Wonderland 45 Caravan Park: It makes you feel good!

I love finding new caravan parks, especially ones that are completely different from neighbouring venues. Nearby – and recently reviewed – Somabula and Diamanté could be summed as ‘pure bush’ and ‘bush with waterslides and pet donkeys’. Neighbouring Wonderland 45 though, although a family resort, is an outand-out fishing venue. At Wonderland 45, a fishing rod and fishing tackle is a prerequisite. The venue consists of five dams all fed from a crystal clear highveld stream, the Boschkop River. Unpolluted, and fed from a spring a kilometre from the campsite, the stream runs through farmland down to the dams in the small valley below. The dams all have their own particular finned inhabitants, each dam with its own specific rules about catching them. To ensure you’re on the water as the sun rises, Wonderland has first-class camping facilities.

There are 25 grassed campsites each with electricity, potable water from a nearby borehole, and your own brick braai that comes with a grid. All the sites overlook the dams. There are picnic sites available with braai facilities for day visitors. The ablution blocks, with toilets and showers, are all in close walking distance from the campsites.

I camped at campsite No 20. This is on Dam 5, fly fishing only. It was winter and this is when the dam is stocked with trout. A fly fisherman caught a massive trout as dawn broke. Coffee in hand, I watched him from my dinette in the caravan as he gently released it from his net. With a large ringed swirl, the lunker was gone. Walking around the various dams, camera in hand, I realised that Wonderland 45 is a great family venue. There’s a playground with a sandpit and swings. The resort also has a jumping castle, a water slide, a swimming pool, and a covered Jacuzzi. The venue has what is called the ‘Speeldam’ where families can mess around on tubes and boats. The Speeldam also has two five metre swings over this dam. Adults should always be at hand when the kids are playing in this play dam. City kids also love the donkeys, goats, chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs that have the run of the campsite. And the kids are welcome to help the staff feed the menagerie. This takes place at 14:00 on weekends and public holidays. Wonderland 45 also has a small kiosk selling cold drinks, ice cream, ice, sweets, and chips.

The kiosk also stocks wood, charcoal, firelighters, fishing tackle, and bait. If it’s your first time fishing, no problem as there are also rods – both fly rods and kurper rods – for hire. Fly fishing rods hire out at R100 per day plus R100 breakage deposit, the kurper rods are R50 per day hire plus R50 breakage deposit. There’s plenty to do for the whole family at Wonderland 45. If you need supplies though, there is a good Pick’n Pay at nearby Rayton. Rayton is 20 kilometres away. If it’s a more cultural experience you’re after, the small historic town of Cullinan is a half-hour’s drive. Cullinan – home of the famous Cullinan Diamond and still a working diamond mine – is well worth a visit. Oak Street, with its old corrugated iron buildings, has a host of shops, restaurants, and an interesting small museum. If you are seeking a fishing destination, fun for the kids, or something cultural Wonderland 45 is a 40-minute drive from Pretoria and an hour from Johannesburg. It is a ‘wonderful’ campsite for the whole family.