Tag Archives: kzn

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: An Ancient Artist’s Palette in an Unlikely Place

There is beauty all around.

 PHOTO BY PIXABAYMarch 4, 2025

There’s a tree I love on the highway between Harrismith and Ladysmith. I have seen it since I was a little girl, travelling home. I lived in Northern Natal for a little while and played sports sometimes in Harrismith. Even after that, we’ve made trips up to Joburg to see family, embark on planes, or visit game reserves.

Every time we come back from the highveld to the lowveld, there’s a spark. I see that big flat mountain in Harrismith and feel a tingle. Then, I see the ‘Racing Car’ mountain, which my children insist on calling ‘Hippo Mountain’, where I look for bald ibises. The little spark of joy grows because I know the descent is coming.

You have to go super slow down Van Reenen’s. Driving at 60km/h feels like trudging through clay after a few hours at 120km/h. The police assure us it’s not meant as a lesson in patience; they want us to arrive alive. Before you get to Smelly-Truck-Brake Pass, though, there’s this beautiful tree. It’s huge compared to everything else in that location, so it stands out. It’s also right next to the road.

Look Closer at the Tree As You Come To This Ancient Place

I have no idea how this tree is still standing. For 30-plus years, I’ve taped it as absolutely ancient. It hasn’t changed. The tree of my childhood memories looks just the same. It’s a gum tree, but let’s skip over the part about it being invasive and water-guzzling. It’s dazzling. It stands straight up, towering above you as you come up the hill. You can see it from quite a long way off, and as you get closer, it touches the sky.

You can’t help but notice the phenomenal composition its stripped bark reveals layer upon layer. It’s like a bored artist has taken their palette and tried to get every colour there is onto one tree trunk – pinks, greens, yellow, blues, greys, oranges, and all the fancy colour names in between that I don’t know. ‘Rainbow’ would not even come close to it.

The ibises, cranes, and ducks get to enjoy it every day. I just catch a glimpse of it when I’m coming home. Is that why it’s so captivating? I hope to ask my grandchildren one day. Will they be coming home to beautiful KZN, too? To me, home is colours on a tree and the promise of the ocean.

What’s it to you?

Published here.

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom

The “Oribi Mom” Column

Newspaper Column Regularly Featured in the South Coast Herald

Since 2020, this little newspaper column has become a standard feature in the Lind household. It’s an actual newspaper – the kind that rubs off black onto your fingers – publishing our comings and goings here in Oribi Gorge.

Part of the motivation behind it was to give the Lind children something in black and white one day after we get old and don’t remember all the details. The local community here also seems to have enjoyed the offering, which tries to share our story 400 words at a time. A few neighbours and friends have appreciated some of the humour, relatability, family drama, and close encounters with nature. International readers just gasp, wondering why we choose to live in a place where Black Mambas do.

Why Oribi Mom Started

Ambitions to be a journalist in the teen years were short-lived. If you’d asked then whether we’d like to just blog for a local newspaper whenever inspiration hit, it would have seemed inferior to “real” journalism. What a crazy idea.

Fast-forward to about a month before the entire world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to share our experiences felt overwhelming. At eight months pregnant, South Africa’s hard lockdown had cancelled just about everything. Things got complicated, including the smooth, quick route needed to reach the hospital three hours away.

Instead of calming soundtracks and earphones, we had to remember to pack our eldest child’s birth certificate in the hospital bag — just in case. What if the police stopped us on the highway to ask why we were out of our home when the government had expressly told everyone to stay put. We’d even rehearsed the speech to say in between contractions. “Yes, he’s our son. Yes, we had to bring him with us. No, there’s nobody to look after him at home. No, we couldn’t go to another hospital because the doctor is at the one three hours away (another long story).”

We hadn’t found much online about going through a late-stage pregnancy during a global pandemic. Nobody else crazy enough to try it? So, we wrote one. And we’ve never looked back.

Thanks for reading!

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Must Love Birds and the Adventure of the ‘Chase’

I’ve also loved flitting about the South Coast birding community on Facebook bird groups.

January 14, 2021

A pretty white-eye photographed by Heather in Oribi Gorge.

I’ve always loved nature, but since our move to Oribi Gorge, my blood is emerald green, just like ‘Hello Georgie’.

I may actually be obsessed with the feathered friends that fill this beautiful country.

An overseas friend asked if I was a twitcher, and after a quick Google search, I solemnly declared myself a true bird lover instead.

I’m not a tick-off-the-list ‘twitcher’ who loses interest after they’ve seen every one of South Africa’s 850 recorded species once (725 resident species).

No, I sit on my porch for morning coffee and daily appreciate the wine-red firefinches, melodious black-headed orioles, opportunistic Black Sparrowhawk (which hunts our free range chickens), and the soaring vultures high above our Umzimkulu cliffs.

I’ve also loved flitting about the South Coast birding community on Facebook.

Hugo Voigts in Paddock is phenomenally dedicated – he once sat for over four hours in camouflage to capture elusive flufftail chicks (and this wasn’t his only comparable effort).

Lia Steen in Shelly Beach has the most magnificent finds right in her garden. She must have a brilliant camera to capture that much detail, too. I’ve learned a lot about birding habits from her fascinating posts.

The luckiest South Coast birder must be Stan Culley, somewhere near Port Edward maybe? ‘Culley’s Dam’ boasts fantastic bird visitors daily, including the cutest baby white-starred robin I’m yet to find in my patch of paradise.

Why birding? I think it’s the chase.

Some days you see a new one that you have never, ever noticed before. You read about it (maybe you’ll get a Roberts bird app for your birthday like I did) and learn the sound. The next few weeks, you realise that it is a screech or a song that you hear constantly. It wasn’t a new bird in your garden at all, just a hidden gem.

Once you see it, you can’t un-see it and then you start to appreciate the immense beauty of this country.

Birdwatching Is Good for the Soul

Next time coronavirus has you down, sit at your window or put your binoculars next to you on the porch.

Take a breath, laugh at the bobbing wagtails and the fluttering sunbirds and open your eyes.

You might see that martial eagle gliding above the clouds or you might notice the white-browed scrub robin around your fallen leaves for the very first time.

Wonder is the beginning, and from there, joy.

Published here.

South Africa, Travelinds, Uncategorised

Midmar Dam

14 February 2015

This Valentine’s weekend we stayed at Midmar Dam with our siblings and a new addition, our 6-month-old niece.  It was the week after the world-famous open water race – the Midmar Mile (which R has completed 10 times!). We invited friends and family to join us so that we could catch up with everyone while we were in KZN.

As usual, Midmar did not disappoint to wow us with its February thunderstorms and high winds, but it was worth it for the clear, glassy water in the early mornings. It was an awesome weekend of quality time with the family around the braai, laughing, making memories, enjoying the fruits of South Africa (Amarula – yum!) and remembering why we love our crazy siblings so much!

It was a happy Valentine’s day indeed!

TIP: If you will be travelling around Kwa-Zulu Natal quite a lot in a period of a year, then it is well worth it to get yourself (or your family) a Rhino Card. It gives you discounts on bookings (if you have the card before you make the booking) and on entrance fees and daily levies at the reserves and environmental sites.  We bought one and it paid for itself in just the month we were in South Africa – what a bargain!

TIP: Ezemvelo gave us a few grey hairs as we arrived because they didn’t have our booking confirmed, but after much discussion (calm?) and compromise, they accommodated our party of ten people and a baby with gracious hospitality in the awesome chalets – book here.

[Lesson learnt: When you book and pay online, it is not enough to have the pro-forma invoice and receipt number. Phone ahead and make sure that you receive the actual booking confirmation sheet along with other documentation to support your booking and avoid disappointment.]

South Africa, Travelinds

iMfolozi-Hluhluwe Game Reserve

30 January 2015

 

One of our favourite pastimes – and one of the things we miss the most about South Africa – is game viewing.  Not in a zoo, of course, but in a reserve.  The natural habitat of the animals is somewhere you are not guaranteed to see anything at all; but it’s all about the search!  Nothing compares with driving around all day scanning the bushveld, trees, slopes and ravines for animals and then catching a glimpse of the flicking white tail-end of a leopard, or the majestic mane of a ferocious (or lazy) male lion in the shade of a bush.  Reversing away from an approaching elephant or speeding to get away from a protective rhino mother is all the adrenaline you need!

So, this week was spent basking in God’s awesome creation at iMfolozi-Hluhluwe Game Reserve. What a fantastic place to see interesting, dangerous, funny, wild, crazy, big, tiny, rare and fascinating African wildlife in their natural habitat. Four hours from home,  this game reserve is a perfect getaway for long weekends.

Accomodation

We stayed at Nselweni Bush Camp which is down the road from Mpila, where we were supposed to be staying. Thanks to a misunderstanding and a booking problem, the management kindly allowed us to move over to Nselweni – a beautiful bush camp right on the bend of the river. We woke up with the birds and fell asleep with the night sounds of lions, frogs, hyenas and cicadas. It was perfect for a romantic getaway in a private “half tent/half cabin”that looks on to the bush. Conveniently, it was at a central iMfolozi location, about 20 minutes to Mpila.

Nselweni has fully equipped units with a braai place (that’s barbecue for non-Saffers), a gas oven, a fridge, kitchen utensils, an outside table and a semi-covered verandah. The shower window can open right up and the bathroom and bedroom both look out into the bush. We enjoyed the nyala that graze outside your hut during the day and its a colorful bird paradise.

We stayed here three nights in Unit 2 & 3 – both are lovely, private and quiet, especially Unit 2. Units 4 & 5 have half views of the river but only the Conference Centre deck gives a panoramic view of the river; and this is open to anyone who wants to use it. We saw buffalo, kingfishers, crocodile, trumpeter hornbills, impala, vultures and many others right from the deck.

Wildlife

At any wildlife reserve, you need to respect nature and remember that wild animals don’t follow the rules or take heed of the ‘boundaries’ us humans expect.  Watch out for the opportunistic hyenas at night who steal meat right off the braai or pinch anything left out on your verandah while you sleep. It’s best to take a torch and maybe a stick if you’re walking around the camp at night.

Our highlight sightings were a pack of wild dog, lion, puffback, bathing yellow-billed kite, a huge elephant breeding herd with little babies, so many white rhino and a metre-long vine snake on the road.

Night drive

On the last night, we treated ourselves to a night game drive (which leaves from Mpila camp) and we were so impressed with Bheki, our guide, who found us lion (up close and roaring), genet, chameleon, vine snake, crocodile, buffalo, rhino, nightjar, bushbuck.

Ezemvelo Wildlife

Thanks to Ezemvelo KZN wildlife, it was a wonderful stay.  They are doing a great job protecting Kwa-Zulu Natal’s wildlife, especially the precious rhinos!  We never did see that elusive Black Rhino on this trip, but the Whites were magnificent.