Hella Hella Valley

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Bushcraft
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Hella Hella Valley

Post by Bushcraft »

This isn’t from around the world, but rather the Hella Hella Valley in the KZN Midlands and is a very short summary of trips that span over many, many years.

My great grandfather purchased around 8000 acres of land in the Hella Hella Valley around 150 years ago and although sections have been sold over the years, the main central 3500 acres still remains. My uncle took over the “farm” around 45 years ago and a few years ago my cousin starting running the show (after a stint as a ranger in Mala Mala).

The farm, one of the original homesteads of the Byrne Settlers, is steeped in history; hence it’s been selected as one of the Natural Heritage sites in South Africa, which ironically protects it from land claims.

Apart from the stunning scenery, indigenous bush, numerous dams and waterfalls, it is home to the endangered Blue Swallow, Oribi, Bushpig and the Hilton Daisy. There are some 200 bird species, as well as numerous antelope and other wildlife in the area.

I spent many school holidays and Christmases there as a kid growing up, so it certainly played a massive role in my love of the bush and it’s where I learnt to fish at the age of 3.
I have found a few of my old man’s slides that my boet, Supernova, scanned but I’m sure he has plenty more, so he may add if he finds this TT.

Farm House

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View from the farm house with my grandfather in the garden

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My old lady in a plantation with Supernova and my eldest boet. I wasn’t born yet. Notice the old ladies high heels in the bush. 0*\

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One of our bush adventures, I’m the rat in the middle with my boets either side. Notice the “pot” haircuts that the old lady used to give us. :o0ps:

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When my boets went off to the army, I continued to visit whenever I could and my cousin (who’s the same age as me) and I used to cruise the entire day through the bush for many km, fishing and eating what we found, caught, or unfortunately killed.

It’s a fantastic place for boys to grow up.

The teenage years changed things drastically and I was more interested in other things O** O** , but still popped in a few times.

I met the Cow during my first year of electronic engineering and decided to take her on a few farm trips, but staying in the main house.

I then decided to test the waters and told the Cow “Time to sleep in the bush on our next trip”, which I thought would have caused an issue, but she was game.

I’m still sure that the Cow got the fright of her life when I chopped down a “bonga, bonga” tree on our first trip, tied our gear to it and said “Let’s hike out into the bush and set up camp”.

We would normally hike out a few km from the farm house, which is about 20km from the nearest town, drink out of dams, shower under dam overflow “waterfalls” and eat bush pigeon or fish.

Just don’t ask about the ablutions, as I’m still sure that the Cow used to swallow a box of Imodium before each trip. --00--

We would normally spend 2 to 4 days at a time out in the bush.

I have scanned some of my old 35mm pics, but unfortunately we didn’t own a camera until the latter trips. Please excuse the quality of the pics as they are around 20 years old and we had a R120 camera at the time.

Our camp and tent is vaguely visible in the bush on the opposite end of the dam, which was about 3km from the main farm house. By this stage a few of my “town clown” mates had decided to join us.

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A closer pic of the camp.

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Many times the mates decided to sleep under the stars as they were too lazy to put up a tent, but soon regretted their decision and I personally don’t think that they slept at all, as I got up a few times during the night to answer the call of nature after too many beers and found them with big eyes curled in a ball next to the fire with guns ready.

The Cow eventually got a few girlfriends to join us and I always had my trusty “Jock of the Bushveld”, Max with us. Max sadly died from a puff adder bite on the farm.

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To be continued


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Bushcraft
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Bushcraft »

I forgot to mention that we have seen the odd leopard and caracal cruising around over the years and my uncle loves telling the story of some sugar cane inspectors that came face to face with a leopard while doing an inspection on the farm. It was the shortest inspection in history.

We spent most of the day cruising around the farm, fishing and swimming in the dams, of which there are 11 and most are feed from fresh springs, so one could drink the water straight out of the dam.

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This particular dam has a foefie side which starts up the hill and ends in the middle of the dam, so there was always fun to be had here and as an added bonus the dam was stocked with Florida bass which grow to a larger size than their SA relatives

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The pic below is of the Umkomaas River, which is full of barbel and scalies, so fishing was always on the cards and tube rides down the river were a jol as rats.

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We are relaxing next to an oak tree in the pic below, but what you can’t see is that there’s an entire row of them and they were planted by the first settlers in the area. The ruins of their old houses are just out of the picture frame and many items found have been donated to the Pietermaritzburg museum.

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After our 3rd bush camping trip my uncle suggested that we explore deeper into the gorges and down the rivers as not many people had ever been there. This got me highly excited, so our first hiking bush camping trip started.

To be continued


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Flutterby
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Flutterby »

BC, this looks absolutely amazing!!! You were lucky to have this growing up!! \O \O

Max looks lovely! :-(


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Dewi
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Dewi »

Brilliant BC. O/\ \O

Looking forward to hearing more of this one and seeing lots more photos. ^Q^
Bushcraft wrote:This isn’t from around the world, but rather the Hella Hella Valley in the KZN Midlands and is a very short summary of trips that span over many, many years.
Errm - it is to us non Saffies. The names, location etc are very exotic to us far northeastern westerners. -O O**


Dewi

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Bushcraft
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Bushcraft »

Shot Flutts and Dewi \O

TT’s are a pain, but I have been thinking about this spot for awhile now and it’s always cool to leave something for your kids and their kids to read. A pic with words is better than just a pic. X#X

I wrote this between meetings today, so it may be full of stuff ups, but need to finish tonight as Imfolozi on Saturday and shopping/ packing is required tomorrow night. O/

There’s plenty omitted, but use your imagination, let young boys loose with that much space and things hit the fan, but I certainly wouldn’t post it all here --00--


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Richprins
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Richprins »

Remarkable! Lucky boy! :-)

You have pretty ladies in your life! ;-)

I still can't imagine eating off the bush, so to speak....I'm sure you had to have some supplies! :twisted:

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Bushcraft
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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Bushcraft »

We were highly excited at the start of the first camping hiking trip because as we cruised up the river it felt like we were entering another world. The farm house was around 6km away and there was nobody else around except us.

The only real way to walk in this thick indigenous bush is in the river and although it was only around knee deep I expected a few pelican faces, but all were in high spirits with only the odd giant spider causing an issue.

3km later we came to the pic below, which set the Cow off “I’m not climbing up that”. It’s difficult to see from the angle of the pic, but this “waterfall” is around 30 feet high.

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The first initial climb wasn’t fun for all and I ended up with the Cow sitting on my head pushing her up as I climbed, so gave up on that idea and climbed it alone, tied a rope to a tree for safety and then went back to help all with a rope to hold onto. We even hoisted Max up with the rope.

We entered another world again at the top of this “waterfall” and it was one little “waterfall” after another until about 2km later we existed the top of the gorge.

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We returned many times after the initial drama and eventually all mastered the climbing.

The next mission was to find another river to follow, but we were warned that this one was rather hectic and only a handful of people had ever been down this gorge and that there’s a massive waterfall at the end which is meant to be a few feet higher than Howick falls.

We decided to do this one in 2 stages, hike around and find this waterfall from the bottom and then the next day hike down the gorge and stand on top of it.

Our hike around ended in near drama a few times as it took us more than an hour to find the waterfall and when we did it had a massive 2m mamba cooling off at the bottom of it, eventually the mamba moved off allowing us the opportunity to pose for pics, but then we got lost for 3 hours trying to find our way out of the thick bush and the Bushpig cruising around the place didn’t excite the Cow too much.

To put things in perceptive, those are massive wattle trees at the top of the waterfall.

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The Cow and I at the bottom of the waterfall

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That night was an experience as I had this clever plan to sleep in a small gorge next to a river. We found some logs and placed them across the small stream, which you can see in the background of the pic below and then decided to just sleep on the logs without putting tents up. A mistake I will never make again as we froze our........off.

Please excuse the eating habits as we had no utensils.

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The next mission was to do the entire gorge thing to the large waterfall, but after the drama just getting down to the gorge, I decided to go on alone to see if it was doable. It seemed ok, so I went back to call the rest.

I’m a little nervous of heights, so we crawled on our stomachs to the edge of the waterfall. The view was amazing.

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This type of thing continued for a few years and after about 15 of these type trips I realized that the Cow was a keeper and got married.

A few years later Hawkeyes arrived and this put an end to these trips for about a year and then they continued, but at the farm house or the new youth centre.

Another life drama happened when Hawkeyes was around 3 and Bushpig, who had just arrived, was around 6 months old, so trips stopped.

We have been back on and off a few times over the last couple of years, but next year our youngest, Albert, will be around the correct age to stay a few nights in the bush, so a father and 3 x daughters bush trip is on the cards. =O: =O:

I think the Cow is counting the days for her free weekend.

Cheers until next time.
BC


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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by Bushcraft »

Richprins wrote:Remarkable! Lucky boy! :-)

You have pretty ladies in your life! ;-)

I still can't imagine eating off the bush, so to speak....I'm sure you had to have some supplies! :twisted:

0()
We took some meat RP, but I will tell you what we ate when we meet, but not here :o0ps: =O: \O


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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by steamtrainfan »

This is one helluva TT about Hella Hella. You sure were one lucky guy B.C.

I have read this story twice as it so amazing and deserves to be read a third time.

Please carry on sharing this with us.


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Re: Hella Hella Valley

Post by iNdlovu »

Awesome BC, this brings back a lot of memories for me. I grew up on my Dad's farm outside Richmond, up the Burne Valley, not too far from your place. In fact in those days there were not a lot of farmers around and I'm sure my old man would have known your Grampa.


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