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ADVERTISE IN THE 2010 SOUTHERN AFRICA TRAVEL GUIDE SERIES  |  HOME

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  INFORMATION:
   ABOUT SPIOENKOP, ABOUT CHELMSFORD,  , ABOUT ITHALA,

Province: KwaZulu Natal
Safaris Type: Birding & 4x4
SPIOENKOP/CHELMSFORD/ITHALA
(4 Days, Self Catering)

DAY ONE
SPIOENKOP
Arrive at Spioenkop and the friendly staff will direct you to your comfortable chalet set amid paper bark thorntrees looking across the water to Spioenkop Mountain. Activities include a gentle walk along the Discovery Trail and a late afternoon drive along the shoreline through a game filled savannah. Pause near the waters edge and watch the sun sink behind the Drakensberg Mountains, mirrored in the waters that frame your view.

DAY TWO
CHELMSFORD
Rising early drive from the reserve around to the other side of Spioenkop Mountain and make your way to the summit. Here you will see the graves and monuments to the Boer and British soldiers who died during two days of bitter fighting, the British trying to lift the siege on Ladysmith and the Boers successfully preventing this. Drive to Ladysmith where the story of the siege and the eventual relief of the town is depicted in its monuments and excellent museum. Head towards Newcastle past Fort Mistake and turn left to Chelmsford on the R210.Chelmsford dam is a large body of water which provides ideal conditions for water skiing and good fresh water angling. Settle into your chalet at the waters edge and in the late afternoon go for a game viewing drive to see herds of springbok, black wildebeest, zebra and blesbok. This is also prime oribi country and Chelmsford boasts a healthy population of this critically endangered antelope.

DAY THREE
NTSHONDWE CAMP
ITHALA GAME RESERVE
This is going to be a long and memorable day as you drive through a beautiful part of the country filled with with the sites of conflicts between the peoples that contested ownership of this land. Blood River, the Zulus and the Boers, Rorke`s Drift, the British and the Zulus, Dundee and Vryheid, the Anglo Boer war. A call at the Talana Museum in Dundee, where its displays will take you through these actions is, well worth it. After you long and eventful, day arrive at Ithala Game reserve where you can relax in your comfortable chalet in Ntshondwe camp and enjoy the bird and animal life in the natural bush setting as you sip your sundowner.

DAY FOUR
NTSHONDWE CAMP
ITHALA GAME RESERVE
An early morning cup of coffee then out into the cool dawn of this beautiful reserve. As you drive slowly along the side of Ngotshe Mountain overlooking the Nghubu basin, the sounds and smells of the bushveld are especially vivid and your route is littered with broken branches, animal droppings and footprints each telling its own tale of the reserve`s inhabitants, rhino, elephant, buffalo and leopard and their activities. Brunch at your chalet or at the pool where you can relax and cool off.In the early afternoon head off down the Dakaneni loop to the Pongola River. This deeply incised valley reveals the Mozaan, the oldest rock formation in the world. Here in the rugged wooded valleys with their quartzite dikes, gold was mined until the turn of the last century. Now it is the haunt of the narina trogan and shy waterbuck, the black rhino and elephant. As you make your way back to camp in the fading light, reflect on this beautiful province, its history, scenery and wildlife which have enlivened your past four days and make a resolution to return.