A Whole Lotta Love

Tue 14 / Wed 15 June 2016 - Bushman’s Kloof wilderness reserve, Clanwilliam

To celebrate our two year wedding anniversary we decided to stay at Bushmans Kloof, a 5* private reserve nestled in the foothills of the Cedarberg Mountains, for a wilderness experience among wide open plains and ancient sandstone formations, including over 130 sites of bush rock art paintings, some dating back as far as 10,000 years. 

On arrival we were welcomed by our personal team who would look after us and Beth, our hostess, showed us one of the many outdoor pools, with mists of steam rising from the heated one; the spa lodge, where we could indulge in couples treatments; the main lodge with various rooms of opulent furnishings and roaring log fires; and finally, we were taken to our Lodge. With the weather turning slightly wintry and rain forecasted for the duration of our stay, we set foot inside and welcomed the warm underfloor heating, the huge fireplace and the warm tiled flooring of the separate and huge bathroom and separate shower room. If we were going to have to hunker down out of any rain, this was a great place to do it. 

We headed off for lunch trying to limit how much we ate as we were keen to take high tea of sandwiches and cream cakes later. Choosing a lighter meal from the gorgeous menu was a tough decision but we managed it and as we finished a rain shower stopped and we took the opportunity to walk it off on one of the mountain hikes around the reserve. The sandstone formations are very unique in Cederberg and we crossed rock plateaus with water passing gently underneath to form extraordinary rockpools. As usual we spent a significant amount of time admiring the landscape and discussing its geology to suddenly notice we were potentially going to be late for high tea with the risk of delaying the nature tour drive with our guide, Jannie. From this point we sped across the rocks following the stones piled as small cairns indicating the route back. It started to rain again just as we made it inside the cosy lounge area with two roaring log fires and our waiter appeared from nowhere and efficiently welcomed us with our high tea with the all important pastries. Glenn was saving himself for dinner but Yvonne enjoyed the delights to the full. Jannie appeared and he recommended we cancel the nature tour as the rain was set to become torrential at any point and as we left to return to our lodge, the heavens opened.

Drenched, we snuggled into the luxurious dressing gowns, popped the cork of the complimentry fizz that had been left for us and reminisced about our perfect wedding day. Two years...Who said it would never last! We contemplated going to the spa but it was too much effort to move from the sumptuous settee and we were getting slightly sozzled.

Dinner time hadn’t seen the rain diminish and required us dashing across the courtyard under BK umbrellas (too big to acquire and bring home) and avoiding big puddles but we made it to dining room relatively dry. Turning up in our travellers zip off trousers and fleeces was hardly noticed by the other three other couples dining and helped by the candles low lighting. Following a divine meal of springbok wellington and cheesecake we headed back and found our lodge liberally scattered with rose petals on the floor of our outside lounge area and throughout our rooms with the underfloor heating helping to release their perfume and scented candles glowing all around. With an array of bed pillows to select from, we slipped into bed and sighed in delight to discover the heated blankets had been switched on for us too. One could get used to this turndown service.

The rain had been continuous all night, however, in the morning Glenn returned from a quick walk stating there was a break in the weather and he would summon Jannie to suggest we took our tour of nature and bushman art immediately. Within in minutes Jannie appeared and we set off in the open sided jeep, surrounded by waterproofed blankets to keep us warm and dry, and splashed our way along the dirt track into the green veld. Jannie excitedly commented on how much rain had fallen, pointing out gushing rivers and small waterfalls he had never seen in previous winters. He was incredibly happy the rains had come at last after the little rain last year. After passing a few herds of antelope we stopped in the middle of the fynbos where he invited us to follow him and we splashed and jumped across flooded sands and rocks to come to a cave with a variety of bushman paintings. He helped us to understand the importance of these artworks and the possible metaphorical meaning of the human and animal figures still very clear and bold from the red ochre paint which has seeped into the sandstone rock, the other colours having faded over time. These drawings were made by the bushman passing through here thousands of years ago and Jannie explained that they were storybooks and helped us to understand how these tribes lived. We were enthralled by it and as we sipped mugs of hot tea we tried to imagine these men hunter and women gatherers following the migrating animals around the wilderness and tried to appreciate their superstitions and spirit worlds. The rain had been teeming whilst we had been in here and noticing a let up we headed back to the jeep astonished by how much the water had risen just in the short time we had been out. The open jeep was full of water and the canvas roof was bowed with the weight of it and as Jannie endeavoured to empty it much of it ended up over him. We sploshed and sprayed our way through deep puddles on the track back to our lodge where we warmed up with a hot shower and changed ready to eat brunch, and again, another extensive menu available to us.

As we settled up and said our goodbyes we spent over an hour chatting with Beth our delightful hostess with promises of returning here for a longer stay and to enjoy the spring colours of the fynbos which flood the plains rather than all this water we have experienced!

With the car just valeted, we bumped our way along the red, wet sandy drive, through deep puddles of red water that made the car filthy again by the time we reached the main road. The rain continued for the next four hours as we drove to Springbok, our SA overnight stopover before heading to cross the border to Namibia tomorrow.

Our 'cottage'

The trickling stream - before the rain

Wedding pose

Glenn luxuriates with a glass of bubbly

One of the cave paintings

Jannie prepares tea in the cave

Yvonne and Beth after our looong goodbye

The river swollen by the overnight rain

Bushman's Kloof in a rare moment of sunshine