Refuge of silence

When writer Zelda Nel Bezuidenhout and her husband, Izak, stumbled upon Skuilkrans Private Nature Reserve just outside McGregor, they knew they'd found it: the off-grid, eco-conscious, pet-friendly, writing and getaway retreat they'd long imagined.

- JOHAN VAN ZYL

At some point in life, you need a mountain, believes artist Annalien van der Colff, matriarch of both Rhebokskraal Olive Estate and Skuilkrans Private Nature Reserve, both just a stone's throw from McGregor in the Western Cape. A refuge or hideaway, where for miles all you see are mountains and fynbos-covered hills, and sometimes a sliver of the Klipberg Dam. Not a soul in sight to disturb the peace or trouble the spirit. Here, deep in the folds of the mountain, absolute silence reigns day and night (apart from the sounds of a few cheeky birds and the occasional breeze).

In 1993, Annalien and her late husband, urban and regional planner Corrie van der Colff, officially became the "shepherds of the Klipberg" after a land exchange. “We spent the first year simply cleaning up and preparing Skuilkrans, but from 1994 onwards, we started camping here as a family,” she says. “Over the next few years, Corrie commissioned studies on the farm's unique vegetation, and botanists discovered that certain fynbos species occur only here. From the very beginning, his idea was to share this beautiful natural landscape with others.”

In 1997, the Van der Colffs had this former protea, ostrich, and cattle farm of 1606 hectares proclaimed a nature reserve, but it took them (and Mother Nature) nearly three decades to rehabilitate the land. Today, it is home to, among others, grey rhebok, steenbok, grysbok, duiker, klipspringer, leopards, aardvarks and caracals.