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While for many, the Festive Season vacations are coming to an end, for a select few, especially visitors not bound to school holiday scheduling, the New Year heralds the beginning of a brand-new travel season! In an extension of the MTPA festive travel campaign we continue to profile #MpumalangaBeyondWildlife, showcasing several lesser known and some smaller towns to visit in the Mpumalanga province, don’t miss the last two inserts in the MTPA #KnowYourSmallTown Festive travel campaign.

Belfast

A popular destination for angling and fly-fishing enthusiasts, Belfast offers an abundance of trout fishing with well stocked dams and suppliers in the area and nearby surrounds. Forming part of the Mpumalanga trout triangle that includes Dullstroom and Waterval-Boven, the grassveld district of Belfast is also known as one of the highest towns in South Africa home to cattle, diary and sheep farming. Over and above livestock, Belfast is also native to the World’s largest bulb grower responsible for distributing more than 6 million tulip and daffodil bulbs each year, showcasing their magnificent merchandise in a spectacular display during the springtime. Due to its high altitude and unique landscape, Belfast can also be one of the coldest locations in South Africa especially in the peak winter months running between May and August each year. While it can be bitterly cold, most accommodations are well equipped to keep guests and visitors warm and toasty while making up for the bite of a cold winter’s night with some of the clearest skies and most magnificent stargazing opportunities around.

Chrissiesmeer

Located in the Msukaligwa Local Municipality of Mpumalanga, Chrissiesmeer was one home to the San and the Tlou-tle people who were renowned for living on rafts in the surrounding areas around 1 500 years ago. Pinned in the centre of South Africa’s largest lake district, Chrissiesmeer forms part of a wetland and grassland area and can be found on the northern banks of South Africa’s largest natural body of freshwater, Lake Chrissie. Encircled by some 270 lakes and pans all located within a 20km radius, as one would imagine, the area is exploding with lush indigenous fauna and flora as well as a thrilling selection of birding including 82 water bird species and more than 100 other species for the avid bird spotter log. With a variety of things for visitors to do in its vicinity, tourists will enjoy exploring the Randell's Ranch Tractor Museum as well as venturing along the Rainbow Route that links the province of Mpumalanga to KwaZulu-Natal. Others may also enjoy learning more about the history of Alexander McCorkindale and the 70-odd Scots who in 1866 settled in the region with the intention of establishing a New Scotland Republic or the tragic love story about Lieutenant Arthur William Swantson, who died during the Anglo-Boer War and was sent flowers annually on the occasion of his death by his fiancée in England and where locals still continue the tradition to this day.

eNtokozweni

Following a prestigious name change from Geluk to Machadodorp and now known as eNtokozweni, for a brief time during the Second Boer War the town was known as the country’s capital when the Transvaal Volksraad were forced to make the town their temporary seat, using railway carriages as their offices and mint after they had to evacuate Pretoria in the face of a British invasion, eNtokozweni or Machadodorp as it’s still referred to by some, welcomes visitors to various activities including a two day hike along the Escarpment Trail, a two to five day excursion along the Num-Num trail, an overnight stay on the Bermanzi trail as well as angling at the local fly-fishing club or horseback riding through the beautiful surrounds.