About Us

Ondini sits high in the Champagne Valley, inside the uKhahlamba World Heritage Site, on eight hectares of indigenous forest that we planted ourselves.

We are two kilometres from the gate of the Monks Cowl Nature Reserve — close enough to be walking in the mountains twenty minutes after breakfast, far enough up the valley that the noise stops at our fence.

The whole property is self-catering. The main house sleeps ten across five bedrooms; a separate cottage sleeps another four to six. Families take the house, groups take both.

Orient yourself

The highest mountain you can see from the garden is Cathkin Peak. To the left of it, further away and higher, is Champagne Castle — at 3,500m the highest in South Africa, with Lesotho on top of it. Face west in the morning with the sun behind you and the two are clearly distinct.

To the right of Cathkin, cone-shaped, is Sterkhorn. Then the square-shouldered Turret, the diamond of Amphlet, and the Dragon’s Back — from which, it is said, the Drakensberg took its name. Just above the ridge of the Little Berg you can pick out the Gatberg, a hole in the mountain that local legend insists a helicopter once flew through.

Look the other way, down the valley from the tennis court, and on a clear day you can see 150km — north towards Ladysmith, the N3, Van Reenen’s Pass and beyond.

The forest

We bought Ondini in May 1995, when most of the property was under wattle, pine, bugweed and American bramble. We cleared it in six months and planted more than a thousand indigenous trees. Thirty years on, some of the yellowwoods stand twenty metres, the birds have come back, and there are trails through the whole of it.

The quiet

Ondini is the highest property in the valley. No through traffic, no music, and no neighbours close enough to matter. Sound carries a long way up here, which is why we ask guests to keep it down — and why it is worth asking.

The base

Sterkspruit Falls is an hour’s walk. The Sphinx is three. The Drakensberg Boys Choir sings on Wednesdays. There is a chocolate factory, a glass beehive, a birds-of-prey centre and a dozen good restaurants within twenty minutes’ drive.