As with every trip to the Dullstroom area, it all starts with the packing, a bit of a mission but it all gets done and you hit the road from Johannesburg. The roads were traffic-free and really they are in excellent condition, only had to dodge one pothole just outside Belfast.
The sand road to the farm was a bit hectic but once you get there you tend to suddenly remember to breathe, and what a good feeling it is. The farm is in stunning condition after good rains, the grasses are green, flowers are flowering everywhere, insects are hatching bringing the birds to life in all their splendour.
Sunrises are always splendiferous and sitting on the veranda with a cup of coffee and pondering the days fly-fishing brings a smile to the face. As the mist burns off with the rising sun you start hearing the other people in the farmhouse rising from what perhaps must be one of the most restful periods of sleep they have enjoyed in a long time.
The kids start surfacing and within a few minutes, they are making new friends and rekindling long friendships begun at this magic place - The Farm.
The people going fishing are preparing rods, lines, both sinking and floating, waders are donned and float tubes are inflated. and off they go to enjoy a mornings fly-fishing.
The reward that the majority of the people receive when fishing is not only in the catching of a Trout, some of us will blank on the first day, it starts with the joy of casting a good line which only tends to happen once the mind and body reach a state of balance achieved through breathing, relaxing and shaking off the trials and tribulations of the Big Smoke.
It's when that cast flows out from your body, your arm and finally the rod and lands, not in a bomb but gently on the surface of the water, that you know you are in the place and time that you are supposed to exist in, at peace with yourself and the natural beauty of Dullstroom, feeling the warmth of the African sun under the majestic skies of Mpumalanga, South Africa.
