Travel Affordable
The Venda Weekend Getaway Package 3 Days 2 nights
R 2450.00 per person
The package includes 2 nights accommodation with breakfast, Full day tour on the Venda Lifestyle Tour, transport, tour guide and picnic included.
Venda Lifestyle Tour
The lifestyle tour offers a mixture of modern and traditional life in predominantly TshiVenda-speaking areas. It goes through rural villages and end up in Thohoyandou, meaning Head of the Elephant, the capital of Venda and surroundings.
See how and where most rural Venda households grind their maize meal
Follow the N 1 to the north and turn east on the Witvlag-road. Continue on the Witvlag road driving pass macadamia nut, avocado and litchi orchards, pine plantations and saw mills until you reach Maelula village. You are now in the tribal land of the former Venda homeland with its many villages, homesteads and small farms. Continue past villages and mountainous landscapes. After passing the river in Phadzima village, you will see Phadzima mills on the left side of the road. You can visit the mill and experience how village women prepare traditional maize meal – in the very old days two women would have crushed the corn pips in a stamp block in a rhythmic almost dance-like trance.
You will go through Nzelele valley en route to Thohoyandou visit Vhutshilo Mountain school and pop in at Phiphidi waterfalls
Along the R 523 running through the Nzhelele valley towards Thohoyandou/Sibasa, you find Vhutshilo Mountain School on your left side. This is one of the projects that Madi a Thavha supports. You can visit this school and centre for HIV orphans and vulnerable children. The teachers like to show you around and inform you about their work. Then one goes back to the R523 and continue in the direction of Sibasa / Thohoyandou passing Vondo dam with its many crocodiles, brilliant green Tshivhase tea plantationsand the Phiphidi Waterfalls, sacred to some Venda tribes.
Thohoyandou, rural hip fused with modern African brands
Once in Thohoyandou the vibrant capital of the vhaVenda people, a local shopping experience at the old open market reveals an abundance of informal shops between formal shops, hair salons, and road stalls bursting with colour, textures, traditional music discussions on every corner. You can park your car at the Game parking area and take the pedestrian walkway to the old shopping heart of Thohoyandou with itsvariety of traditional foods, traditional doctors with their indigenous medicinal cures, traditional clothingall mixed in a colourful buzz. Ask the street vendors the directions to the old Khoja’ shop and Spar supermarket, both are experiences in its own right.
Thohoyandou means Head of the Elephant
The Thohoyandou Arts and Culture Centre sit on the R524, the road between Louis Trichardt/Makhado and Punda Maria gate of the Kruger National park. Here, prolific artist Avhashoni Mainganye and his studentscreate and test various mediums to sculpt, paint, etch, print or photograph. Still in the vicinity of Thohoyandou our tour guide Musa (only he!) knows how to find artist and jeweler Japhter Luvhimbi, who creates marvelous chunky jewelry from indigenous wood, sure to become a conversation piece for anyone donning his “wearable” art
We travel back home via Tshakhuma fruit market
To go home to Madi a Thavha will be taking the R524 going west and continue straight towards Tshakuma/ Louis Trichardt. Do stop at Tshakuma open market with its abundant fruit and vegetables stalls on both sides. You can buy fresh seasonal fruits of the subtropical Levubu valley at this vibrant 24/7- market and can have interesting conversations with the villagers who run the market.One can also visit artist Mishark Raphalaninext to the open market at Tshakhuma. From the market you drive back to Louis Trichardt / Makhado and Madi a Thavha.
Mangos, Guavas, Avocados and bananas from the region