Sabiepark Is Accurately Described As “Only A Lion’s Roar From Kruger Gate
The newspaper columnist Zaza (Fichardt) Pieterse and her husband, Jan le Roux Pieterse of the farm Groningen, district Smithfield, discovered Sabiepark in June 1999. They were bubbling with enthusiasm when Tokkie and I met them in Wildevy Avenue; we on our way to the picnic spot, and they on their way back. While having a cup of coffee on the stoep of Tarlehoet, I asked Zaza to put her impressions in writing. This she did in her own characteristic way in an article in Die Volksblad (now only Volksblad) on 1 July of that year.
Under the heading Things in the bush which are calling, Zaza described Sabiepark accurately as “only a lion’s roar from Kruger Gate”. The “houses and thatched roofs (here) are simply built around a large tree, embracing it. As little as possible is disturbed – or removed”. The homes evidently stole her heart. She wrote: “They are beautiful places. When one strolls along the meandering paths, each with the name of a tree, you’ll notice them, far apart, these stone and rough-brick paradises with their thatched roofs that do not clash with any element of the Bushveld.”
My own love for Sabiepark, I also pour out in writing
Before Next door to the Kruger, I wrote an Afrikaans version, Buurman van die wildtuin, in 2004. I wrote another Sabiepark book in 2001, named Halfpad Hemel Toe ( Halfway to heaven). It was a book with a limited circulation, only aimed at family and close friends as “a gift-book and a record of fond memories, on my 60th birthday, two days after the actual start of the new millennium, according to the experts.” Zaza’s contribution was originally recruited for this publication.
Of those who received copies, the title suggested to some that it was a spiritual book. Others thought that “halfway to heaven” referred to my 60 years on earth. A quite optimistic life expectancy! Its origin was, however, something totally different. On the bulky pine coffee table under the old-fashioned solar power roof-fan, in the lounge of Tarlehoet, there are two books: a visitors’ book and a kind of diary. In the latter Tokkie and I, as well as our guests – as we are led by our urges –record our experiences when they are still fresh in the memory. In my gift-book all the inserts are reproduced, somewhat abbreviated and edited here and there. Sabiepark folklore forms part of several chapters. Pieter Pieterse’s elegy on the stars of the Bushveld (from Boude en Blaaie) is there, as well as the touching Psalm 8:3 and 4:
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers –
the moon and the stars you set in place –
what are people that you should think about them ,
mere mortals that you should care for them?
In Apiesdoring Avenue, a little north of Tarlehoet, is Leeuplesier (Lion’s delight). Faan Venter, former principal of Piet Retief High School, was so inspired when he was a guest there that he wrote a poem on Sabiepark by candlelight. His poem below (translated by George Holloway) is an effort at expressing happiness and appreciation:
Our heaven’s name is Tarlehoet,
A place where bad makes room for good.
A bit of heav’n is Sabiepark,
A modern kind of Noah’s ark.
Here there’s a refuge for the soul,
Where spirits broken, are made whole.
A place where man is man,
Where nature thrives, God’s perfect plan.
Bushbabies visiting at night,
And warthogs browsing in the light.
The duiker grazing in the morn,
And zebras resting on our lawn.
Our Sabiepark, our paradise,
Where birds abound and owls are wise.
Where game and humans live in peace,
Where animus and worries cease.
Annalien Steyn, guest of Piet and Verity Möhr, arrived at the following conclusion after a short stay: “Could there be another place on earth like this? Sabiepark steals your heart, it’s bliss.”
Maretha van Wyk, our sister- in-law from Harrismith (now from Brackenfell in the Cape), wrote in our visitors’ book: “A visit to Tarlehoet brings peace of mind and all that’s good.” After a second visit she wrote: “Body and soul found its food on our visit to Tarlehoet.”
Moses Harvey remarked in Science and Religion: “Nature is a book of which God is the author.” Indeed, the godliness of nature has been sung by authors over the ages, more than any other subject. Few Christians who come to the Bushveld do not immediately see anew in nature – even in the tiniest things – the majesty of the Father and His creation.
Many poets have written about the recollections of Job in chapter 39. Everyone, without exception, realised that God is the only provider. Faan Venter – poet principal – wrote the poem below (also translated by George Holloway):
Who taught the lion to catch its prey?
Who taught baboon child to obey?
Who gave the ostrich speed to flee?
Who gave the hawk keen eyes to see?
Who shows the owl its prey by night?
Who gives the sun its wondrous light?
Who dares compete with elephant’s might?
Who gave giraffe the highest height?
Who made the buffalo wild and free?
Who made the mighty boer-bean tree?
Who taught hyenas laugh with glee?
Who gave the whale its home, the sea?
I’ll be like Job, acknowledge Thee,
Know in my heart, the tiny me,
Know that You are king of all
At Thy behest, we stand or fall.
Many entries in our visitors’ book reflect the same deep realisation of God’s hand in nature. One, which deeply touched us, came from an unexpected quarter. The author is my son, Johan, who regards himself as a businesslike, non-emotional person – someone who would rather speak than write, without wasting words. In his only contribution to the book thus far he writes: “A visit to Sabiepark is a unique opportunity for people like us who work and live in a highly competitive society, to become closer to our Creator. In Sabiepark there is no place for materialism or anything concerned with it. It is here that one realises the majesty of the creation and the Almighty Heavenly Father who gives you peace in all matters pertaining to and in your life, and where you’ll find hope and faith in the future.”
A further four testimonies by Tarlehoet guests are listed below:
Nella Jacobs of Centurion: “Here, where one becomes one with nature, can one see and appreciate all the good gifts of God.”
Piet Theron of Bloemfontein: “Your place with the prehistoric sound in its name, is a paradise where man can live close to the earth, the animals and the Creator.”
Maretha van Wyk (as above): “The contrast in size between the spoon-sized little tortoise in the road and the colossal elephant bull in the dense bush, has made me newly aware of the creation.”
Salie de Swardt of Stellenbosch: “Now, after days of rest and renewal, we look in wonder at the majesty of the creation. What wonderful, unfathomable, majestic, Power has created so wide and diversely that we can be astounded by the tiny bushbabies on the front stoep of Tarlehoet and the following morning be amazed at a giraffe mowing the soft leaves in the top of a tree? “
Surely, all this is food for the heart – for the soul, for the connoisseur!