MEET CHRISTIA
“We farm with firewood and hikers here at Wathaba,” says Christia Newbery when she welcomes new visitors. She manages both the hiking and the firewood business.
Christia’s mother, Wimpie Rauch, moved to the farm in 1984. Her father Frits worked as an anaesthesiologist in Pretoria, but her mother felt claustrophobic in the city. “She wanted a farm in Africa, so my dad bought her this place in the mountains, with seven waterfalls.” Christia has four siblings – three sisters and a brother. “My mom moved here with the three youngest children and they went to boarding school in Belfast. I was on my way to university at the time, to study nature conservation.”
She ended up working in nature conservation for 21 years and her job took her all over the country. She came back to the farm 13 years ago to help clear invasive black wattle but she still does consultation work, catching rodents for mines or farms to conduct environmental-impact studies, and compiling small-mammal lists for reserves.
On the subject of small mammals, Wathaba is home to caracal, jackal, duiker, grey rhebok, bushbuck, bush pig, vervet monkeys and baboons, among many other species. Christia also has seven donkeys that roam the farm: “We don’t use them for labour or anything; they’re just here for the hikers. Some people have never seen or touched a donkey before.”
One of Christia’s sisters also lives on the farm, but Wimpie passed away in 2019 at the age of 78. Frits passed away in 2016.
“When my mom arrived here in the 1980s, she used to take a bath in a tin tub under the stars,” Christia remembers fondly. “People were perplexed by her. She looked like a hippy, wearing long, flowing dresses, and she was living in the mountains without her husband. She was completely alone in the week – the kids only came home on weekends. She milked her own cows and had an impressive veggie garden.”
As you hike the trails, you’ll notice that certain turns, steps, bridges and lookout points are named after family and friends: Wimpie’s View, Guise se Swemgat, André se Kruising, Christia se Uitsig and more.
“We named special spots after my siblings and parents. We also included our boyfriends at the time, although some are now exes,” Christia says with a laugh.
Christia also enjoys hiking – how could she not with these trails on her doorstep? But she prefers flatter, much longer routes. “I’ve done the Tankwa Camino seven times,” she says. “Nobody has broken that record. You walk more than 250 km in 10 days. That’s my kind of hike…”