DAWN BATH.

Steam rises from one

of the hot pools in the Tugela River.
The pools have tarpaulin screens to
preserve the modesty of the bathers
wallowing within.

40 January 2014

Bare bums

in Zululand
Shu Shu is an island and a hot spring
in the Tugela River where a select
few families have been coming to
camp and bathe every June holiday
for more than a hundred years.
Heres your backstage pass to a
unique South African subculture.
WORDS & PICTURES ERNS GRUNDLING

ou pause at the entrance to one of the pools, towel

in hand, and ask hesitantly: Men or women? It
comes out as one, urgent word: Menorwomen?
The answer rings from several throats at once,
as if those behind the green tarpaulin screen have been
waiting for you to ask. If you hear Women! and youre
not one yourself, you politely step away and ask the same
question at the pool next door. If Men is the answer, you
get to float in a hot spring in the middle of winter, with
other naked campers of the same sex.
Welcome to Shu Shu, an island in the Tugela River barely
5km as the crow flies from Jacob Zumas controversial
Nkandla homestead. The island has six shallow pools,
each one roughly as big as two pool tables. Theyre full

gomag.co.za

January 2014 41

of menorwomen only after midnight can

menandwomen soak together.
You could wear a swimming costume, but youd
feel as out of place as a teenager with his arm in
a cast at a school social. So you hang your clothes
on a hook and slip into the bubbling water, which
varies between 42C and 46C.
The Tugela murmurs, frogs croak in the back
ground, the air smells of sulphur and the warm
water rushes over your body. You lie back and relax.
Its a moment of surrender. You look up at the sky
where the Milky Way blinks silently. A shooting
star. You want to be nowhere else but here.

Ox-wagons & solar panels

In the evenings
everyone gathers
around the
campfires and the
smell of tamboti
wood, boerewors
and cattle dung
hangs low over
the river.

42 January 2014

Shu Shu has been a holiday spot for more than

a century, but there are several theories about who
discovered it first. Some say the pools were found
by hippo hunters in the late 1800s; others say that
three men Faan Alberts, Adriaan Rall and an
anonymous policeman from Kranskop waded
through the river in 1904 when they felt hot water
under their feet.
Photographs from the early 1900s show families
from Greytown camping at Shu Shu with their
ox-wagons. By the 1930s, a few Natal families had
become synonymous with the place: Havemann,
Heine, Buss, Van Rooyen and Van Zuydam, to name
a few.
Back then, every family had their own pool.
At first the pools were just holes dug in the sand.
Later, cement structures screened with reeds were
built. Its said that donkeys used to eat the reeds
during the night and the campers first had to
repair the screens in the morning before they
could relax in the pools. Shelters made from
tarpaulin came later.
Camping at Shu Shu is exclusive. To pitch your
tent in one of the 58 campsites on the 20ha river
island, you have to be a member of the Shu Shu
Campers Association. The same goes if you want to
park your caravan at Kranskop opposite the island.
Day visitors are welcome, but they have to pay
R80 per person. Inkommers can overnight only
if a member invites them.
Shu Shu is only open during the June school
holidays, when up to 500 people from across the
country will congregate on a busy weekend. During
the rest of the year the river is mostly too full and
the pools are underwater.
The island is densely forested with stands of
tamboti trees, wild fig trees, coral trees and wild
olive trees. You almost dont see the campsites,
which are connected by a neat network of footpaths.
Besides these footpaths, the island has no other
facilities or infrastructure. Campers must erect
their own long drops and bring everything they
might need. At the end of the holiday, they take
everything away again. The use of generators is

forbidden, so solar panels glint in the sunlight.

This is Shu Shus trump card: Not only is the
scenery so beautiful it should be illegal, but nature
is allowed to take its course. The tents might be
modern, but a holiday here hasnt changed much
in a hundred years.
For the duration of my visit, I stay in Camp
34a with Hannes and Anna-Mari Loedolff from
Mondeor in Joburg. Hannes is the chair of the Shu
Shu Campers Association, and since both Loedolffs
are retired police officers (many people here are)
everyone sticks to the rules.
Loedolff HQ is impressive: huge tents supported
by wooden poles, beds, carpets even a bar. JP
the dog and Sasha the cat have also travelled
from Mondeor.
Anna-Maris family has been coming here
since the 1930s. She has a hefty photo album with
pictures from the past: her grandparents in front
of a laden Morris Minor in 1948; the reed screens
being patched with grain bags after a donkey raid
She also keeps a diary. In 1989 she wrote: Well
come back every year until we cant any more this
is our dream holiday.

Colonial ubuntu

Shu Shu means hot, hot in Zulu. For the Zulus,

this has always been a place of healing the chiefs
used to bathe here during inauguration ceremonies.
The island is still owned by the local community
and in earlier years the campers had to buy special
permits. These days the association rents the island
directly from the local chief, bringing an annual
economic injection to the impoverished district.
Every kraal in the area is given a specific camp
site to tend for the duration of the holiday, people
from that kraal work to keep it neat and tidy. This
tradition dates back generations and many of the
campers speak fluent Zulu.
A week or two before the arrival of the campers,
the pools are cleaned and the screens are erected.
When the bakkies piled high with gear come over
the hill, the hooter system kicks in. Each campsite
has its own special hoot (three short toots, for
example) so the staff will know when their guests
have arrived.
According to local custom, the floors of the
campsites must be covered with cattle dung every
week a practice called sinda to prevent them
from getting too dusty.
Two of the pools are marked Locals in a nod to
the first rule of the Shu Shu Campers Association,
which is: Treat the local people with respect.
Separate pools might sound like an embarrassing
throwback to a darker time in South Africas
history, but here on the Tugela a kind of colonial
ubuntu reigns. Maybe this is only possible within
the Shu Shu bubble, but it seems to work well for
both sides.

TRAVEL SHU SHU

Idleness meets nostalgia

So what do the campers do all day? I put this

question to Alida Oosthuizen, a judge in the
potjiekos competition, and she replies: You do
nothing at all. You rest. Physically and spiritually.
You visit your friends and talk.
The bathing rituals anchor the day. The best time
to go is late at night or early in the morning. At
night I sit under the stars as the water warms me
up for the cold bed in my tent. No matter how late
I stay up to chat (no one at Shu Shu goes to bed
thirsty) Hannes wakes me at 5.30am to walk back
to the pools.
Sarah Siebrits is the official pool regulator she
moves the sandbags that regulate the flow of water.
Her grandfather was the first man to have driven
a car (a Model-T Ford) to Shu Shu in the olden
days. Sarah takes me on a guided tour of the four
pools as she tests the water temperature with a
thermometer: Oupa se Bad, Sementbad, Rooibad
and Witbad the most popular pool.
You can also bathe during the day, but thats
when most people prefer to swim in cooler,
bigger pools in the river. Fishing is also big
around here: The Tugela is full of yellowfish,
carp, eels and barbel.
Besides the odd church service, boeresport
competition or fishing competition, there arent
many formal activities on offer. In the evenings
everyone gathers around the campfires and the
smell of tamboti wood, boerewors and cattle dung
hangs low over the river.
Its telling that so many of the campfire con
versations revolve around previous Shu Shu
experiences. People dig up old memories a
bittersweet stew of nostalgia. During my visit,
I hear an anecdote about a wooden chest hoisted
up into a tree to keep meat cool at least 10 times.
Before solar power came along, camping here
used to be a logistical feat. Some people would
cook an entire ox beforehand and preserve the
meat in fat. Others brought chickens along and
slaughtered them as required. Bread was baked
in anthills.
In the old days, children held folk dances and
played games until late games like Ludo, snakes
and ladders and Piet Swart Vark. The sound of
guitars, accordions and harmonicas drifted across
the island.
One afternoon during the June visit, the
associations AGM takes place under a thorn
tree. About 40 members pull up their camping
chairs. First up is a subtle (strategic?) act of
vandalism at Oupa se Bad: Someone made
a peephole in the screen.
A cross has been cut into the screen, my
host Hannes says. We dont know why, but if we
catch the culprit, he should be banned from Shu
gomag.co.za

Shu. The people gathered nod their heads

in agreement.
Young men who just enter the pools without
first asking Menorwomen also bother the
members, as do people who flaunt the noise
regulations. The good news? There wont be a price
increase on firewood supplied by a local farmer.
And the chief has already given the green light for
June 2014.

A lifelong hold

Cupid is unusually busy at Shu Shu, it seems. Viv

Heine (85), who is in a wheelchair but bathes in
the pools every day, proudly tells me that hes had
millions of girlfriends here. All six of his children,
who still come to Shu Shu to camp with him, were
conceived here.
Hanness son, Andr, tells me how he and his
wife Juanita met at Shu Shu: It was after midnight
and the men and women were all in Oupa se Bad.
Lets just say, when my gown hit the ground and
she saw my white bum cheeks, the ice was broken.
Andr and Juanita married on the island, in
a ceremony complete with Zulu bridesmaids
in traditional outfits and a praise singer who
performed a dance with sticks to drive away
evil spirits.
Floods are a favourite Shu Shu subject. Everyone
tells me about the big floods of 1963, 1987 and
1996. When the river comes down suddenly, the
pools disappear and the people on the island are
cut off from the outside world.
In 1963 a flood stranded 79 campers for a few
days. But they didnt sit around waiting for help.
They set up a cable to the river bank and used a
pulley to ferry items across the water, including a
three-year-old girl who was delivered by potato sack
into the waiting arms of her grandmother.
On my last morning at Shu Shu, I sinda the
floor at Camp 34a with Nombusa Mhlongo.
Johan Myburgh, a friend of Hannes who has
come to camp for the weekend, gives his cellphone
a sceptical look.
Ja-nee, now the e-mails will roll in like impis,
he says. But I dont care. It feels like Ive been on
holiday for a month.
Its true: A long weekend at Shu Shu feels like
a much longer, deeper experience. I think back
to what Hannes told me earlier about Shu Shus
lifelong hold on people. I drove through to see
Oom Boet at the old-age home in Dundee one last
time before he passed away, Hannes said. He held
my hand tightly and all he could say was Fishing.
Shu Shu. Shu Shu...
For more info about camping at Shu Shu, contact
the Shu Shu Campers Association 082 8284 852
(Anna-Mari); loedolffam@telkomsa.net

IN OTHER WORDS

Joyce Van Rooyen

I first visited Shu Shu in 1937

on an ox-wagon. My dad used
the wagons canvas to make a
tent. I wouldnt trade my Shu Shu
days for anything else.

Marge & Dave Havemann

Dave: When I walk down the

path to our camp, it takes me
back to when I was a boy. A year
just doesnt feel right if I dont
spend a few days at Shu Shu.

Hannes &
Anna-Mari Loedolff

Anna-Mari: Shu Shu is like a

bug. Once youve been bitten,
it sticks. You want to come here
every year.
January 2014 43

1 HELP ME HELP YOU. Campers like

Dawid van der Merwe from Kriel employ
people from the nearby community
during their stay at Shu Shu. Each kraal
is responsible for a specific campsite.
To outsiders it might seem like an
awkward, patronising relationship, but
the community benefits and so do the
campers, many of whom converse with
their helpers in fluent Zulu. Popeye the
parrot keeps an eye on things.

2 LICENCE TO RELAX. Paul Buss makes

no secret of where youll find him every
June holiday.

3 FROM THE ARCHIVES. In this old

snapshot, a certain Mrs S Albers demon
strates how to bake bread in an anthill.

4 STEAMY. Sarah Siebrits, pool

regulator at Shu Shu, tests the water
temperature every morning and
updates the blackboards.

5 WHAT LIES BENEATH. After bathing,

fishing is the next most popular activity
at Shu Shu. Johan Myburgh and his
grandson Ruben try their luck late
one afternoon.

6 WRINKLED SKIN. Like the sauna in

your local Virgin Active, the hot pool is
a place to relax and talk nonsense.

7 MIND YOUR NECK. The hot springs

are surrounded by other river pools,
where kids swim and play during the
warm afternoons.

8 COWADUNGA. Nombusa Mhlongo,

who lives close to the river and works
for the Shu Shu campers during the
June break, spreads cow dung on
the camp floor. Its a traditional Zulu
practice called sinda and it prevents
the campsites from getting too dusty.

9 HELLO, ALOE. At Shu Shu, nature

comes first. The island is full of beautiful
trees and aloe bushes and the only
infrastructure is a network of footpaths
connecting the various campsites. When
the campers leave, they take everything
away with them.

10 HAPPY DAYS. Jess Dicks and Debbie

Dick show off for the camera at the
swimming pools at sunset.
44 January 2014

TRAVEL SHU SHU

10

gomag.co.za

January 2014 45