If you think Hoedspruit is a hot and sleepy slowveld village, you’d be right about one thing: It definitely gets hot! But like a block of butter left on a kitchen counter, all your preconceived ideas will melt away as you explore this haven for wildlife and wildlife lovers alike.
So, where does the name come from? In Afrikaans, Hoedspruit directly translates as “hat stream” and unsurprisingly, the origin story concerns a man who lost his hat in a river. His name was Dawid Johannes Joubert and he was the first owner of the farm situated between the Zandspruit and the Blyde River. In 1844, a flash flood dispossessed him of his trusty wide-brim, and he named the farm after this calamity.
Not much changed over the next hundred years until the mid-1900s, when an increase in passengers using the Selati railway between Tzaneen and Komatipoort necessitated additional sidings. The powers that be decided to build a station at Hoedspruit farm, but the building materials were offloaded in the wrong place and the station ended up being built on a neighbouring farm called Berlin. The name was transferred regardless, and thus Hoedspruit the town came to be - born of a pair of comical mishaps more than a century apart.
A mischievous youth
Over the next few decades, a town began to sprout around the misplaced station. First a general dealer and motor repair shop, then the notorious Fort Coepieba - these days the Hoedspruit Hotel. Later, the South African Air Force arrived. All the while, private nature reserves around the Kruger National Park were being developed.
These various influences moulded the town’s early personality: a thoroughfare for safari tourists and a social hub for rangers, farmers, military men and other misfits.
Hoedspruit’s wild persona was characterised, if not defined, by an eccentric man called Van Reenen van Vuuren. In 1970, he was the first warden of Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. He was a maverick and renowned magazine as the second-most dangerous pub in South Africa.
