South Africa Guide
Limpopo
Letaba
The Letaba is a forested, lush, mountainous area, contrasting very sharply with the hot lowveld immediately east and the wide, flat bushveld to the west, and marking the first dramatic rise of the Drakensberg Escarpment as it begins its sweep south through Mpumalanga. The forest begins around the mountain village of Haenertsburg and follows two very scenic parallel valleys to Limpopo's second-largest town, Tzaneen. The valleys are filled with lakes surrounded by dark pine forests, sparkling rivers, misty peaks and, towards Tzaneen, subtropical crops such as tea, macadamia nuts and avocados. With some very comfortable and beautifully located guesthouses, farm-stalls and tea rooms, hiking trails and trout fishing, the Letaba is in many ways an attractive, less well-known alternative to Mpumalanga's crowded highlands, although it is gradually making solid inroads onto the tourist route.
On the sixty-kilometre stretch between Polokwane and Haenertsburg are two huge, incongruous institutions, the University of the North at Turfloop, and Zion City Moria at Boyne, identified by a huge Star of David on the hill above it. At Easter, an incredible three million people gather here for the annual gathering of the Zion Christian Church, an independent, Africanized Christian Church. The symbols of followers of the church, a silver star or badge pinned to the chest, and sometimes a grey peaked cap, are worn right across the northern areas of South Africa. A certain amount of mystery and suspicion surrounds the movement, but there isn't really anything to see other than during the Easter gathering – which is the one time you want to stay well clear, as three million people can cause some mighty traffic jams.