Weekend Escape: A magical Limpopo forest

Woken by bird song, Nancy Richards gets rocked in Limpopo treetops

'If a tree falls over a path, we detour the path or cut a section through the trunk. If it's small enough, we just lift it off."

David Letsoalo talks us through the cool interior of the tightly woven Woodbush and it's clear you don't take ownership of a forest, you work with it. And you watch.

A strangler fig will sink its roots into a Cape chestnut and eventually overpower it, but monkeys like the chestnut's fruit, so they'll scatter the seeds, the night time bushpigs will feed on what they've left behind - and this is how it goes. When someone points out details to you, nature is amazing.

The wooden cabin where we spend the night, deep in the thick of it all, is raised high in the canopies and we've been warned that roof noises will probably just be bushbabies landing. Sitting with our eco-light on the wooden deck, we stare out into the heart of forest darkness, but sadly we don't see any. Inside, the chopped alien logs in the fireplace crackle merrily, the gas stove hisses under our cooking supper and it feels good to know that, for this night at least, our carbon footprint will be at an all-time low because Kurisa Moya (meaning tranquil spirit in Shangaan or uplift your spirit in sePedi) has a five-star rating in the Rough Guide's Clean Break top eco-lodges of the world. But less is so more and with no distractions other than the living, breathing branches, we sleep like bushbabies in the day time.

In birding circles, Letsoalo is a living legend, so next morning we're very bucked to have him and Paul Nkhumane take us through the hour-long Umsenge trail that winds its way through the hanging, knotted growth, out-gnarling anything in Avatar-land. We're on our way to meet the giant cassonia that features in Thomas Pakenham's In Search of Remarkable Trees. Letsoalo stops in his tracks, "Bird party!" he says, pointing upwards to where there's a corporate fluttering - "chorister robin - drongo, bushshrike, batis, bulbul . "

He's lost me, but he and Nkhumane compare colours of eye rings and under wings and we feel the magic. The cassonia, thought to be between 800 and 1000 years old, is indeed remarkable. Filled with received knowledge, the Umsenge hour has flown like a flycatcher.

We're more than ready for the breakfast that owner Lisa Martus has laid out for us on the stoep of the old five-bedroomed farmhouse on the property - fresh fruits, Tzaneen tea, nutty brown toast and organic tangy rosemary cheese from the nearby Wegraakbosch factory. We look out over valley and mountains - and the road that shortly we'll need to travel to get back to the airport, more's the pity. But the prospect of a return visit is high, Lisa does cranio-sacral touch therapy and is involved in the Thomas Kubai legend-collecting project, so solace and stories beckon. For further temptation she takes us up to another spot high up, to the Thora Boloka (dream house) overlooking the infinite Koedoes River Valley built by her late husband Ben. If ever there were a place to stay and repair your broken spirit, this is it.

WHERE IS IT

Take the N1 out of Jo'burg, about 45 minutes from Polokwane on the R71 towards Tzaneen. Take the slipway left to the University of Limpopo, drive 26km. 500m after the tar becomes dirt, turn right and follow the signs.

WHY GO THERE

For the benefit of your soul and lessons in life as nature intended - without Eskom.

WHAT ELSE

It's a birders' and fishermen's paradise, ditto for hikers and abseilers. For body-and-soul sorts, aside from on-site cranio-sacral energy unblocking therapy, there's a string of alternative healers in the area, including a Growth Centre offering "reiflexology" (mix of reiki and reflexology) and doula courses with midwife and trainer Jacky Bloemraad-de Boer.

WHAT'S MORE

Your stay benefits the planet:

• Accommodation is solar and gas powered and there's an invasive alien plant removal plan.A carbon-offsetting programme includes donations of indigenous trees to local schools, where David Letsoalo also encourages interest in the environment.
• The Ben de Boer Trust facilitates training for bird guides in the community.
• Visits available to meet local artists, sculptors and food producers.

RATES AND CONTACT DETAILS

From R560-R800 pp per night sharing in two forest lodge cabins, the farmhouse or Thora Boloka. Phone 0152761131/0822004596 or visit www.krm.co.za.