Where wild fantasies come alive
• The Ultimate Playground offers visitors a chance to test themselves
It felt like we had been inserted into a scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now as we heard the whirring rotor blades coming from a fair distance behind us. It wasn’t long before we caught a glimpse of the helicopter and saw its gunners, who were baying for blood — our blood.
I had always prided myself on being a rugged South African male full of derring-do. I grew up in Uitenhage, SA’s Detroit, so surely was deserving of some sort of manliness medal. I had even visited Despatch a couple of times and been on the receiving end of a number of beatings.
Doesn’t being a journalist automatically make you rugged? I have earned my stripes and have always secretly hoped for the grudging respect of my idol, legendary tough guy actor Steve McQueen, had he still been alive.
Surely, I would be prepared for anything out in the wild? But my skin was crawling and I had an anxious knot in the pit of my stomach. What in the world had I let myself in for?
It was only a paintball game being played by journalists and tour operators. How painful could it be? Quite. Especially when the paintballs are being fired at you from a helicopter and you have to try to evade being shot while racing around on a quad bike.
My trepidation gave way to excitement as the game progressed and soon I was confidently speeding about on the quad bike yelping every now and again as a paintball hit me.
The biggest thrill was when we swapped roles and I was afforded the opportunity to become the hunter in the helicopter (minus its doors), aiming my paintball gun spitefully, while remembering some of the more painful hits I had received. Unfortunately, I am a terrible shot and only managed a couple of feeble hits.
The luxury Leobo Private Reserve, situated on an 8,000ha estate in the Waterberg area of Limpopo, is the only place in SA — and very likely the world — where Heli Paintballing can be played.
It is one of the extreme adventure activities offered under the reserve’s recently launched brand, Ultimate Playground. Other activities include skydiving from helicopters, 50calibre BMG target-shooting and tactical military simulations with assault rifles.
Guests can go on safari on quad bikes. Traditional game drives are also on offer to see hippo, giraffe, plains game, buffalo and leopard. There is also a lone crocodile called Stevie on the property.
THE PLAYGROUND IS AIMED AT CORPORATES OFFERING STAFF INCENTIVES AND TEAM BUILDING
For the less adventurous who prefer to lounge around, there are massages, heated swimming pools, a Jacuzzi and a sauna.
The Ultimate Playground is aimed at corporates offering staff incentives and team building. Families and groups of friends who crave an adrenaline-fuelled getaway with a difference are also welcome.
Leobo Private Reserve is the brainchild of UK IT entrepreneur Rory Sweet, who initially chose the Leobo site as a home for his family when they visited SA each year. Sweet, who is renowned for his devilmay-care adventurer’s spirit, was a member of the team that won the Scott Dunn Polar Challenge in 2005 — a 563km race across the Arctic Circle to the magnetic North Pole.
Leobo has been commercially available since 2012. It consists of Leobo Lodge — which includes eight one-bedroom luxury chalets and a two-bedroom family chalet — and the Observatory, which serves as the Sweet family’s private house when they are in the country and which accommodates six adults and three children.
What gives The Observatory its charm is the fact that Sweet’s eccentricities can be seen everywhere. His love of astronomy is a main feature of the residence, with a beautiful dome that houses the astronomical observatory.
Guests can book a lecture with fascinating physicist and astronomer Dr Phil Calcot, who lives in the Waterberg, to describe the heavens above.
Underneath the dome is a double-storey library with an open fireplace. Designed by award-winning architects Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, the sumptuous Observatory property includes some unusual artifacts including an old disarmed AK-47 transformed into a piece of art, a wallet made of human skin and a real human skull.
Sweet’s humour and sense of fun is immediately apparent as you enter Leobo. The entrance has a large sign hilariously warning of the terrible fates (including pictures) awaiting would-be trespassers. Not only will you face death from hippo, crocodile, snake, shooting, drowning and lethal injection, but you will be liable for prosecution afterwards.
Guests at Leobo dictate the schedule, choosing each day what they want to do. That could mean lazing around the swimming pool, flinging themselves out of a chopper or honing their shooting skills at the gun range.
I was found wanting with a 9mm pistol on the range. I nervously waited my turn to shoot, listening intently to Leobo operational manager Tom Stewart explain the safety procedures.
Our group consisted mostly of women and I watched as one after another they fired off fantastic shots, hitting key areas of the human silhouette target. When it was my turn, my mouth was dry and my knees felt a little weak. Other than firing a pellet gun at tin cans in my folks’ back garden, I had never fired a real gun in my life.
Boom! The first shot rang out loudly. Even with industrial strength ear plugs, the sound of a gun is loud and unmistakable. Second shot. Then the third shot and fourth.
I walked over to survey the damage. I have 20-20 vision, so surely I must have got in some great shots, I thought as we pored over the target looking for my bullet holes. There didn’t seem to be any. Then Stewart pointed out one hole on the paper, way off from the silhouette. He was kind enough to suggest I may have been responsible for a shoulder glancing shot on the target. Truth be told, I had seen little plumes of dust kicking up next to the target.
When others in the group asked me how the shooting went, I vaguely implied that I had got in some good shots. But the next day, when we had the option of going to fire sniper rifles, I begged off, saying a 7am wake-up call was too early.
A massage helped me get over the stress of being such a poor shot. I sealed my fate to wander the earth as a Zeta male, the lowest rung on the ladder of manliness. McQueen would have turned in his grave at the sight of me.