SPIOENKOP / CHELMSFORD / ITHALA
(4 Days, Self Catering)

Type of Safari: Self Catering/ Self Drive or speak to your tour operator for a guided tour of the Chelmsford - Ithala Route.

Activities: Hiking , Birding, Horse Riding, Game Viewing, Battlefields at Spioenkop, water sports at Spioenkop

Region: This safari first takes you to the Chelmsford Game Reserve, then Spioenkop Game Reserve followed by Ithala in Zululand

How to get there tips:
International Tourists:
Fly in from Johannesburg International airport to Durban airport. Then hire a car or other suitable vehicle. The Midlands Region is suitable for cars. If you wish to camp, you will need to hire camping equipment in Durban.

Self catering accommodation is available at Spioenkop, Chelmsford and various at Ithala ( See CD or Download for details) including Ntshondwe- a great place to stay at this beautiful Game Reserve

It is recommended that you stock up with supplies either in Durban, Pietermaritzburg or Howick .  Petrol and diesel is available.

SPIOENKOP/CHELMSFORD/ITHALA
(4 Days, Self Catering)
DAY ONE
SPIOENKOP
Arrive at Spioenkop and the friendly staff will direct you to your comfortable chalet set amid paper bark thorn trees looking across the water to Spioenkop Mountain. Activities include a gentle walk along the Discovery Trail and a late afternoon drive along the shoreline through a game filled savannah. Pause near the waters edge and watch the sun sink behind the Drakensberg Mountains, mirrored in the waters that frame your view.

DAY TWO
CHELMSFORD
Rising early drive from the reserve around to the other side of Spioenkop Mountain and make your way to the summit. Here you will see the graves and monuments to the Boer and British soldiers who died during two days of bitter fighting, the British trying to lift the siege on Ladysmith and the Boers successfully preventing this. Drive to Ladysmith where the story of the siege and the eventual relief of the town is depicted in its monuments and excellent museum. Head towards Newcastle past Fort Mistake and turn left to Chelmsford on the R210. Chelmsford dam is a large body of water which provides ideal conditions for water skiing and good fresh water angling. Settle into your chalet at the waters edge and in the late afternoon go for a game viewing drive to see herds of springbok, black wildebeest, zebra and blesbok. This is also prime oribi country and Chelmsford boasts a healthy population of this critically endangered antelope.

DAY THREE
NTSHONDWE CAMP
ITHALA GAME RESERVE
This is going to be a long and memorable day as you drive through a beautiful part of the country filled with with the sites of conflicts between the peoples that contested ownership of this land. Blood River, the Zulus and the Boers, Rorke`s Drift, the British and the Zulus, Dundee and Vryheid, the Anglo Boer war. A call at the Talana Museum in Dundee, where its displays will take you through these actions is, well worth it. After you long and eventful, day arrive at Ithala Game reserve where you can relax in your comfortable chalet in Ntshondwe camp and enjoy the bird and animal life in the natural bush setting as you sip your sundowners.

DAY FOUR
NTSHONDWE CAMP
ITHALA GAME RESERVE
An early morning cup of coffee then out into the cool dawn of this beautiful reserve. As you drive slowly along the side of Ngotshe Mountain overlooking the Nghubu basin, the sounds and smells of the bushveld are especially vivid and your route is littered with broken branches, animal droppings and footprints each telling its own tale of the reserve's inhabitants, rhino, elephant, buffalo and leopard and their activities. Brunch at your chalet or at the pool where you can relax and cool off. In the early afternoon head off down the Dakaneni loop to the Pongola River. This deeply incised valley reveals the Mozaan, the oldest rock formation in the world. Here in the rugged wooded valleys with their quartzite dikes, gold was mined until the turn of the last century. Now it is the haunt of the narina trogan and shy waterbuck, the black rhino and elephant. As you make your way back to camp in the fading light, reflect on this beautiful province, its history, scenery and wildlife which have enlivened your past four days and make a resolution to return.