Magoebaskloof

Magoebaskloof... I have a strange love-affair and connection with this place. My heart seems always to yearn to go back. I think it comes from childhood memories of holidays spent there with my parents and grandparents...and the ethereal mist which surrounds that area, so many days of the year. It holds a fascination I cannot explain. I love the woodland walks, the mountains, the streams, the sounds of chain saws which echo eerily through the trees. To me, it is a fairy-tale land, literally coming out of a desert like landscape of nothingness.


It forms part of the the northern tip of the Drakensburg range, and lies not far from Tzaneen. The area is named after Chief Magoeba - who was killed by an unnamed Swazi mercenary. In order to persuade the white men (who were also hunting him), that the chief was indeed dead, they cut off his head - to prove the grime victory.


The area is rich in history and colourful characters, and has a beauty which will steal your breath away.



One of the first things I did when the Prof left, was to book a holiday for myself and the children. I wanted us to have something to look forward to, and to show the children we could still have a life of fun, without their dad. Where did we go? Of course - MAgoebaskloof.


I had booked that holiday for October 2007. I had invited my parents along as well, and since I had Garmin to point me in the right direction, I felt very confident that this was a very excellent idea.

I asked Werner to look after the house for me, and he very readily agreed.


A strange dilemma presented itself with this proposal. The children – very concerned about their space – asked Werner horrified – WHERE will you sleep – you can’t sleep in our beds? Laughing he told them he would sleep in my bed. Well, they could see the logic in that, but they swallowed hard on that piece of info.



While on holiday there, Werner was fixing up my house. He fixed things that had been broken for years – things I thought were unfixable.


Huh – turns out – he is a good fixer of things ... and people. He had done a lot of FIXING me, fixing kids, as well as fixing our old house – which had been neglected for so long. Guess you could say the kids and I had been suffering that neglect on a human level too. We all flourished under Werner's humour and way of looking at life.