The Vaalwater area always holds a special place in my heart. Different in a way from the 
Kruger area in that the vegetation is more ‘compact’ and green, it almost gives the feeling of being ‘almost’ in another country, yet only 2 and a half hours from JHB. So when Sandra Nortje, the owner and manager of Olievenhoutsrus invited me to spend a night at their beautiful guest game farm, I jumped at the opportunity. A mere 2 hrs drive from Pretoria, in the heart of the Waterberg mountains, 10 minutes outside the bushveld town of Vaalwater, lies Olievenhoutsrus (roughly translated – Olivewood Rest)
Owned and run by the vivacious Sandra Nortje, Olievenhoutsrus is an oasis in this beautiful bushveld wilderness. This self-catering accommodation has been running for at least 8 years with great success, thanks to Sandra’s background in the hospitality industry and her flair for making her guests feel like family.
Olievenhoutsrus is a lovely peaceful self-catering establishment that has 2 very comfortable rondavals and 2 family cottages that sleep 4 people and 6 people respectively, all in a 
beautiful, well-tended garden setting with full views of the surrounding bushveld. They also have a beautiful fully equipped kitchen in their lapa area that reminded me of my mom’s kitcken when we were younger. The lapa boasts a stunning hard wood dining room table where guests can gather and have dinner together PLUS a nice big screen TV for the guys to watch the rugby or where the kids can watch movies or DSTV (why anyonewould want to do that in the bushveld, I don’t know!
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I was delighted to spend the night in one of the lovely rondavals on this working farm. A two sleeper with a spacious lounge, kitchenette, small comfortable bathroom off the bedroom and my very own little stoep, overlooking the waterhole and feeding troughs where the animals are fed during part of the winter months.
While sitting outside at dusk, with the red sun shining through the dust, contemplating life and deciding what next adventure I wanted to do, a herd of zebra came meandering towards the feeding troughs. Still learning to negotiate my new Nikon camera, I figured the setting was perfect to try out the camera and take a few shots. As I moved closer, so the setting and composition got better and more and more animals started coming. Eventually, between the beating of hooves and the snorting, the animals had worked up the sand and dust to form the perfect backdrop. There were 3 giraffe, a herd of wildbees and nyala and the zebra. My goodness…did I have a field day clicking away. Have a look….
In all the years I have been in the bush and been travelling around, I have never actually seen a real live bush baby. So you can only imagine my excitement when I was sitting outside later that night, to look up into the trees and see this little creature with the biggest eyes looking down at me. My VERY FIRST bush-baby sighting!!! Wow, I was blown away. Sandra later explained that they have a whole group of bush babies which feed at their bird bath in the evenings. I have since learned that the collective nouns for a group of bush babies is a “congress of bush-babies”. (like baboons –but oh-so-much-cuter 
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http://www.vaalwateraccommodation.co.za/
Sandra Nortje : +27 (0)82-657-6262
) hideous lycra pants (that roll down from my non-existent waist line onto my hips every time I bend over!!) and went to a gym class. 
In this time I could see the instructor doing the slight rolling of the eyes and the impatient side to side turn of the head, with the very quite, but distinct clicking of the tongue, (she is a yoga instructor and has to remain very calm and serene
at all times) while I tried desperately to look just a little bit dignified flopping all over the place. To 
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