On the eighth day of our Red Hill Birding tour of South Africa we arrived at the most unique lodging of our trip – the Klein Cedarberg Private Nature Preserve. Its uniqueness was due to its setting and accommodations.
Klein Cedarberg was built by an eccentric who owned almost 40,000 acres of land within the huge Swartruggens Conservatory. The habit is rocky desert (known as Karoo in South Africa). Nine rustic stone cottages greeted us as we arrived – each were handmade from sandstone collected on the property. The original settler’s home and stable, which were built in the 1700s, sat nearby.
We were greeted by a Mountain Wheatear just outside of our cabin.
We were warned ahead of time – Klein Cedarberg had no cell service and no electricity in the rooms, so we charged our camera batteries before arriving and turned off our cellphones after we got there. We were shown to our cottage which had a thatched roof up top and a glass-enclosed fireplace inside.
To be fair, they did have a solar panel/battery setup used primarily to power the refrigerators holding the perishable ingredients for our meals. Below is the only electrical source provided to the guests (I did need to use it to charge my hearing aides each night).
We arrived there shortly before dinner so we went behind the dining area to watch our meal being cooked over two fire pits.
The dining room itself was dark and earthy, the table being lit by a series of hurricane lamps and whatever sunlight came through the windows.
Of course it wasn’t without its creature comforts for Karen and I were able to enjoy a glass of fine South African wine as we completed the checklist of birds seen for the day.
During the course of our meal one of the employees came to us and asked if we would like them to light a fire in our cabin’s fireplace, so it would be warmed up for us by bedtime. Of course we said, “Yes” and found a blazing fire in our cabin after we returned from dinner. Before going back to the cabin though we took a few minutes to stargaze. I have never, ever seen so many stars in my life! The Milky Way practically glowed down on us and it extended from horizon to horizon. It seemed like we could see every star in the universe!
The birding was sparse in the Karoo, which we did from the road. We left the Karoo and drove back to Cape Town in order to fly up to Johannesburg, ready to start exploring the birds in and around Kruger National Park. Next, birding around the neighborhood of our motel, the Journey’s End Africa in Johannesburg.
CLICK HERE to see all the posts about our South Africa Bird Tour. Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel to many interesting places in search of birds. If you would like read about some of our other Bird Tours CLICK HERE.
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