Our story: an indigenous forest planted in 1995 | Ondini, Champagne Valley
In 1995 Roger and Nina Layton cleared a hillside of wattle and pine below Cathkin Peak and planted over a thousand indigenous trees. Thirty years on, it is a forest.
We planted a forest. You can stay in it.
In May 1995, Roger and Nina Layton bought a hillside below Cathkin Peak. It was covered in wattle, pine and bramble. By November they had cleared it and planted more than a thousand indigenous trees.
Thirty years on, there are more than 2,000 trees and shrubs on the estate. Yellowwoods and stinkwoods stand 20 m tall, protected tree ferns grow along the [stream / gully], grey duiker browse at dusk and the birds have come back. When the Drakensberg became a World Heritage Site in 2000, this forest was five years old.
What grows here
| Tree | Look for it |
|---|---|
| Real yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius) | [where on the trail] |
| Stinkwood (Ocotea bullata) | [where] |
| Tree ferns | [where] |
| [Your other notable species] | [where] |
Walk the forest
[x] km of trails wind through the estate. [Trail map image.] Allow [30–45] minutes for the full loop, longer if you stop for the birds.
Who lives here
Grey duiker, [bushbuck?], [porcupine?], and birds including [your best sightings: e.g. Knysna turaco, Cape batis, black sparrowhawk]. Keep a list during your stay and add it to the book in the lounge.
Plant a tree at Ondini
Every group can plant a seedling grown from our own forest, tagged with your name and the date of your stay. We keep a register here, so you can come back in ten years and find it. [Register of trees planted — names and dates, added as groups plant them.]
Why "Ondini"?
[Your account of the name. If it echoes King Cetshwayo's royal homestead, oNdini, say so here, as it will interest battlefield visitors. Leave this section out if the name has a different origin you'd rather not explain.]
Your hosts
Roger and Nina Layton. [Two or three sentences on each, and a photo of you both in the forest.] With [Nelly and Thulani], who keep the house running [confirm they're happy to be named].