Blog - Valley of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Estate and Wilderness Retreat

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Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0200

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Time to Relax in Nature

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Connecting with nature is healing. Ever heard of the phrase “forest bathing?” It means simply being in nature, which boasts an impressive number of mental and physical health benefits!

Studies have shown that taking time to relax and be outside, with no goal beyond just experiencing the world around you, has a positive effect on your wellbeing.

Spending time in nature can improve memory, lower stress hormones, and reduce feelings of depression or anxiety, among other perks. It can also help clear your head and bring you into the present moment, and is a great way to decompress.

Now is the time for you to leave that stressful environment! Valley of the Rainbow Country Estate offers many ways to relax in nature, including:

1. Watch the sunrise or sunset on the patio (with a lake view!)
2. Discover our forest and river trail. Take a meandering walk through the forest along the river, let go of the thoughts in your head, and focus on the now.
3. Try fly fishing. There’s nothing like relaxing next to the water, watching the trout trying to take your fly.
4. Visit our lakeside bird hides and venture on our mountain and valley bird walks. Watch the birds and lose yourself in birdsong.
5. Experience our mountain walks. Enjoy the fresh air and scenic views.
6. Read a book on the deck, or find a quiet spot outdoors and practice mindful meditation.
7. Enjoy a picnic surrounded by forests, rivers, and lakes.

Studies show that engaging the five senses can help promote feelings of calm and relaxation. When you’re outdoors, focus on your senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Gaze at the vast sky, the greens of the trees, the tranquil water, or vast mountain tops. Listen to the birds singing, or the sound of babbling waters. Breathe in the fresh air and smell the fragrance of the natural environment. Feel the grass between your toes, place your hands on the trunk of a tree, or dip your fingers in a stream, or give yourself a boost of serotonin by soaking in the sunlight.

Make the most of the beautiful landscape around us at Valley of the Rainbow, and lose yourself in unspoilt peace!

Forests - Heroes of Nature

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0200

The Valley of the Rainbow Tree Planting Project is an opportunity to give back to nature.

Deforestation remains one of the largest threats to the environment. Many hectares of forests are lost each year due to deforestation. Experts predict that large areas in the world will be a desert if the indiscriminate cutting of trees continues unabated.

Deforestation is the removal of a forest (or trees), after which the cleared land is converted for commercial or agricultural use. Mining activities have contributed significantly to deforestation in South Africa.

The negative effects of deforestation are many:
1. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to the natural habitat, loss of biodiversity, and aridity.
2. It has an adverse impact on bio-sequestration or storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide by plants. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland.
3. Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climate conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations.

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture. Subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation.
Deforestation is a contributor to global warming and is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Deforestation also causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As the carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat, which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect.

This is why plants, and trees, are so critical to the planet. Plants remove carbon in the form of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis, but release some carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere during normal respiration. Only when it is actively growing can a tree or forest remove carbon, by storing it in plant tissues. Both the decay and burning of wood releases much of this stored carbon back in the atmosphere.

In order for forests to absorb carbon, there must be a net accumulation of wood which can be achieved by replacing cut trees. The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a much drier climate. Deforestation reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture.

The dry soil leads to lower water intake for the trees to extract. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and landslides ensue.

Instead of trapping precipitation, which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface flows. That quick movement of surface water can translate into flash flooding.

Trees, and plants in general, affect the water cycle significantly. Their canopies intercept a proportion of precipitation, which is then evaporated back to the atmosphere. Plant litter, stems, and tree trunks slow down surface run-off. Their roots create macropores — large conduits — in the soil that increase infiltration of water. This contributes to terrestrial evaporation and reduces soil moisture via transpiration. Plant litter and other organic residue change soil properties that affect the capacity of soil to store water. Leaves control the humidity of the atmosphere by transpiring.

As a result, the presence or absence of trees can change the quantity of water on the surface, in the soil or underground or in the atmosphere. This in turn changes erosion rates and the availability of water for either ecosystem functions or human services.

Deforestation has accelerated sharply across the country in recent years due to power challenges and mining activities. In the past few years, South Africa has witnessed illegal farming, mining, and settlements in forest areas previously set aside as water catchment areas. This has led to the rampant cutting down of trees for various reasons. The resultant deforestation has led to heavy siltation of our water bodies leading to limited water supplies for different activities that have an impact on livelihoods.

The Valley of the Rainbow Planting Days will be commemorated under the theme, “Forests for water and life”. This theme serves to remind us of forests’ importance, including guaranteeing water quality and supply. Through the Valley of the Rainbow Tree Planting Day campaign, we aim to highlight the need for sustainable management and protection of forests to preserve their benefits, including water provision.

Five Tips for Fly Fishing

Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 +0200

The pinnacle of excitement for trout fishermen is to fish approachable rivers and streams. When you visit Valley of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Estate and Wilderness Retreat, ask management to explain the accessible rocky pools in the river running through the valley. Our river is the Witpoort river, a subsidiary to the Steelpoort river.

There are many tricks that can make fishing small rivers for trout fairly easy. Small rivers and streams, however, do have their own frustrations, but that doesn’t have to be a reason to leave all of that good fishing to someone else.

Tip One: Choose the proper rod weight and length

If you only own a 9′ 6 weight, you might want to do some rod shopping, because you will have a difficult time casting with dense trees.

Another factor to consider is rod weight. Using a stiff 6 weight, you will not be able to load line on the short accurate casts needed for effective small stream fishing for trout. This is one occasion where your best weapon for easy casting will be a 6-7 foot long 2-4 weight rod. Most anglers don’t already own a rod this size, but everyone should.

Try casting a 6 weight all day and suddenly picking up a 2 weight - it feels really good!

Tip Two: Fish your way upstream, not down
If you try to walk downstream and fish for trout, you will stir up the water and greatly affect your catch rate.
One step into a batch of mud or mucky sediment, and you could all but ruin your chances of catching a fish for a while.

Walking upstream to the trout, you will not need to be concerned with stepping in the mud, because any trout that see it will have already been casted to. Also remember that trout swim upstream to catch food flowing downstream.

Tip Three: Use a short leader
You can save your 12 foot leaders on small river trips, as they will only cause you pain and anguish.
We suggest you tie a small 6′ leader to a 4-5x tippet and call it good.

The longer your leader is, the more problems it can cause on backcasts, not to mention it will give you less control and accuracy when casting around objects.

Tip Four: Learn to roll-cast
Roll casting is pretty basic and you can get good at it with very little practice.
Once you master this cast, you will find that 90% of the time it will be your best option while fishing for trout in small rivers or streams.

Tip Five: Choose the right fly
It’s impossible to predict what will be hatching or what the best flies will be for your small river or stream. We can, however, recommend a bigger fly than the fly you use for dam fishing.

It could be that since most small rivers or streams don’t get a lot of fishing pressure, the trout are only mildly educated, so bigger flies are likely to get their attention.

Final small river and stream tips:
Fly fishing in small rivers and streams can take a while to get used to, but this is a great way to get away from the crowds. The chances are that there won’t be anyone in earshot to hear your frustrations every time you hook a tree branch on your back cast!

Don’t forget to practice catch and release on these little rivers, because they can be over fished very easily.
You should also keep the little streams that you do find close to your chest, because you just never know when someone will tell their brother-in-law, who will tell their sister-in-law, who will tell--

Jamie van Zijl

Owner Valley of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Estate and Wilderness Retreat

Mysterious Stone Structures

Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 +0200

If you visit Valley of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Estate and Wilderness Retreat, a visit to our archaeological sites is highly recommended. Just a short walk away, in the Steenkamp mountains, these fascinating sites are worth visiting - just ask our manager about a guided tour.

The stone circles on the property are unique, and were most likely used as cattle kraals. There are also squares and passages, used as homes, built adjacent to the kraals. On top of all this, extensive stone road networks join the settlements to one another. It is estimated that these structures were built more than 1000 years ago!

Who built these structures?
The mystery can be solved using recent research done by Alex Schoeman and other archaeologists. Through extensive investigation and the discovery of artefacts, rock art, and satellite and aerial imagery, it is now known that these people represented a lost and extinct tribe, the Bokoni or Koni people.

The Bokoni people were farmers, forgers of weapons and tools, miners and traders. Metalwork requires a very specialised skillset, and even a degree of understanding of chemistry. The smiths would smelt iron and copper, and they would then mix this with iron ore, charcoal, and fluxes to get steel. This was a prized skill, as it allowed for trade with other villages, and even long distance to other tribes (Serfontein, 2013).

The people who lived in this area also developed specialised farming methods using stone terracing for their crops and walls along roadways to prevent their livestock grazing on their crops on their way to and from pasture. They kept cattle, goats, sheep, and chickens. Their diet also consisted of some wild animals, primarily buck (Serfontein, 2013).

It is believed that the language spoken by this tribe was known as Sekona and was closely related to Pedi, both of which were the formative languages of Sotho. We know this from records dating to the early 1800s by missionaries in the area who worked with the last remnants of the tribe before they finally dispersed (Delius et al., 2011).

As mentioned before, trade became vital to the economy of the early tribes, including international trade in gold, ivory, rhino horn, slaves and timber. These were traded for beads, cloth, porcelain and metal goods. This thriving trade industry was active from before 1000 AD. This trade connected the east coast of Africa with India, the Persian Gulf, Thailand and China (Delius et al., 2011).

For tribes to travel from central Africa to trade with tribes that moved down the east coast of Africa, they had to traverse land the Bokoni people occupied. A transfer trade fee could be a reason why the Pedi, Nguni, Ndebele and other tribes went to war with the Bokoni and annihilated them. It is, however, unclear which tribes were mainly to blame for the dispersal of the erstwhile Bokoni (Delius et al., 2011).

Due to being attacked by various tribes, the Bokoni built walls around their settlements and villages, and they were positioned on top of mountains and hills so that they could be more defensible. Rocks could be rolled down on attackers trying to penetrate their territory from below (Serfontein, 2013).

Regardless of the history surrounding the lives and deaths of these people, it is clear that they have left their mark on this landscape and the people who occupy the area today. At Valley of the Rainbow, we are committed to honouring the legacy of the people who came before us.

Jamie van Zijl is the owner of the properties and business trading as Valley of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Estate and Wilderness Retreat

References

Delius, P, Maggs, T. & Schoeman, A. 2014. Forgotten World: The stone-walled settlements of the Mpumalanga Escarpment, Wits University Press.

Serfontein, S. 2013. A Google Earth Survey of Bokoni Settlements in Mpumalanga, South Africa. University of Pretoria South Africa.