My 30th birthday is around the corner and suddenly I find myself longing to try all the things I wanted to do as a child. There are two biggies that I really wanted to cross off my list: learn how to ice-skate and ride a horse. While the bruises and cold put me off the ice skating, I jumped at the recent opportunity offered to go on a horse safari.
Pakamisa Private Game Reserve, a 2 500 hectare beauty of a property in northern KwaZulu-Natal, takes its guests on horse rides into the bush. However, due to the sometimes difficult terrain, only riders with experience can take part.
It’s a long drive from Joburg. The sun began to set as we turned off the main road and drove through caramel-scented sugar cane fields and wound our dusty way up a hill.
At the main house a big dog with floppy ears came bounding over, sticking his head into the car.
“Bully! Down,” manager Eve Viljoen ordered. The dog paid no heed. “Do you have any biltong?” she asked worriedly, explaining that Bully had jumped into people’s cars to steal a snack.
It was a warm, informal welcome. The type of welcome, I soon realised, epitomised the laid-back, yet exclusive experience offered at Pakamisa, a Zulu word meaning “to lift up”.
Passing a stone with the word “Paradise” written on it, we set off in a 4x4 to meet an English family having sundowners at a viewing spot on the hills of the reserve. They had come to SA looking for a safari, yet their daughter wanted to ride horses.
In Pakamisa they found the perfect mix of the two.
We stood around the fire, eating biltong and pieces of dried mango, staring at the stars as one of the guides, Chamunorwa Chorwadza, pointed out the constellations to us city-dwellers.
Pakamisa’s eight Spanish-style villas can take a maximum of 16 guests at a time. The rooms all have soaring ceilings and a veranda overlooking the town of Pongola. There’s a swimming pool and a library.
In-between horse rides and game drives, guests can do clay pigeon or compound bow shooting.
The next morning we were ready for a bush experience.
We set off on a game drive while the English family set off on their horses. Pakamisa does not have any predators, which allows guests to hike or go on horse rides. Chorwadza brimmed with the facts and folklore behind the plants, zebra, giraffe, warthog and the reserve’s numerous types of antelope.
After scaring away a few warthogs, which ran off in a huff of tails in the air, we saw a tiny giraffe. His umbilical cord was still attached and he stared at us with dewy eyes while mom looked on.
Having met up with the riders, we ate a bush breakfast while the birds tweeted and the horses chomped on grass.
The horses at Pakamisa are pure Arabs and part breeds with Boerperds.
Owner Isabella Stepski has been breeding the horses for the past 30 years. They were originally born and bred in Andalusia, Spain, from pure-bred Spanish bloodlines. Stepski decided to transport her entire stud to the area in 1996 after falling in love with the view when she stood on top of the hill.
While we, having never been on a horse, weren’t allowed on an outride, the staff were more than happy to take us for a lesson while naughty ostriches looked on.
Our teacher for the day was Saskia Ehlen, a student from Berlin, studying horse management. She came to SA during her holidays to learn about Stepski’s approach of training and caring for her horses.
I let my fiancé go on the pretty brown horse first. He joked how this could be called a sport when you just sit and the horse does all the work. Ehlen smiled and said: “You’ll see.”
We didn’t so much see it as feel it. We learnt to control the beautiful creature beneath us with the muscles in our legs, body posture and clicks of the tongue.
It was hard work and as the horse went faster, finally moving into a canter, it felt exhilarating and scary all at once.
We went for a short walk into open veld and watched ostriches mock-fight, their long legs and necks wavering around each other.
Suddenly I wished we had been out in the open bush in the morning on horseback with giraffes nearby and zebras looking on.
I could understand the young English girl’s enthusiasm to constantly be on horseback.
It was a beautiful experience and one I will have to repeat in this piece of paradise. - Sunday Independent
* Pakamisa Private Game Reserve: [email protected]; www.pakamisa.co.za; 034 413 3559.