Jacana Country Homes and Trails - Accessible Adventure in the Heart of the Country. Africa, wildlife and outdoor destinations such as the Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, Gods Window, Blyde River Canyon. For adventure, farm stays, mountain biking, horse riding, hiking, camping, birding, game viewing, wildlife experiences, photography, and other activities. Accommodation such as lodges, bungalows, tents, chalets, camps, guesthouses, camping. Visit South Africa's game reserves, national parks, reserves, bushcamps and cultural villages.

"Accessible Adventure in the Heart of the Country"

PO Box 95212, Waterkloof, 0145
Tel: (012) 3463550/1/2 Fax: (012) 3462499
E-mail: jacana@lia.co.za

  • Affordable activity holiday getaways, right on your doorstep.
  • Choice hiking and horse trails on private farms.
  • Ideal self-drive tour accommodation.

    • First, the person behind the concept . . .
    A passion for country life. A genuine concern about conservation of the natural and cultural heritage. An adventurous spirit. A practical, businesslike approach to transforming dreams into reality. And perseverance - which also characterised her Afrikaner pioneer ancestors. That's Sarie Mehl, herself born and bred in the heart of the country, who founded Pretoria-based Jacana Country Homes and Trails in 1991. Since then, she's expanded the Jacana network to include over 120 places that could now provide all the overnight stops for a continuous journey across South Africa between the Limpopo River and Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve.

    Jacana Country Homes and Trails - Accessible Adventure in the Heart of the Country. Africa, wildlife and outdoor destinations such as the Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, Gods Window, Blyde River Canyon. For adventure, farm stays, mountain biking, horse riding, hiking, camping, birding, game viewing, wildlife experiences, photography, and other activities. Accommodation such as lodges, bungalows, tents, chalets, camps, guesthouses, camping. Visit South Africa's game reserves, national parks, reserves, bushcamps and cultural villages.

    The concept . . .
    Jacana's slogan pretty well sums it up: "Accessible Adventure in the Heart of the Country".


    The carefully selected accommodation - which includes many lovingly restored historical buildings typically located on working farms owned by conservation-minded people - is an integral part of the Jacana experience. Most of these places offer, besides glimpses of and participation in aspects of contemporary South African farming life, one or more accessible adventure activities. These include: day-rambling, backpacking, abseiling, kloofing, horse riding, mountain bicycling, canoeing, and fly-fishing. Adventure activities in close proximity to Jacana accommodation ranges from bungi-jumping and whitewater rafting to scuba-diving and whale-watching.

    Jacana Country Homes and Trails - Accessible Adventure in the Heart of the Country. Africa, wildlife and outdoor destinations such as the Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, Gods Window, Blyde River Canyon. For adventure, farm stays, mountain biking, horse riding, hiking, camping, birding, game viewing, wildlife experiences, photography, and other activities. Accommodation such as lodges, bungalows, tents, chalets, camps, guesthouses, camping. Visit South Africa's game reserves, national parks, reserves, bushcamps and cultural villages.

    Jacana farms are in themselves destinations; but they are also used either as a base to explore points of interest within comfortable day-trip radius, or as destinations or stopovers on extended sightseeing or activity holiday journeys. Presently, Jacana accommodation is used on popular Heart-of-the-Country circuits in Mpumalanga, the historic battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal, in a circumnavigation of Lesotho - that takes in KwaZulu-Natal (with a side excursion up Sani Pass and onto the Roof of Africa), the Eastern Cape and the Eastern Free State, and on countrywide tours, including self-drives.

    The Trails

    Rambling and backpacking
    Jacana promotes more than 30 self-guided hiking trails. Some are day excursions; others take up to five days to complete. Environments range from the semi-arid Karoo and the sandstone mountain country of the Eastern Free State to the green hills of KwaZulu-Natal's historic battlefields and the subtropical bushveld of Mpumalanga and Northern Province. Some of these trails are popular also among abseiling and rock climbing enthusiasts.

    Horse riding
    Jacana is able to book any existing horse trail in South Africa. Custom-made packages throughout the country can also be arranged, with transfers if required. Options include a leisurely day trail easily reached from Pretoria and Johannesburg, rides through the deep Zululand or Waterberg bush and over the misty hills of Mpumalanga and wild mountains in the heart of Lesotho. Both novice and veteran riders make regular use of these trails.

    Mountain bicycling
    There are rides suitable for every level of proficiency. The big sky country of Marquard in the Eastern Free State alone offers a dozen different trails. Jacana also provides choice accommodation during annual MTB events such as the Cherry Trail Challenge and the Koranna Two Mountain Rodeo. Riders can enjoy challenging rides on a bushveld farm near Potgietersrus or high up near the Steenkampsberg mountain range near Roossenekal.

    Quality Control
    Jacana is about innovation, variety and affordability. It's equally about quality. Quality control begins with Sarie herself, who personally visits, examines and evaluates every country place she includes in her portfolio. Afterwards, she periodically carries out audits to ensure continued conformance with quality standards. Many of Jacana's getaways are situated within conservancies and several have the added status of having been declared a National Heritage Site.

    Affordability
    1998 prices range from as little as R50 (self-catering) and R145 (dinner, bed and breakfast) to R250 (self-catering) and R495 (full catering). With such excellent prices, even a family of five in the middle-income bracket can afford to go on a national tour during their annual holiday. A higher-income honeymoon couple may, on the other hand, reserve an entire farmhouse in a choice locality at a cost well below that of shared accommodation in a three-star hotel. Jacana is not just about farm accommodation; it's about a new way of thinking about travel, and about a formerly unimagined range of leisure possibilities.

    Jacana Country Homes and Trails


    Country Places Networking
    Jacana's own selection of over 120 country places is complemented, through a collaborative arrangement with Underberg Hideaways (Drakensberg area), by 30 more options of accommodation.

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    Adventure Geographic Network
    Jacana is an Adventure Partner in Adventure Geographic Network (AdgeoNet), through which is linked a wide spectrum of adventure options and operators in sub-Saharan Africa. For updates on the Network's extensive portfolio and other useful adventure travel information, page to the AdgeoNet Newsletter.

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