Find nature‘s heart in teepee paradise

YOU would be forgiven for thinking you‘ve stumbled into a Native American encampment when in fact you‘ve arrived at Leopard Mountain, an 8 500ha farm in the Kouga mountains where Indianstyled tepees welcome visitors.

Co-owned and managed by intrepid nature lovers Saskia and Harry Bateman, TerraPi consists of three large tepee tents arranged in a half-moon design in a valley next to a quiet stream.

But there‘s more to the tents than meets the eye. Each is able to sleep five adults with a fireplace in the centre which is ventilated via an underground air-pipe. The tepees are merely a manner of driving home environmental awareness to visitors.

“I want people who come here to experience an area which has been negatively affected,” said Harry, referring to the encroachment of invasive wattle trees on the area.

Since moving to the property along with Saskia and their barely one-year old daughter, Emily, in 2005, Harry has waged war on the foreign wattle trees which have aggressively taken root in the area, to the detriment of indigenous fauna and flora. He has also made it his goal to eradicate the species on the farm, one plant at a time.

Pointing to the silent brook which bubbles along past the tepees, Harry said: “When we moved here two years ago this stream didn‘t run. The wattles along its almost 12km course sucked all the water up.”

Since that day he has personally been involved in getting 10 of the 12km of wattle uprooted and thanks to his efforts, the stream is once again perennial. But the tepees make up just one facet of the giant property – the largest in the area south of the 300 000ha which is the Baviaanskloof mega-reserve on whose border Leopard Mountain falls.

“We offer hiking, bird-watching, bass-fishing on the Churchill Dam, abseiling and river rafting in the Kouga River,” said Harry.

A hiking trail to rival the Southern Cape‘s Dolphin Trail was also being developed. It will take keen hikers through mountain trails and into three caves where there are San rock paintings.

Having met Saskia while working as a skipper on private yachts in the Seychelles, Harry decided to return to the area where he grew up.

Being so at peace with nature is important to the conservationist who is working with the World Wildlife Fund and the government‘s Work For Water programme to eradicate wattles along river courses and tributaries in the area.

Harry is also following a course of natural healing under the guidance of a Humansdorp-based Sangoma.

“It‘s called Twaza which means the path of natural healing,” he explained. “I want to facilitate the natural healing philosophy by allowing people to pick up crystals in the mountains and experience what it feels like to walk through the mountain sage fields. We want to get the family unit together which we think is healthy. It‘s also a way of getting them environmentally educated.”

After a good night‘s sleep on mats on the tepee‘s carpeted floor we woke to the sounds of chirping birds and a bubbling brook to witness the first rays of daylight reach the top of the tents, feeling invigorated – something of a must for all concrete jungle-dwellers.

So it was with regret we said goodbye to our Indian hideaway and made our way up the steep mountain road and back to cellphone reception and civilisation as we knew it.

The awe and new-found respect for nature, however, would not be dulled anytime soon.

bhayward@johnnicec.co.za

Life