The quiet life in Golden Gate Highlands National Park

The internship aside, a large part of what you experience as part of this program is life in a South African national park. You could come here as a tourist and sure, you would be able to see the stunning vistas, herds of zebra grazing in the veld, the way the sun glows an incredible shade of gold on the sandstone cliffs – giving Golden Gate its name. But there are so many more things to experience that a few days holiday would never know.

It’s a peaceful lifestyle here. We are about an hours drive to the nearest shopping district of Bethlehem, besides the quaint ‘arty crafty’ town of Clarens, which is beautiful and interesting, but expensive for one living savings. So we only head into town once a week to pick up some shopping in our beaten up 1983 Golf with only one headlight and taillight, no air con or radio and no back seatbelts (which doesn’t sound like it, but is a blessing to have, really). The rest of the time, when not at work, we spend enjoying this wonderful landscape.

Evenings are spent cooking up a simple dinner and relaxing (sometimes with a glass of wine) at our humble coffee/dinner table, looking out of our only window to the glorious sandstone buttress on the other side of the valley. Weekends are spent going horse-riding through the veld, or taking one of the hiking trails up to the high mountain fields. Sometimes we head into Clarens to enjoy a quiet drink with friends and other staff and chat about things that matter to people here – the weather mostly. But usually we just sit out the front of our small but cosy flat, talking over a cuppa and watching the hartebeest frolicking through the long grass in the veld across from our place as the sun sets behind the ridge.

Yeah, it’s a quiet life, and that’s both a pleasure and a frustration at times, but it’s definitely worth it. And it’s an opportunity that I wouldn’t have had if not for this program.

Written by: Danie Lomas (GVI Intern Golden Gate Highlands National Park)

Date posted: 12/03/2011

The quiet life in Golden Gate Highlands National Park