Five Assegais Country Estate Machadodorp

Photographs of Five Assegais Country Estate Machadodorp

Five Assegais Country Estate Prices

Search Places to stay in
South Africa

Click for Interactive map

Email Five Assegais Country Estate Reservations: booksa@madbookings.com

These feature a wide variety of terrain, from ancient grasslands to Yellow wood forests with VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS.
The Five Assegais Fishing Lodge is based around a romantic rambling old stone farmhouse from the turn of the century, nestled in a protective valley overlooking large dams.

Graded 4 star by the TGCSA and AA Highly recommended, the lodge offers an intimate country house atmosphere, that is luxurious, friendly and private.

Five Assegais Country Estate Accommodation

The house has three double bedrooms en-suite and a fourth bedroom also en-suite with two single beds sleeping a total of eight. All beds are equipped with electric blankets and fab linen and loads of soft cushions to ensure a duvet wilderness experience.
Five Assegais Fishing Lodge overlooks a series of four large accessible dams that are lavishly stocked with rainbow, brown and golden trout. Fishing is inclusive of the rate (catch and release) and 2kg fish have been landed!
The lodge is the epitome of 4 star comfy, shabby chic luxuries where one can set aside the troubles of the world.

Candlewood Camp is our most recent addition to the estate. Built on the most spectacular site with views over the Bankspruit gorge and the dramatic waterfall that falls 275 feet.
This ‘green’ camp is not electrified and an old style donkey geyser supplies hot water. The camp accommodates a maximum of 20 persons in two romantic corrugated iron construction style dormitories from the days of the gold rush with a well-equipped kitchen with an internal braai as NO exterior fires are allowed during the wintertime to prevent fires in this pristine grassland.

GOD'S Window Camp:
Gods Window camp is a pleasant start to both our medium to difficult trails. The camp accommodates a maximum of 24 hikers in four separate sleeping huts.
The camp is nestled amongst spectacular ancient sandstone outcroppings that are such a part of the estate.
The camp is electrified and equipped with fridges and stoves, cutlery and a fridge. The camp has great braai areas and we supply an adequate supply of wood.
There is a ladies loo and shower block as well as unisex outdoor canyon showers and loos with a view
Secure parking close to the camp provides easy access and makes this a great place to hike from and return to.

Lodge Facilities And Service

The open plan sitting, dining and kitchen area is perfect for both catered (we provide hearty country fare) and self-catering. The kitchen is fully equipped and the full bouquet of DSTV is available.

TROUT FISHING:
The lodge is a fishing paradise with four large dams heaving with lively fat trout to tempt the sportsman, the weary traveller and lovers of the country. There are four large spring fed crystal clear dams of about 3 hectares profusely stocked with rainbow, brown and golden trout.

HIKING & WALKS:
The estate has been extensively laid out with walking paths and hiking trails that make the spectacular places in the kranse and gorges easily accessible. These self guided paths will allow you to explore places that one can only dream about; they are set out so that you can choose the length of your walk from a ‘nice little walk’ to the full day Escarpment Trail and everything in between.

GAME VIEWING:
The estate is fenced and game is being introduced, already there are many of the unique buck only found on the high veldt, which are distinctive from the game in the low veldt.

TREES:
The estate is also a showcase for a wondrous variety of trees to satisfy the most demanding dendrologist with 109 trees already identified just along the paths.

Directions

Take the N12 from Johannesburg to Witbank, which joins the N4, go past Belfast and take the SECOND turning into Machadodorp.
Go into town over the river and get to a four- way stop by the FNB, turn LEFT on to the R541 to BADPLAAS.
Follow the road for 17.5 kilometres and take the BLOEMFONTEIN turn of to the RIGHT.
This becomes a gravel road, go for 2 kilometres to the T-junction turn LEFT and follow the road, through one farm gate, and follow the signs to the lodge.

About Five Assegais:
For many years this property was neglected, infested with Black Wattle and Eucalyptus plantations, both highly destructive alien invaders that devastated native grassland and gorge habitats.
Now, after eight years of ferocious battling by a dedicated team of Wattle Warriors, the area is virtually free once more from these nasty interlopers.
Now, once again, the Skull Rock is visible and smiles down over the lodge and the whole of the Skurwerand, a natural Stonehenge of ancient weathered rocks that give the mountaintop its name of Scaly Back, is again pristine. And with this clearance, so nature has returned, many more bird and animal species are recolonising their original home. Also the water table has risen dramatically where the purest water gushes again from erstwhile dry springs.

These waters feed a series of lakes, the largest of which sweeps out around the hillside and leads to a set of dammed cascades that will be filled with large feisty trout.

On one side the estate boasts ‘Bride’s Leap’, a magnificent waterfall with a tragic history in its name.
A bride and groom decided to have their wedding photo taken with them posed on the rock that juts out over the cliff. Unfortunately they forgot that wind travels up the face of a cliff and a gust raised the bride’s flowing dress and she was dashed to her death on the rocks below. Distraught, her husband followed her.

The original house, that has been expanded to become the Lodge, was discovered hidden within a Eucalyptus forest, and is rumoured to have belonged the great Oom Paul Kruger, last president of the Boer Republics, though this has yet to be verified.

It certainly was the watering place, an 'uitspan plek', for trek wagons that serviced the Barberton Gold Rush of the 1880s as they finished the long haul up the old Hells Kloof Pass road- now replaced by the highway to Badplaas in the valley below.

Close by is the battlefield of Dalmanutha, where Kruger’s army fought its last pitched battle against the overwhelming odds of the advancing British before the start of the guerrilla campaign.

The complex rock formations provided a home for 200 Boer refugees during the Boer War and hidden on one of the pastures overlooking the road is a carefully concealed sniper post- so well hidden that in seven years of looking it has only been found twice, only to vanish again.

The views from this part of the estate are truly spectacular; from atop the Bobijaanskrans- home to the local hooligan troop of baboon, across the Bankspruit and Komati headwaters, one can just see the mountains of Swaziland in the distance.

Of all the properties along the edge of the plateau Five Assegais is, without doubt, the finest in terms of views and location. It contains several ecobiomes, with high veldt and middle veldt grassland clothing sweeping hillsides, yellow wood gorges with tree ferns and patches of undisturbed natural vegetation.

Phase three of the Estate Development Plan now in place has seen it being fenced and restocked with the sort of game that would have roamed these heights before the arrival of the San People- the original human inhabitants of the place.

Email Five Assegais Country Estate Reservations: booksa@madbookings.com