Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat is a magical and storied retreat, surrounded by jaw-dropping landscapes that is home to wildlife and stunning ancient sites. Here, we were afforded the valuable opportunity to reconnect with nature and live in the moment.
Our accommodation at Bushmans Kloof was a quaint, thatched cottage. We laughed that it was plucked straight out of England’s Cotswolds. Consisting of a bedroom with a large ensuite bathroom, our bush home also had a sitting room decked out with natural materials befitting of its bushland setting; rattan carpets, wicker furniture and a bamboo ceiling – all in a homely and inoffensive style.
Outside, a paved patio with lounge chairs looked out across a manicured lawn, inset with an inviting pool. Floating face up in the cool water of our infinity pool, our faces warmed by the late afternoon sun, proved to be a blissful daily ritual. Above us, weaver birds would flit in and out of their hanging-basket-like nests and we felt ourselves unwind in a way that only nature at its very best can induce.
The terrain beyond our ‘garden’ stretched out to rugged scrubland, peppered with rock formations, that seemingly changed colour with the time of day; cool and bluish first thing, but in the evening, a dusty pink, bathed in the glow of a South African sunset.
This Basecamp review is an extract from a longer feature article, first published in print. To read the full article, click here.
| Perfect for | Fly into | Right on time |
| The Adventurer | CPT | GMT +2 |
| While you’re Out There |
| Bushmans Kloof is set within 7,000 hectares in the Cederberg Mountains on South Africa’s Western Cape, a grade one South African National Heritage Site of huge cultural importance. It has been home to bushmen since the Stone Age and features an astonishing 130 unique rock art sites, some as old as ten thousand years. Bespoke guided tours of various sites are provided |
Bushmans Kloof offered us just the right amount of planned fun and experiences, perfectly balancing our desire to explore but also to relax in its lavish facilities, like the spa. We even mustered up the energy to do some outdoor yoga.
Our hosts also took great pleasure in springing numerous surprises on us, in the efforts to create a romantic and memorable stay. From social dinners with live entertainment to private picnics, our host would ensure that our every whim was catered for – often accompanied with scrumptious food from the Bushmans Kloof kitchen, matched with delicious wine from the owners’ vineyard, Bouchard Finlayson, or a cold beer.
Photography by Martin Perry and courtesy of Red Carnation Hotels
