TSHIPISEOriginally known as Chipise, the name of this popular spa resort is said to be a corruption of the Venda name chia fisu, meaning ‘to be hot’, a reference to the 65 °C temperature of the hot spring where it surfaces. Situated among mopane woodlands punctuated with towering baobabs, the resort’s hot mineral pools are not the only attraction, and there is a wide variety of activities and recreational facilities. Game-viewing in the adjacent 2 200-ha Honnet Nature Reserve, which has been stocked with giraffe, sable, tsessebe, blue wildebeest and a variety of other species, can be enjoyed either on horseback or by joining a guided game-viewing drive on. The resort offers a variety of accommodation for those on South African holidays, including the option of sleeping in a reconstructed Venda homestead. WYLLIE’S POORT...is a spectacular natural gateway through the Soutpansberg which was used as a passage from the north by Iron Age people. A nearby Early Iron Age site has been dated at about 1 650 years old. The poort was named after Lieutenant CH Wyllie, who surveyed it for a road in 1904. |
