Many Tributes To Sabiepark, by Different Poets & Authors, Who have Places Of Honour On Walls

Food for the soul

I‘ve been treasuring the 2001 calendar of the foot and mouth painters for the past few years at Tarlehoet. Underneath a mouth painting by one, T Webster, an anonymous quotation caught my eye. “In every form of nature is a sound. Listen only with your heart.”

The Bushveld is a place where you have to listen like that. With your heart. All seasons. Any time of the day or night. The game, the bird life, the trees, trees, trees; the thickly wooded banks of one of South Africa’s most beautiful rivers – these jewels speak to one in a tongue which falls sweetly upon ear AND heart.

To some, it is sufficient to listen and drink in these sounds of the heart. Others are compelled to react. They cannot resist the urge to express themselves in creative ways. Artists produce their brushes, poets play with words, authors draw their inspiration from the earth. Photographers find new themes, motives and subjects every day.

Tarlehoet, and the homes of friends, display a wide variety of paintings, sketches, framed photos, photo-albums, diverse scrapbooks, sketchbooks, diaries and visitors’ books in which the art and creativity are expressed of folk who have been touched and inspired; people who employ words, paint or pictures to reflect their love of nature.

Among the numerous photos and reproductions on the walls of Tarlehoet are two paintings. One, a bushbaby at full moon, is by Johan Coetzer of the Bottega Gallery in Oudtshoorn. The second, a camouflaged leopard, is by Elize Genis of Windhoek. The caption is: “Was he there?” Both paintings, inspired by Sabiepark, were gifts on my 60th birthday on 3 January 2001.

 Our Sabie park bush “brotherhood”

Johan’s work is the result of a coffee visit on 8 July 1999 on the stoep at Tarlehoet. In our visitors’ book he and his wife, Alet, wrote: “Thank you for the delicious coffee. Hope next time we’ll be in time for the bushbabies.” Eighteen months later the parcel marked “fragile” arrived unexpectedly. The bushbaby. Elize, in turn, painted the leopard after I told her the story of the first visit by one of the big cats at our new bush hideout, where such exhilarating visits were not anticipated.

Various “bush artists” may be found from time to time with their canvases and easels, especially along the hikers’ trial and at the picnic spot. Two of them we met in a special way: Lordick Sibuyi and Frederick Nel. We raise our caps (with guineafowl feathers) high for the guts and perseverance demonstrated by both of them.

Lordick was a member of a patrol, the so-called “Guwela”, that watches over the entire Sabiepark every day, with eagle eyes. In one respect he differed from his “Guwela” colleagues: what he saw by day, he drew at night, on any piece of paper he could find. The indefatigable Lordick confronted me one day and pressed a pack of papers and sketches into my hand. I thought his creations were promising. The positive values and conservation lessons he taught in picture form – he called them “scriptures” – impressed me. Tokkie and I gave him a sketchbook and a set of coloured pencils as a present. He thanked us later with a few new sketches.

My journalistic interest was aroused. I sent examples of his work to the TV programme 50/50, to the pay-TV-station M-Net and the Sunday paper City Press, and suggested that an artist in “Guwela” uniform would be a good story subject. Come to Sabie, I invited them, come and walk with Lordick in the bush. See what he sees. Then show your viewers and/or readers a child of nature’s impressions, relayed with fresh originality. Evidently, my “marketing” was not persuasive, or maybe Lordick’s sketches were not quite as good as I thought. Our bush “brotherhood” had perhaps influenced my judgement. I never received a reply. The sketches were not returned either.

A BUSHBABY in a tree at full moon. The artist is Johan Coetzer of Oudtshoorn.

A HOOPOE feeding her babies in a fig tree. A sketch by Lordick Sibuyi.

One holiday, Lordick's brilliant white-tooth smile was not there to welcome us on arrival. Evidently, he overstepped the mark at a party in the compound. He drew a fire-arm and swung it around. He lost his job and, for all practical purposes, disappeared from the face of the earth. Only in May 2004, several years later, I heard from him again. I received a letter posted in Ximhungwe in Mpumalanga. On the envelope was a creative combination of our Sabiepark and Cape addresses. That it reached me at Melkbos was a miracle. The neat letters in capitals were signed by Lordick P Sibuyi.

Lordick wrote that he still sketched and wrote, and still dreamt of having his work published. He wanted to bring home his love of nature to those who were destroying it, “the ones who only thought of money when they saw a lion, and only thought of meat when they saw a duiker”. To keep the pot boiling, he was doing work that, in his words, was smothering his creative spirit. He did not say what it was, but he mentioned that he had passed a course in paramedics in the meantime. His closing message was typical of the man I got to know at Sabiepark: “Nature is good. Conserve what God has given.”

EAGLE. A sketch by the youthful Frederick Nel.

When I met Frederick Nel, he was 13 and in grade 8 at Montana High School in Pretoria. The meeting was at Trosvy (formerly Bosveld), the Sabiepark home of his grandpa and grandmother, our good friends Frik and Martie Nel. This brave boy had weathered many storms in his life. He was one of about 50 people in the world who had a hereditary illness, similar to marble-bone-illness. At that stage he had already undergone 15 head operations. The illness caused his bones to grow inward too quickly. One result: he had strong arms and legs which did not fracture easily. Another: the skull bone’s quick growth put pressure on the brain. That caused his facial muscles to contract unevenly. The doctors had to remove his skull regularly, and abrade it on the inside, to make space for the brain and nerves.

The pressure on the brain would make participation in sports life-threatening

He could not play rugby or jump on a trampoline like other boys. He could not even run around without risk. In addition, Frederick couldn’t hear well, because the delicate bones in the ear had also thickened. His supportive family had helped him to adapt to his circumstances, he bravely stated.

The afternoon we met him, it soon became evident that his good-looking twin sister, Clarise (the girl who almost collided with an elephant on the hikers’ trail), and lively younger brother, Schalk, were proud of their brother. “Come along, Frederick, show uncle Hennie and auntie Tokkie your drawings,” they urged him. A blushing Frederick coyly brought his sketchbook. Tokkie and I were surprised. Every kind of animal – elephant, giraffe, kudu, warthog and many more – were drawn with sensitivity and accuracy.

Sabiepark was his inspiration, he declared. “I enjoy Sabiepark tremendously. I love the animal life and nature. I love drawing. The picnic spot and swimming pool are my favourite places. I deeply enjoy my hobby, my family and nature that Jesus gave to us.” The words flowed from his mouth like water from a fountain.

At my request, Frederick made a few sketches of Sabiepark scenes, and of animals he adored. The request caused him “a few headaches”, because Sabiepark offers such a wide variety. “What shall I choose?” After a few tries, he decided on a sketch of the entrance and an animal portfolio, which included a variety of birds.

In grade 11, on the evening of his and Clarise’s 16th birthday party at the home of their grandparents in Pretoria, he fell ill and sadly died that same night. Sabiepark misses the familiar face of this talented boy a lot. What a star Frederick was!

Many tributes to Sabiepark, by different poets and authors, have places of honour on walls. The author and TV personality Pieter Pieterse was among the ones who contributed, before he was murdered in the private reserve Marloth Park, near Malelane. To many, the Bushveld epitomizes the following piece written by Pieterse (translated by George Holloway) in his book Boude en blaaie:

This is the place where sun by day

Is sharper with its stinging ray

Than any place I can recall.

The stars so close to earth did fall.

A place where heartache lives with joy,

A place to love, for girl or boy.

A longing that becomes a part,

A loyal part of an aching heart.

Marloth Park, where he met his death, is situated on the Crocodile River between Malelane and the Kruger rest camp Crocodile Bridge. Marloth Park is in several ways similar to Sabiepark. It is also situated next to a river (the Crocodile) bordering the Kruger Park. It does not have fences and the game roam freely. It is not as close to a entrance gate of the Kruger, however. Access cannot be controlled as effectively, on account of a public road that cuts through it. It is much more commercialised, with lodges, guest houses, shops and even estate agencies. Both private parks have their loyal followers. I am naturally a rock-solid Sabieparker, who will not exchange for any amount of money. But I accept that there are people in Marloth Park who feel the same about their place. To each his own.