It’s malaria-free, it’s close to Jozi and it’s home to the Big Five. Welcome to the Waterberg. The Bushveld doesn’t get any better.

We were stunned by the second awesome surprise in the past half hour. Standing on the mountain top at Lenong viewpoint, we watched a grafecul outline in the brilliant sky, surfing the warm current in lazy loops. The endangered Cape vulture is a supreme rider of air, perfectly at home catching the thermals of Kransberg. Only a stiff hike lay between us and the biggest colony of Cape vultures (lenong in Tswana) in the world, altogether 900 breeding pairs, at an altitude of 2 089,4 metres.

The entire Waterberg region, dearly beloved by the Afrikaans poet Eugène Marais, qualifies as a best kept secret. The panorama is one continuous shot, no cuts, and the views go on forever, so heavenly it almost hurts. We kept wondering why we knew so little about its legendary tales of adventure. With the fervour of newly converted, we undertook to spread the gospel.

The Waterberg mountains form part of the ancient trade route through southern Africa, across the raging Limpopo and over vast plains teeming with game. The hub of the sophisticated trading empire was Monomotapa, now known as Mashonaland, which had ties with ambitious and opportunistic Swahili, Arabic and black Semitic migrants from the Indian Ocean.

Situated in Limpopo, three hours from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport, the Waterberg’s accessibility is obviously a huge drawcard. Marakele National Park (Marakele is Tswana for place of sanctuary) might well be light years from the hustle and bustle of civilisation, even though it is only a stone’s throw from the town of Thabazimbi.

Unsure of what to expect, we certainly didn’t bank on huge herds of game, yet the wildlife abounds. To reach the park’s must-see attraction, we drive to the mountain top via a narrow tar road (courtesy of the SADF, from the days before telecom depended on satellites) which winds past wetlands where game viewing is excellent. Reedbuck, waterbuck and tsessebe are easily spotted, and just below the summit, the tamest mother-and-fawn pair of klipspringer you will ever come across.

The biodiversity of the park, with four different habitats, supports 765 plant species and offers plenty of opportunity for interesting finds, including relic fynbos areas. The beautiful Protea caffra or suikerbos is one of three protea species that flourish against the cliffs of the Waterberg. Small pockets of Erica drakensbergensis are another astonishing fynbos find. Best-known of the region’s endemic plants is the Encephalartos eugene-maraisii, a cycad which was discovered by Eugene Marais in 1926, after he had completed his scientific studies on termites and baboons.

We drove the Mbidi loop and were not disappointed by the game viewing. Another section of the park that offers good game viewing is the Kwaggasvlakte plains to the north of the entrance gate. We stopped ever so often to look at substantial herds of wildebeest, zebra and impala, all with coltish offspring, and small gangs of gentle kudu adolescents. All the animals are so tame they might have been pets in a previous life.

Birdlife is plentiful with more than 400 species being recorded. Our most exciting sighting was a brown snake-eagle eating, of all things, a snake, and on top of that, in mid-air! It swooped low over a grassy plain, dropped like a stone, talons extended, and vaulted into the air seconds later, carrying a brown grass snake. When it passed over our vehicle again, the snake was history.

The vervet monkeys who loiter around Tlopi tented camp are brazen thieves. They almost cleaned us out. To secure your supplies, keep your tent closed and the cupboards and fridge locked.

Marataba Safari Company’s 23 000 hectare private concession lies in the eastern sector of the park, where the plains touch the mountains. In 2009 five star Marataba Lodge, a member of the prestigious international Relais & Chateaux organisation, was nominated by the UK Condé Nast Traveller as Africa’s Most Wanted, and in its first year it made the list of top new hotels in the world.

Unabridged version published in Wild magazine Spring 2010.