A grass stand, a river, and nothing much scheduled

Uitspan is a working dairy farm on the Karkloof River outside Howick. Forty-one grass stands, a power point on every one, and the mistbelt forest starting where our fence ends.

Book a site

The park

Grazing since 1961, camping since 1988 My grandfather ran Jerseys on this bend of the river and outspanned the wagon under the same wild pears that shade stands 12 to 19 today. In 1988 my father cut the first track down to the water and let six stands out for the December holidays. We have added a handful every decade since and stopped at forty-one, because that is as many as this bank can carry before the place starts to feel like a parking lot. It is still a farm. The milk tanker comes past the gate at half past five, the mist sits in the valley until nine most mornings, and the nearest shop is eleven kilometres away in Howick. What you get instead is a flat piece of kikuyu, a power point, a tap, and a river you can hear from inside the tent.

At the site

A 16 amp power point on every stand, on its own plug

Shade on all but four stands — wild pear, bluegum, one big oak

Ablution block on donkey-boiler hot water, five in the morning until nine at night

Dish-wash sinks under the lapa, and a cold tap at every stand

At the river

Wood sold at the gate, R70 a bag, dry gum off the farm

The deep pool below the weir, chest-high on a grown man

No swimming after rain — the Karkloof comes down brown and fast

Trout permits at the office, R140 a rod a day, barbless and released

What is around

Everything below is inside half an hour of the gate, most of it a good deal less.

Karkloof Conservancy

Seventeen thousand hectares of mistbelt forest and grassland over the ridge from us. The canopy tour and both forest trails start eight kilometres up the D18.

Karkloof Falls

A hundred and five metres straight down, and the viewpoint is twenty minutes on gravel. Go early — the mist usually lifts off the lip somewhere around nine.

The crane hides

Three hides on the Karkloof wetland, ten minutes from here. Wattled crane through winter, and the sightings book at the first hide is worth the drive on its own.

Howick and the Meander

Eleven kilometres to town for fuel, a chemist and a Spar that is open on Sundays. The Midlands Meander studios and farm stalls run north from there along the R103.

Getting here

Twenty-five minutes from Pietermaritzburg, an hour and a half from Durban, five and a half hours from Johannesburg on the N3. The last two kilometres are gravel and fine in a sedan.

When to come

September to April for the river, and the trout season runs September through May. June and July are cold, dry and almost empty, which some people drive a very long way for.