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.