Ezemvelo Nature Reserve East of Pretoria

Cliff has wanted to re-visit Ezemvelo Nature Reserve near Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng.  Last weekend we found the time to get there.  It was a very long drive from home in Boksburg particularly avoiding e-tolls.  There was a 30 min stop/go near Bronkhorstspruit which was rather annoying for a 4.7km stretch of road works.  The last 20 km leading to Ezemvelo is a dirt road which is quite corrugated in sections.

Ezemvelo was handed over by De Beers and members of the Oppenheimer family to be run as a community project.  We saw an amazing amount of wildlife including, Kudu, Springbok, Warthogs, Impala, Wildebeest (with calves) and many more antelope.  It would be a great place to take visitors to who want to be in the bush and see animals.

We sat on the lawn near to reception for our picnic.  I wished that I had remembered that there is a swimming pool as I would have packed towels and swimming costumes.  It must be heavenly to do a hike then cool off in the pool.

Because we are time challenged (read as disorganised) we only left home at 12h00 and therefore only did a short section of the hike.  We also luxuriated over our picnic a little too long.  It was a blistering hot day so maybe it was just as well that we didn’t do a full hike but we would have loved to do at least the 4km one.

Escaping to nature makes a weekend feel more like a weekend I just wish that we had enjoyed more relaxation time.  Next time we will either leave home much earlier (easier said than done) or spend a night in one of the chalets to make it a mini holiday.