fusion of flavours, aromas and impressions with strong influences from the Scandinavian, Asian and Mediterranean palates, creating a bold taste fusion to tease your senses.

Pause is not open for walk-ins, but they do open up the venue once a month for their Table D’hôte (The Host’s Table) during which guests can feast on a 5-course luncheon. The menu is advertised 2 weeks in advance and bookings are essential.

Covid-19 may have an impact on Pause restaurant’s service. Please contact Graceland Eco Retreat for more information.

Add Graceland Eco Retreat to your Limpopo bucketlist

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Kruger National Park
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The Kruger National Park in pictures

It is no secret that I grew up in the old Transvaal that became the Northern Province…and then Limpopo. I didn’t have sea vacations as a child (well maybe 3 times), we went to the Kruger Park. We camped from Cape Town to Zambia – I didn’t know hotels existed until I left home.

This picture I took on an impromptu visit to the Kruger Park enroute from Mozambique. This picture is special because that bakkie is driven by my parents…and its not any day that a giraffe decides to cross the road between cars.

Do I have an obsession with giraffes or something? A by chance photo of a bird having a nice view from a giraffe.

This “little” guy got way too close for comfort – even though he/she didn’t seem aggressive, I don’t like to get too close.

When this happened… I was like let me pull my mouth from the floor.

I see you!

I sometimes wonder what they think when they look at us.

A bag a nuts!

Not pretty, but smart??

Stately buffaloes…

Still in my pajamas!

A feathered affair!

It is amazing just how quiet a herd of elephants can be…

Slowpokes..

Blood on the paws 🙁

It is always about the cats!

…and that’s it for this post!

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Gems of Limpopo: Pioneer House – Houtbosdorp

Nowhere on a map or tourist attraction website will you find this quaint little white house with thatched & green roof that sits against a mountain just off the Houtbosdorp road. Yet, somehow a big corporation like ZZ2 (the people that grow tomatoes, avos, mangoes and more) decided it was worth restoring.

Now I don’t know if you can just drive up and get access – I know people, I grew up there. If in doubt, just contact ZZ2 head office and ask.

So it is somewhere off a gravel road that tests the limit of your little town car, just past University of Limpopo, up and down a few hills – on the right… Driving up the road that had clearly seen heavy rain my little Chev Spark had to cross over “dongas” that could’ve swallowed her whole – and there was a misty rain blowing down against the mountain.

…and there it sat, a little white house with a thatched & green roof surrounded by mist that swept around it like a blanket.

My cameras struggled with rain on the lenses, but I pushed through and I captured a little of this home where a couple raised their children in a house with few too many bedrooms and way too little space – and not so standard doors.

Pioniershuis Houtbosdorp Limpopo
Hubby at 1.72m; Door at 1.74m

The story goes that the couple had a bunch of kids and when they passed on and the kids had moved away the house fell into ruin. Since it has been restored one or 2 old pieces of furniture from the original owners was obtained and an old coal stove is on lend from my bro-in-law. The house has a rondavel attached which brings the grand total of rooms to 3 and a stoep – I didn’t see the outhouse (which I assume they would’ve used). It isn’t really big, but it would’ve been warm if the coal stove was fed.

I love historical buildings – even if it is a plain old building with no special architectural features. It is the fact that somebody decided to move up a mountain and carve out a live that tickles my interest – and trigger happy camera fingers.

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Gems of Limpopo: Modjadji Rainforest

Have you ever been in a place that was just so ethereal that you just can’t get over it? Well, I am still in awe of the Modjadji Rainforest in Limpopo.

I grew up in the area and have been there before, but this time I took my husband. We got into my little Chev Spark drove down a mountain with sometimes a single lane gravel road and then up another mountain 40km down the road.

After entering the gates of the reserve you actually need a 4×4 as the road to the starting point of the hike is really badly maintained. Some places I feared my little car would be swallowed by the earth.

The view from the top of the mountain over the rainforest and valley is just spectacular. You can see the tiny houses at the bottom of the valley and the dense green rainforest.

What goes down, must come up

The hike through the Modjadji Rainforest is not for the unfit as the route will take you down more than 5km into the belly of the forest. The route is neatly marked with stone stairs.

Humidity and the thinner air will take its toll on you, but being able to see this majestic forest on foot will make the trek worth it.

About a kilometer down the route will open onto a platform where you can take spectacular photos of the stairs disappearing into the forest and another valley view.

What you need to know

  • The chances of you being the only person/s at the reserve are highly likely based on the number of entries I saw in the gate logbook.
  • Entrance to the Modjadji Rainforest Reserve will set you back R30 a car and R20 per person.
  • There is a picnic spot with braai facilities.
  • Take water!
  • Leave nothing, take nothing.

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Dear YOU, we should hang out more often in Limpopo

I really don’t know how this has happenend. Just the other day I wrote this amazing article and planned this amazing calender with posts I wanted to do and then I somehow didn’t quite get to it and now it is almost mid-August! How, seriously – how?

This weekend we went to Houtbosdorp to stay with my parents (and celebrate my dear old mom’s 70th birthday). It was the perfect weekend in the mountains. It had snowed everywhere else so the arctic winds necessatated snow jackets and a heater for my cat in the room.

As always, the views from my parents’home is amazing. How could you not have an amazing view if you lived on a mountain that had views over other mountain tops?

Don’t even get me started on the sunsets… I promise, I didn’t even apply a filter to this photo 🙂

Just to top of the weekend, we also visited Haenertsburg as I’ve always loved the vibe of this little town – and well it was just 30km down a gravel road, over a mountain and to the right of that bush (you know how it goes).

This little town is rich in history, quaint shops and friendly people (and vervet monkeys).

My absolute favourite part of the day was lunch. I ate the most delicious Lavender scone… and licked off my fingers.

It was quite weitd to see the cherry blossoms out early, but I guess after the rains they thought it was almost spring.

You are still wondering where these places (Houtbosdorp and Haenertburg) are – right? Well, Haenertsburg is somewhere between Polokwane and Tzaneen. It is just after the ZCC church area.

Houtbosdorp is a little more complicated to direct you to, because it is no longer a town but rather just a road with farms – but it used to be a Swiss logger settlement. The original farm that the “town” was built on is still there and the ruins are still there, but you can’t just rock up and say you are there to explore – private property. If however you want to see the spectacular views you drive from Polokwane side to the University of Limpopo road and keep on driving until it becomes a gravel road. As soon as you hit gravel, you are on the right track. Places on this road to book – Kurisa Moya or Graceland (they have 3 giraffes).

That is it. Safe travels.

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Romance in the Lowveld (at Summerfields)

This weekend was magical. We stayed at the 5 star Summerfields Rose Retreat & Spa in a luxury riverfront tent.

From the minute we arrived at Summerfields to the minute we left we felt so relaxed. Would I go back? In a heartbeat – in summer…and now you can read why.

A little bit of farm, a little bit of 5 star luxury

Summerfields is a working farm with Macadamias, Litchis, Granadillas – and roses.  Hidden at the far end of the farm is the retreat and spa.

Be a VIP

Arriving at the gate, your name will be on a list. Arriving at the retreat you get escourted to the reception – while your bags make their way to your room. 5 minutes later you have a booking at the restaurant for dinner and in your room that smell like roses.

Everyone is friendly and ask how your stay is or how your meal was. I know they are paid, but it is nice to be looked after sometimes you know.

What makes Summerfields Rose Retreat & Spa one of the most romantic establishments?

Each luxury tent is secluded and connected to the rest with wooden walkways. Your room is filled with roses from the farm, Charlotte Rhys products, an outside shower and bath that overlooks the forest – and in our case, the river too.

When you fall into bed it is like a soft cloud that catches you. From here you have a view of the beautiful forest and hear the river pleasantly making its way towards the rest of the retreat.

The most romantic part of our stay was the sunset baths with a lit candle and rose scented bath salts. It does get a little chilly after sunset in winter 🙂

The decor in the room and bathroom is just gorgeous…

Orga(smic)nic dining

At Summerfields you will find not 1 but 3 restaurants. If ever you find yourself in the neighbourhood – make a plan to book for breakfst, lunch or dinner.

We had dinner at the main restaurant. All vegetables on our plates came from the gardens at Summerfields (so you know it is fresh).

I loved everything – except the Ostrich Tartare. I’m a fussy eater that barely eats meat – let alone raw meat hidden in a salad pile. Aikona.

We ordered the same starters and desserts. Our salad starters had the normal greens and things in, but had homemade ricotta and the most delicious pesto I have ever tasted.

Dessert was a pear butter, butternut ceignet and chocolate macadamia bar. It was so sweet, but I couldn’t stop eating.

My main meal was quail with pumpkin puree, roasted beetroot, quinoa and cinnamon jus.

Hubby had Karoo lamb, sweet potato and lavender puree (yummy) and onion brûlée.

Service at this restaurant is just amazing. You will only have 2 options per course every night, but… whatever they make, I’m sure it’ll be delicious.

Summerfields would be the perfect choice for:

  • romantic couples weekends (no kids allowed)
  • a place to propose
  • your honeymoon

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In the mountains of Magoebaskloof

When I go home, I go to one of South Africa’s most beautiful regions.

I grew up in the shadows of mountains in a valley bustling with farming activities. I hiked those mountains with my friends and 4×4’ed it with my family. Some of those roads were barely wide enough for 1 vehicle with sheer drops on the one side.

As a local I know the places to go for rides on the rocks, the trails not open to the public, all the best farm stalls to visit, where to buy the best plants and have the best cake. For tourists to the area there is trout fishing, a cheese farm, the quaint village of Haenertsberg, hiking trails, Coachhouse Nougat and the most spectacular views – even while driving. The best thing about visiting is Cheerio in Spring, lunch at the hotel and visiting Wheelbarrow with its amazing nursery.

This special place in the heart of Limpopo is generally known as Magoebaskloof, but it really is Houtbosdorp. It is wedged between Haenertsburg, University of the North, Duiwelskloof and the Mooketsi valley (where most of South Africa’s tomatoes come from). Unfortunately it is on a commercial farm so you can’t just drive in, but I thought I would show you my special place.

*This view is a memorial to a professor that worked on this commercial farm. His ashes is buried just over the edge in a large rock.

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