Anysberg Nature Reserve – adjusting to nature’s rhythm

By Roxanne Reid
We’re at a cottage in the Anysberg Nature Reserve just before the sun slips behind the koppie, its last rays filtering through the tree branches. We watch the hills turn pink as we sip red wine and enjoy the silence. There are no distractions, just the sense of adjusting to nature's rhythm; that’s what the Karoo reserve of Anysberg is all about.

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Yesterday, when we approached the reserve from Laingsburg, we noticed how green the Karoo veld was. Evidence of the heavy rain of Feb/March was still visible on a river-crossing outside Laingsburg where the tar had been sliced away by the power of the overflowing river on both sides. The whole 74km from Laingsburg we passed only one car, a bakkie whose driver saluted us with a cigarette between two fingers.

A road like a gentle rollercoaster into the hills

It had been overcast all morning but began to clear as we drove towards Vrede, where the stables, office, campsite and cottages are. We passed a lone gemsbok grazing on a rise, lazily turning its head to watch us, another three further on. We’re used to seeing them in the Kgalagadi or Etosha, and they looked oddly out of place in the green veld.

The campsite has privacy screens and new ablutions, and a few horses may come visiting

It was Sunday and the office was closed but our cottage, called Seps, was open, the key on a hook by the door. It was just two tiny rooms, one almost entirely taken up by a double bed, the other with a small pine table and two chairs, sink, fridge, gas double hotplate, two-seater couch and an old-fashioned wood burning stove. The rietdak ceilings were low and hubby had to bend to get under the lintel between one room and the other.

The simple interior of Seps cottage, which shares ablutions with one other cottage

When the icy wind dropped later in the afternoon, we walked to the stables to see the horses that are used for overnight trekking into the mountains at Tapfontein. We looked at the cement-dam swimming pool with its elevated wooden deck but it was too cold to dive in. And we walked to Rooidam, where we saw four African spoonbills, some grebes and Egyptian geese. A prinia chirped in the trees nearby and the late afternoon sun cast long shadows on the veld. 

Canoe on the dam, swim in the pool, go for a walk or just enjoy the peace

We woke at five the next morning to the sound of rain pattering on the iron roof. It came and went, now harder, then lighter again. At eight it had stopped and the sun was peeping through the clouds. At nine the sky was almost clear blue, just the remainder of dark clouds in one direction, but it was dark again by ten, the sound of thunder rolling in the distance.

Seps cottage in the late afternoon sunlight

At noon the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared enough for us to brave the drive to Tapfontein in the Matjiesgoedberg, a very rocky 4x4 trail with a few sandy sections. At one point we crossed into a dry river and saw only rocks and stones with no signs of a path out. Hubby got out the car to investigate. He found a path about ten metres away, a sharp turn right out of the riverbed, its presence hidden by vegetation. There were lovely views out over the veld to left and right, with a green-covered mountain ahead and starker mountains with red ridges behind us. 

You can do the Tapfontein trail on foot, mountain bike or horseback, or drive it in a 4x4

You might see hartebeest, gemsbok, steenbok and Cape mountain zebra along the way and you can choose to do the trail by mountain bike instead – though someone who did described it as ‘hectic’. Having driven it by 4x4 I can understand why. The two-day guided horse trail stops overnight at the top, where four wooden cabins provide rustic accommodation that seems wonderfully far from civilisation. The horse trail also stops at the Tapfontein San rock art site; hikers, cyclists and 4x4s are welcome to stop too – if they can find it. There are other paintings in the park, but reserve manager Marius Brand says their whereabouts remain a secret.

Rocky sections on the Tapfontein Trail call for high clearance and some skill

Along the way we came across a field ranger and two students doing their practical year at Anysberg. They had been to Tapfontein to inventory CapeNature’s assets. We told them we’d seen their bakkie parked at the start of the trail. ‘Oh,’ they laughed, ‘that bakkie can’t make it up there! So we had to walk instead.’ They saw it as a positive thing, a chance to walk the veld and learn from the ranger, to get a taste of his knowledge of the rocks and plants and animals in the area.

That evening we got a hint of how many stars cluster in these Karoo skies, where there's no light pollution. Unlucky for us, it was only a couple of days after full moon and partly cloudy, so it was no more than a hint, not the full display. But a jackal started yipping and howling in the distance and at that moment we couldn’t think of anywhere we’d rather be than here in the Anysberg, all artificial distractions stripped away.

Need to know
There's also a campsite at Vrede; Seps and Leguaan cottages share ablutions; another 3 cottages have their own

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