Rosemary Fourie and Lorraine Lourens meet us at reception. “How experienced are you in the saddle?” I shuffle uncomfortably. I’m hardly the Lone Ranger. I clamber onto a robust Boerperd called Pelgrim and hope for the best.
“We’ve got 350 horses,” Lorraine tells me. She helps out here when they offer youth camps for young riders. “Some are completely wild and others are used for riding and breeding.”

As we set off, the horses walk past a herd of eland. They keep a close eye on us. Rosemary, a horse expert, came to get practical experience here, but enjoyed it so much she stayed on.
Springbok and blesbok graze in large herds of between 20 and 40 animals, and a few ostriches are also hanging around.

“Shall we gallop?” Rosemary asks. My pride is greater than my fear and I agree. I’m not nearly as elegant as Prince Charles in his polo-playing days, but I do fall into a rhythm (kind of).
We stop at a mini Serengeti – a grassy plain where lots of animals are grazing. In the distance we can see hundreds of gemsbok, springbok, black wildebeest, ostrich and eland.

Cost: R100 an hour. You can negotiate a price for a full-day ride.
Go! says: Gamewatching by motorised vehicle or horsedrawn cart costs R100 per person.

Shelton Kanyoka comes to collect us at the lodge at 6 am.
There are eight meerkat colonies on the farm and the one we’re going to visit has 11 adults and eight babies. We stop about 20 paces away from the colony.

A few of the meerkats stand upright on their back legs, on the lookout for predators. “They come out to warm up  in the sun, but only if it’s safe. They lose a lot of heat in their burrows during the night,” Shelton explains. Late after­noon they also bask in the last rays before retiring for the night.
“The group has a dominant female, usually. Only the domi­nant pair mate, and if any of the others want to start a family, they have to leave the colony.”

Shelton cracks open an egg. They eat mainly insects, but love egg yolk. Two tuck in.

Cost: R100 per person.

The 1,4 km walk to the cave takes about 40 minutes. Just follow the signposts – if you don’t you’ll lose your way (as we did).There’s a steep little climb over rocky ground at the end – so it’s best to wear hiking boots. It’s truly worthwhile, because of the lovely view over the valley.

Moolmanshoek also offers multi-day trails for serious hikers who want to climb Visierkerf: The Waterkloof Trail can take two days (21 km) or three (33 km). Hikers sleep over at Langesnek and in a mountain hut.
The Sphinx Trail of 15,3 km is a two-day hike. It incorporates a section of the Waterkloof Trail.

Cost: Hiking either the Water­kloof Trail or the Sphinx Trail costs R114 per person per day, plus a R45 one-off admin fee.
Contact: 0861 522 262
Go! says: Hike early to avoid the blazing sun, and make sure you have sunscreen, lots of water and a hat.

“Rather do it again than overdo it,” says Niklaas as we tackle a particularly steep hill.
I can see nothing ahead but blue sky. I can hear the tyres struggling to get a grip on the rock beneath the vehicle. Niklaas is driving the bakkie. Wiesman Nel, Willie’s son, is sitting in the passenger seat, his leg in a plaster cast (he fell from a horse a few weeks ago). He doesn’t seem fazed at all, but I’m panic-stricken: I have no idea where we are going; all I know is that this is one incredibly steep hill.

I don’t think any vehicle is capable of making it up an incline like this. But the bakkie manages to inch up the rock. And then we’re at the top. Phew! There are four 4x4 trails on the farm. We’re on the Kloof Route (20 km, 4-5 hours), and according to Wiesman this is a Grade 3 route. They go up to Grade 5, but for the average guy with a bit of experience, 3 is just right. “But it depends on whether or not it’s wet, because then it becomes Grade 4.” Other routes are Langesnek (10 km, 2-3 hours), Kiepersol Garden (8 km, 2-3 hours) and Suikerhoek (7 km, 2 hours).
We drive down another steep hill as a few horses clatter past, whinnying. And then we’re on a plateau and looking out over the valley. Beautiful.

Cost: R200 per vehicle.
Go! says: If you tackle the 20 km Kloof Trail, stop at the Shower Pool on the way back.  There’s a waterfall shower.

The air smells of wet earth. Thunder clouds rumble and fat rain drops splatter onto the grass, the leaves, the roof. The wind rustles through the trees. And although there are more than 230 species of birds to be found here at Moolmanshoek, I don’t hear a peep.
I’m standing on the stoep of the lodge at this private reserve in the eastern Free State near Ficksburg. It’s beautifully green, and even though it’s raining it’s a warm, balmy, lovely summer rain.

I can make out Visierkerf (2 407 m), a peak in the Witte­berge. At the two Pyramids and Jacobsberg, a white bolt of lightning cleaves the air. Although there’s lots to do at this reserve, I’m quite happy to stand here on the stoep and admire the view. In moments like this, the magic of Moolmanshoek hits home.

Starting in 1996, Willie Nel gradually turned his farm, Moolmans­hoek, into a nature reserve, his son-in-law Niklaas Arangies tells me.
Niklaas is married to Willie’s daughter Isabel. He used to be an optometrist, but he decided that he wanted to do missionary work. He met Isabel on the farm when he came here to clear his head, and now they live at Langesnek, a neighbouring farm.
“Willie is a visionary,” he says. “There used to be a shed where the lodge stands today. When the shed burnt down and the roof collapsed on top of the implements stored inside, he decided it was time to convert the farm into a reserve.”

Initially, people were sceptical, but now it’s a fully fledged 330 km2 private reserve.
“They used to farm sheep and cattle here – but now we farm with horses and people,” Niklaas says.
They have about 1 300 animals and 14 species, including eland, ostrich, black wildebeest, plains zebra and springbok. They also have more than 350 horses.
In the reserve, there are horse trails and an award-winning 4x4 trail (voted as one of the top 10 4x4 destinations in the country by our sister title Drive Out for four years in a row).

And then there are the hikes – day trails and multi-day trails.
There’s a meerkat project, a wedding venue and a campsite for team-building and school outings at Langesnek. You can see rock art and go fly-fishing. The farm was named after the first owner of the Moolmans­hoek valley, Petrus Lafras Moolman. When he died in 1904, his four sons decided to sell off part of the land. But you can still see evidence of the Moolmans’ heritage: Two sandstone walls separate a stretch of no-man’s-land – two of the brothers apparently had such a big argument they put up the two walls and nothing was allowed to stray between them. Any animal found in the no-man’s-land was summarily shot. Willie bought the farm in 1980 from his father-in-law.

From Aunt Mitchell’s Cave you can see the whole reserve.
This cave in the foothills of Pyramid 1 (yes, it looks just like a pyramid) is where Dora Mitchell, the wife of one of the former owners, used to enjoy high tea.  It’s clear why she chose this spot: The farm stretches in front of you, with the Witteberg throwing a long sheltering arm around the valley. Animals dot the plains below.
After years of stock farming, the veld has been rehabilitated and it looks almost as wild as it did during Aunt Dora Mitchell’s time (minus the lions, of course).