Phalaborwa, Limpopo - Thunder rumbled in the distance. The skies were ominously dark, thick with clouds. Our party, mounted on elephants, ambled single file along the dirt path in the Kapama Game Reserve in Limpopo, one of South Africa’s biggest private reserves.
The handlers herding the elephants egged them on to walk faster. Mine started what passed for a trot and, just as we returned to the original starting point, small specks of water fell from the sky, soft at first, then rapidly increasing in size and frequency until finally fat drops splattered down, thoroughly drenching us within minutes. It was the perfect way to experience a lowveld thunderstorm.
For the communities living around Hoedspruit, the summer rains mark an important time on their calendar. The rain marks the beginning of marula season, when the oval-shaped fruit drops from the ancient trees and turns from green to a pale yellow in the 35ºC sun. As soon as the fruit has ripened on the ground, the harvesting starts.
On our visit to the Amarula Lapa, not far from the mining town of Phalaborwa, we were told how people from miles around gather the fruit and take it to various collection points where they are paid R30 for a sack weighing 45kg.
It’s estimated that R1.8-million is injected into the local informal economy each year through the harvesting of marula fruit, benefiting some 60 000 people and their families. And in case you’re wondering if all the fruit ends up becoming liqueur, no – apparently only 0.1 percent of that in southern Africa.
On a sponsored trip, it was only to be expected that we would get to taste the product in its various forms and we did – Amarula in coffee (very nice), cake, Dom Pedro (a firm favourite) and in rooibos tea, also surprisingly nice. I particularly enjoyed eating the fruit for the first time – a piquant burst on the tastebuds, halfway between a litchi and a loquat. No doubt the high vitamin C content is what makes it so tart.
The rains had come early and we missed seeing the throngs of people coming to weigh their bags and drop off their fruit at the Amarula processing plant. We took a look around the production centre, also near Phalaborwa, where the fruit is destined and reduced to pulp. It is then stored in cooling tanks, where it is kept below 6ºC, and then eventually transported to Distell’s plant in Stellenbosch where fermentation and distillation take place. The liqueur then spends two years ageing in French oak barrels, after which the last, but vital, ingredient is added: fresh cream.
Enjoying the abundance of wildlife at Kapama River Lodge where we stayed, was the most enjoyable part of the trip. On one game drive with our ranger Kevin and tracker Mpho, we saw an enormous herd of buffalo bathing in a dam, frolicking with their young as if no one was watching. We saw a black-maned lion roaring protectively near his female mate, the most majestic sound in God’s creation. I delighted in seeing all the young – baby warthog, a tiny vervet monkey clinging to its mother and testing its climbing skills on a treetop, a baby elephant nursing from its mother.
The cuisine at the lodge was top notch, made from fresh seasonal ingredients and herbs grown in the lodge gardens. Dining al fresco in the dry riverbed under the African night sky was also a memorable experience.
There was plenty of opportunity for relaxing, too. Some members of our party were pampered at the lodge’s spa, where the knots and stresses of life were massaged away in the most exquisitely calm setting. I preferred to swim in the rimflow pool as my mother and I speculated about whether it was a log we saw in the distance or a crocodile. (It was in the same spot the following day, so my guess is a log.)
And of course the elephant interaction was the highlight. Although Amarula marketing manager Christelle Bester insists the animals do not get drunk on fermented marula, they are fond of the fruit. We met Jabulani, the elephant who started the orphan herd at Camp Jabulani, and discovered how incredibly intelligent and sensitive these creatures are.
Jabulani was barely a year old when he became trapped in mud near Phalaborwa. His herd tried in vain to rescue him and he ended up in the care of Kapama’s Lente Roode. After attempts to reintegrate him into the wild failed, Roode decided to bring in a herd of elephants that had been left homeless by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s farm invasions. All the adult elephants at Camp Jabulani are orphans, although they have integrated to form a herd and have produced young.
The climactic lowveld thunderstorm was a fitting end to our trip. We left with a greater understanding of how important marula fruit is to the community.
My most abiding memory of our time in Limpopo is of a lone giraffe who came wandering into the clearing outside our hotel suite. He was so busy browsing from a tree that he didn’t mind my stepping on to the balcony to photograph him. After taking a few shots, he looked directly at me in a curious, unchallenging way and then loped off. It was experiencing wildlife like this – in such an unguarded manner – that made the trip worthwhile.
- Weekend Argus
l Graham was a guest of Distell