Matlakeng Herbal Trail

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On a breezy summer's day, the 60-odd grass species of the Eastern Free State ripple as if dancing to their own inner music. Hidden within these grasslands is a wealth of medicinal plants. They are what you hunt for on the Matlakeng Herbal Trail. In the eastern section of the Golden Gate Highlands National Par is the Basotho Cultural Village. The locals know it as Matlakeng - place of the Cape vulture. And in the evenings, you can sometimes catch the downward swoop of this majestic bird of prey as it returns to his sandstone castle after a day spent riding the thermals and hunting for food. It's a living cultural village, celebrating the South Sotho way of life. Once you've met the village captain, stepped into one of his wives' homes to see her working the corn, and listened to the songs of the two-man band, it's time to join the local healer (ngaka) and a social ecologist on the Matlakeng Herbal Trail. Your two-hour walk will take you through the sourgrass veld below the sandstone cliffs, past running streams and exceptional scenery until you return to the village. En route, you will find boontjiesgras (bean grass) used by the Basotho to make traditional tea. You might also encounter Artemisia afra (African wormwood in English, Lengana in Sotho) with its feathery green leaves. It smells like eucalyptus and cures coughs, colds, influenza, earache and loss of appetite. You might also find the cancer bush, the parsley tree, the Bushman poison bulb, the veld orchids, daisies, gladioli and agapanthus - some used for medicine, others for pure beauty that heal the soul. You will learn about how these grasses, roots, herbs and barks cure everything from a sore tooth to an infected eye. And if you want to ward off a summer lightning strike up here in these natural cathedrals, there's even a certain kind of plant for that.