Over the long weekend of 22-24 June 2007, I participated in a mid-winter Christmas party at the old Sehlabathebe Lodge. We noticed several small spot fires burning on our way up Bushman’s Nek Pass on the Friday. We were not too concerned, assuming they were left over from the burning of fire breaks during the week.

Around midday on the Saturday, a strong north-easterly wind came up and pushed some of the spot fires into the unburnt grass at the top of the pass. Within an hour, a large fire front was advancing towards the lodge with flames several metres high. The horse paddock in front of the lodge lay in its path and we became very concerned that if this burnt out of control, the lodge might burn down. In the meanwhile, a park ranger had radioed for firefighters to be sent out from Sehlabathebe village.

With nothing else happening to fight the fire, and after careful deliberation, we eventually decided to burn the paddock ourselves, starting nearest the lodge. Surprisingly, this went off without a hitch. Our burn slowly made its way against the wind to the far end of the paddock. At last we could relax, although the smoke and ash were very unpleasant.

The Sehlabathebe firefighters arrived with their beaters in the mid-afternoon, and we watched them as they did a sterling job of tackling the blaze. This was all for nothing though, because at 5 p.m. they got on their horses and returned to their village. The fire continued to burn around the lodge the whole night.

On the Sunday, on our way back through burnt-out veld to our starting point at Bushman’s Nek, we passed a large group of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife firefighters dressed in orange overalls. We were impressed by their urgency, but I suspect there was not much left for them to do at the top of the pass where their jurisdiction ends.