This week we had a few things happening!

Beaven's team were continuing their work on the workshop and it is looking great! They only really need to now put the door on and waterproof the roof, then it is down to us to paint it and start putting everything back inside. It really is looking fabulous and much safer than the old workshop!

Also this week we had to fell a number of trees that were extremely close to the site of the old workshop and were leaning towards the area where Sunset Cottage is going to be.

It would have been dangerous to leave these trees so close to where the new cottage is going to be located, so we had to have them cut down. It is heart-breaking having to fell trees, but we will plant some indigenous trees further from the cottage in the Spring.

Some of the trees we had to have felled were huge and there was no way we could cut them ourselves, so we hired Derick from Trickytrees.

If anyone needs some tree felling work done, I would highly recommend Derick and Trickytrees. They were fantastic! Very safety conscious and accurate in getting the trees to fall where they wanted them to fall!

Everything went according to plan, with the only problem being that once all the trees that needed to be felled had been done, with the branches cut off the trunks and the trunks chopped down to a manageable size, we had to clear the area!

​It took 3-days to move everything and now we have aching bodies, cuts and bruises and two huge piles of brush to burn after the winter dry season! The area does look great though and work can soon start on the new cottage! Hard work, physical work, but very exciting to see the progress. We even have some great plans for the tree trunks!!

The other large project that we started on this week (well Bryan and Henry started on it) was laying the pipe for the overflow from the small pond.

In the summer, when we have large storms with plentiful rain, our trout dam becomes very discoloured as the rain water rushing into Spurwing Dam carrying lots of sediment with it. This is less than ideal for any guests wishing to try their luck at fly-fishing!

Bryan has planned a system where we can hopefully, re-direct the majority of this dirty water through an overflow pipe and along the open trench to the waterfall behind the trout dam!

​This week Bryan and Henry started to lay the pipe. 36 metres of it! it is still a work in progress, but it is looking good!

So, I think that is all the updates for this week. As I said a very busy week, but a significant one that was very productive.

Before I sign off though, I have one last photo I wish to share. Whilst I was busy gardening and weeding on Monday, I came across this colourful chap! I took a quick snap as I thought his markings were stunning! What do you think?!

We had a very busy April with lots of guests booked into Kamberg Valley Hideaway and are so happy to say that we received lots of great comments and reviews!

We had a lovely family staying in Forest Cottage in April and it was the children (of which there were four) who wrote in our guest book before they left. We enjoyed their comments so much, I thought I would share their entry with you here.

​​​We also had the TLB come in to clear away all the wattle, and the large pile of wood that had clearly been discarded at some point in time, from behind the workshop, so we could actually see the river and gain access to it. It is such a lovely part of our property, but totally overgrown and of little use, as it was!

​Bryan took a couple of photos with the drone and here is the before and after! 

​So, one of our jobs over the coming months is to landscape this area so that our guests can enjoy walking along the river and viewing the sunset over Cleopatra Mountain, Mount Lebanon and the valley to Highmoor!

​Once we had cleared and emptied the workshop, and the TLB had cleared and levelled the land for the location of the new workshop, Beaven and his crew at Ezweni Construction, started work on the foundations, concrete slab and brickwork! As we know from last year, Beaven and his guys are phenomenal and here is a slideshow of the progress over just two weeks!

As well as starting to build the new workshop, they also dismantled the old workshop. We will be using the windows, door, roofing and roof beams for the new workshop so once the guys had  dismantled and salvaged the materials we want to re-use, they then hit demolition mode and seemed to have a lot of fun doing so!

Incidentally, once they removed the wooden roof beams, the entire back wall completely collapsed. The guys in the building when the roof beams were removed could be hear shouting and were seen frantically running out of the building as the wall went! So, in essence, the roof was currently keeping the wall up! Not safe at all!

So, at the end of two weeks, we now have a new workshop that is basically up to roof height and a flat, cleared slab area!

The location of the old workshop is going to be one more guest cottage! It is going to be fantastic with an incredible view from the patio! Sunset Cottage...

I will be writing the blog (hopefully) from week-to-week, with progress updates as we continue with our various projects for this year, so I hope you will check in to see what is happening, unless, or course you are coming to visit us!

So, we have now been at Kamberg Valley Hideaway for one whole year! I thought this would therefore be a good time to look at what we have been doing.

​It has definitely been a busy year and we have achieved a lot and are extremely happy with how everything has worked out so far! We also love living here in this stunning, peaceful and tranquil area!

Without doubt a great decision!

Here are a couple of photos showing a few changes!

Our first project was getting the Main House and Mountain View Cottage renovated and looking lovely for guests (as well as for ourselves)!

Here was how it all looked when we arrived! Sometimes when we look at these photos, we wonder how we ever made the decision to buy the property!

​Vision, i guess!

The Main House and Mountain View Cottage, as was...

And once we had finished...

Our next major project was to build some accommodation for Zinny and Henry. Without Zinny and Henry's help, we wouldn't be able to run Kamberg Valley Hideaway as we do, so in order to get help from them, we first had to build them some accommodation!

Zinny and Henry seemed pretty happy with their homes, so let's hope they stay happy here at Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

Our next major project was Forest Cottage. Our plan was to have it ready for December so that we could have some guests staying. It took a lot of organising, designing, planning and logistics, but we got it done and in time for December!

Here is Forest Cottage when we arrived...

And how it looks now!

As well as all of the the above, we also drained the dam, cleaned it out, got rid of the bass and stocked with trout. The dam now has a beautiful jetty to the island and a fabulous deck that we often head to for sunset! So that was another big project!

There have been a few other smaller projects achieved throughout the year too, but these are the main ones. A hugely rewarding year, but a lot of hard work too!

There are a few plans a-foot for the coming 12 months too, so I will try and keep the blog updated with the next activities.

​Hope you enjoyed reading this and seeing the changes. It was fun for us to compare everything!

See you soon at Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

Well we have certainly been having a busy February. We have had guests every weekend and two of those weekends we were full, so we are really very pleased!

In between all our great bookings, we have been dodging the copious amounts of rainfall that KZN has been receiving and everywhere is looking very green and lush.

There are still some areas of the dam wall around Spurwing Dam (hope you like the chosen name), that are a bit bare, but the rain is certainly helping with the rejuvenation of the grass following our cleaning and maintenance work last year! Hopefully soon even these bare patches will be looking gorgeous!

Bryan made the Spurwing Dam sign and he has also managed to get our other new signs up around the place, hope you like them!

We also have managed to get our drone up and flying this month (well, Bryan has, I have been more a spectator, but i'm sure I must have been some help! hahaha!)

I thought I would share some of the photos here. There will be plenty more to follow and once the dam water has cleaned up a bit we will definitely be posting some more!

​Enjoy the show!

Well it has been a busy December! We had lots of lovely guests staying at Kamberg Valley Hideaway over the December holidays and we would just like to say a big thank you to all of them for being fabulous, friendly and relaxed guests!

We hope that everyone that stayed enjoyed their visit and we hope to see you visiting us again soon.

We have some plans for 2017 (not as hectic as 2016 though), but first we plan on exploring the area a bit more ourselves.

On the 30th December we decided to head to Highmoor Nature Reserve for the day. Our guests were all out enjoying themselves in this stunning area, so we decided to do the same.

The plan was for me to catch a trout! After several attempts at casting and after many times getting caught in the grasses and bushes behind me, I decided I really needed a break, so I decided to grab my camera and leave Bryan to do the catching of the fish!

I had hoped to capture some photos of Giants Castle, but there was quite a lot of cloud covering the mountain, so instead I heading off in the direction of a fish eagle that was perched by the side of the dam. Unfortunately, before I managed to get close enough to capture a good shot, the fish eagle took off. I did manage to get these shots of it though.

So, after the Fish Eagle had taken flight, I decided to see if I could capture some dragonfly shots. I found a spot beside the dam and sat down to wait. After a couple of minutes, there was a big splash and something shot off under the water from the side of the dam. It appeared I had stumbled upon an otter's home. I'm not sure whom had the greater fright!

Anyway, I backed up a little, away from his den and sat still to see if I could get some piccies. He started off playing with me, everytime I raised my camera to take a photo, he ducked under the water! Cheeky thing! Finally though, he came up for air and was chomping his way through a crab and I managed to get a few photos before he finished his lunch and swam off.

Nest I decided to carry on with my plan to find some dragonflies. They are never easy to photograph so I found a spot and tried to get comfortable as I figured I could be in for a bit of a wait. Anyway, after a while, I did manage to get a few images.

It's been a while since I have been able to just go and spend some time taking photos and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was pretty happy with some of the shots I got! Hopefully this week we will also have the chance to go and explore a bit more!

So, yet another week at Kamberg Valley Hideaway. We have been working on clearing the invasive wattle trees from our river frontage the past week or so and it is looking stunning. Obviously there is still quite a bit of work to do (always is a work in progress at first), but we can now see some of the beautiful stretches of the Little Mooi River that we have bordering the property.

Bryan and I took a stroll to the river on Saturday and here is a short video of one area of the river along our River Walk. It is one of my favourite spots.

This week we also had our first guests staying in the new Forest Cottage. They decided to try a spot of fishing from the island in our dam and they managed to catch one of our new stock of rainbow trout! Very exciting for our budding fisherman! Not so good for our trout!

As well as our guests enjoying a spot of fishing, the birds seem to be enjoying the dam and the reeds too. Lots of red bishops are flying around, as are the resident Egyptian Geese and this darter that seems just a l;little bit too interested in our trout!

The other exciting thing that I don't think I have mentioned before, but that we have in abundance at the moment, are porcine mushrooms. I am going to try to dry some of them because we just have too many to get through at the moment. These are some of the ones we picked this weekend. It certainly was a delicious breakfast!

So that is all for this weekend. We have another busy week ahead of us so I shall update you on all the news next weekend. Hope everyone has a fabulous week ahead.

Last week i mentioned that I was determined to have photos of Forest Cottage this weekend, and by the skin of our teeth, we managed to!  There are still a couple of bits n bobs to finish, but for the most part it is done, the builders are barely around and we have managed to get furniture in and have taken some photos! So pleased!

There are still soft furnishings to be added (curtains should be ready this coming week) and obviously there is some work to do on the garden and outside area after having builders around for so long, but that we hope this will all be fun work!

​So here are the photos...

As well as pushing to get Forest Cottage finished, we have also had lots of excitement with our dam this week.

We have had ridiculous amounts of rain this week. One night 40mm fell and that was after 18mm had fallen a few hours earlier. As a result your dam has been more than full and the water flowing over the dam wall and down our waterfall has been quite spectacular. Here was the water flowing out of the dam on Saturday morning!

What was most exciting this week with our dam though, was the arrival of 100 rainbow trout!

​Yes, Bryan and I are now parents and have 100 fish to look after. Since the dam is newly filled we are supplementing the food in the water with fish pellets to make sure our fishes get big and fat and stay happy!

​It was great fun watching the fish being released in to their new home. Here is one of the videos and some pictures of the new inhabitants of Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

Well that's all the news for this weekend. Things are looking good and now we are just preparing for the December season. We have some nice bookings already!

An update on Kamberg Valley Hideaway's progress is well overdue! I had been hoping to post photos of the new cottage completely finished and ready for rental, but unfortunately we are still waiting on a couple of finishing touches to be done, so all I can show you at the moment is this photo of the outside!

Next weekend I will be posting the finished photos! I am determined!

So today I am going to focus on the dam! We opened up a channel from our small pond to the newly cleaned up main dam on Thursday 27th October. This is what the dam looked like then.

Henry and Bryan opened up the channel and the water started to flow in. It was flowing at a steady rate until we had a couple of huge thunder and lightening storms during the past week and today the dam looks like this!

Fortunately both storms were on a Friday. One last Friday and one yesterday, so in between the rains we were able to complete the jetty and most of the deck. There are still a couple of things we need to complete, like the work on the island, but basically the dam is finished.

We are so pleased with how the jetty looks and after having to varnish the 140 planks, it looks even better to us, knowing the work and effort that has gone in to it.

The deck just needs a couple more planks to be screwed in and then that is finished, and the island needs a little more earth, then we can remove the metal sheeting.

​Next we have to sow some grass seed and then, the dam is going to look even more stunning, but we are so pleased with how it has turned out. It has been a big project, and it is great to see it 95% finished. Now we just need some trout!

So, that's the latest news. Next week the cottage!!!

As you have read from my previous blogs, we are almost finished with our cottage build, so Bryan and I had booked a few days away. A well needed few days of r&r! We decided to combine a trip to Durban to watch the Springboks v All Blacks with a few days on the Wild Coast!

The atmosphere at the Shark Tank, in Durban was fantastic! Unfortunately the result was not! So, I will move swiftly on as the less said about the game, the better!

We had booked four nights in Hluleka Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape. I have never been to this area and it had been years since Bryan had been, so we rose early, jumped in the car and headed off on what was a very long drive. The scenery and landscape was stunning. Very different to KZN.

Hluleka Nature Reserve is off the beaten track (hence why we chose it) and looked stunning from the photos we had seen. It is 90kms from Mthata, of which 50kms are dirt road, so it took us about 2 hours just to drive that stretch, but, what a beautiful place! The long drive was most definitely worth it.

Absolutely breathtaking coastline, the chalets have been tastefully decorated and designed beautifully and the peace and quiet was just what we wanted (home from home)!

We did a spot of fishing, but since the Nature Reserve is also a Marine Sanctuary, you can only fish outside of the reserve, so we headed out a couple of mornings to try our luck. Bryan did catch a fish, but what was also stunning and wonderful to see were the numerous dolphins that were surfing the waves and playing in the water just by the rocks.

So, after our restful few days away, we headed back home to see what had been going on in our absence! The cottage is looking fabulous, the lights are in, the painting has been done, all the windows and doors are in and where necessary varnished. It looks great!

As well as the cottage, the builders had also finished the new dam wall. No water is going to get through that!

So this week there are lots of interior work going on! The kitchen is being put in, the bathrooms suites will be installed, the carpets and flooring are going down and the fireplace should also be installed! We can't wait to see how everything looks come Friday!

Also, the TLB is back working on the other side of the dam, so hopefully this week that will also be finished! We are almost there!

Hello I hope everyone is well and enjoying a good weekend. Bryan and I are having a lovely, relaxing weekend, which we definitely need after the past few weeks! It has been very busy (just for a change) at Kamberg Valley Hideaway!

During the past few weeks we have been trying to siphon and drain our main dam so that we can removed the bass, in order to stock trout for fly-fishing and also to clean up the dam and carry out some seriously needed maintenance work. We have had a TLB working on clearing the reeds and digging up as much of the sludge as possible.

We had no idea before we started this job how deep parts of the dam are and it has been a great exercise for us to see exactly what the structure of the dam is, so that we can advise future fishermen! Some areas are so deep, it is perfect for trout!

This Friday we finally succeeded in draining the last of the water that we could with the water pumps and we managed to remove some of the bass.

Once we had finally drained the water as much as we could with the water pumps, Bryan and Henry went into the water to catch and remove as many of the bass as possible!

We have no doubt there are a few bass still splashing around, so we will leave the dam for a few days to allow the seepage to come through the ground and sludge and then we will do a final pump of the remaining water and remove the last remaining fish!

After that we will leave the dam alone for a couple of weeks to dry out a bit, then the TLB will come back and finish the remaining cleaning and maintenance work. We are getting there and it will be a fabulous fishing dam once we are finished!

As the water in the dam has gradually reduced, we have seen a significant increase in the number of birds visiting the dam to check out the food available.

We have had HammerKops, Sacred Ibis, Pied Kingfishers, Spoon-bills, Egrets (to name but a few) and of course our resident Egyptian Geese. We thought the Egyptian Geese may have had young ones, but Bryan's Mum (who is amazing with birding) has advised us that the two birds on the sand bar are South African Shelduck. We haven't seen them before, so it's a first for us!

So, that's the progress on the dam, now to show you how the cottage is looking!

The builders are going great guns and the cottage is looking fabulous! The tiler has started tiling the bathrooms, the insulation is in the roof space and the ceilings are up and the outside has been painted (just one more coat to go!)

​We are so pleased with how it is looking and can't wait for the finished product.

We decided to put a roof over one part of the veranda where the braai will be, so that even if it is raining, our guests will still be able to enjoy a braai in the summer.

Well, that's all the news for now! We will keep you posted with the continuing progress.