Garden Route Adventures: Castles, Polo, Whales and Dolphins

Garden Route Adventures: Castles, Polo, Whales and Dolphins

Article by Bronwen Roberts

Kurland: Polo Playing LuxuryKurland is unquestionably, the most desirable location on the Garden Route, a 700 ha estate consisting of a small luxury hotel and a polo complex. Helicopters land on the lawn and bumping into international polo players is not uncommon. This family estate, established by Baroness Dianne Behr is minutes from the finest beaches of Natures Valley and Plettenberg Bay. It resides on Tatler magazine’s 2004 and 2003 list of 101 Best Hotels in the World.This luxury boutique hotel has just twelve rooms, so exclusivity is guaranteed. Ten of the rooms have adjoining loft rooms, which are specifically designed for children of all ages. Each room is unique, and spectacular, decorated to provide gracious comfort and ultimate luxury for the entire family. Professionally trained ponies are provided to meet the needs of any level of player. Kurland also has an extensive network of soft roads through forests and pastures for leisure riding.The polo complex comprises four boarded fields, a 50m x 100m polo arena, fully equipped stables and veterinary clinic, and a one kilometer sand exercise track and paddocks for up to 300 horses. Experienced grooms care for the horses and a vet and farrier are permanently on standby. Mossel Bay: Whale, Dolphin & Seal Adventures You can hire a yacht in the Mossel Bay harbour and watch whales, dolphins and seals at play from the deck. For close up views, take a 3-hour boat based whale-watching trip.

In season, (June to November), the 65 km Whale Route along the greater Mossel Bay coastline is fabulously suited to view whales. Four species are seen along this route. The Southern Right Whales are the most commonly sighted as they come into Mossel Bay to calve; there is also the Humpback’s, Bryde’s and Killer Whales that frequent this route. Mossel Bay also forms part of the Cape Whale Route, stretching for 900 km from Doringbaai on the West Coast to Storms River Mouth in the Tsitsikamma National Park. The greater Mossel Bay Whale Route runs along Vleesbaai, Boggomsbaai, Danabaai, Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Klein-Brak River, Reebok, Tergniet and GreatBrak River. Informative whale interpretation boards situated at specific view points create an ideal educational experience as you view these great mammals for the first time. View Seals and DolphinsThe greater Mossel Bay offers an abundance of other marine life. Seal Island in the bay is home to a breeding colony of hundreds of seals and their cubs. They can be viewed during an island cruise or from land. Schools of up to 500 dolphins can be seen at play in the bay and along the St Blaize hiking trail. The most common dolphins found during the year are Heaviside’s Dolphin, Common Dolphin, Dusky Dolphin and Bottlenose Dolphin. The Jackass Penguins – flightless seabirds found at the south and west coast – occur in the Mossel Bay area. They utter a loud bray, like a donkey, hence the name Jackass. They are excellent divers and move extremely fast and quietly, lying low in the water.Private Nature Reserve: The FeatherbedThe Knysna Heads are famous, not only for their grand sandstone cliffs, which tower above the entrance to the Knysna Lagoon, but also for the many recorded shipwrecks that have happened over the past 150 years. The entrance at first glance does not appear to be hazardous, but submerged rocks and two sandbars – which deflect winds and powerful currents – make it highly regarded by even the most experienced skippers. The Featherbed Nature Reserve is situated on the Western Head and is privately owned by Mr William Smith – the Maths and Physics guru of the Learning Channel. He inherited this property from his father, Professor JLB Smith, the world renowned scientist who identified the Coelocanth – a fossil fish thought to be extinct 180 million years ago. Apart from the Nature Reserve, which is a South African Natural Heritage site, The Featherbed Company has operated as a family business for the past 20 years, and offers ferry trips on the Knysna Lagoon: sailing aboard a luxury yacht; fine dining on a paddle cruiser; and an exclusive eco-experience in the Featherbed Private Nature Reserve. Noetzie: A Place of CastlesSituated on the Garden Route between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay is a pristine cove, called Noetzie. This place is a well-kept secret, with miles of unspoilt pounding surf and magnificent castles. To stay in a modern-day turreted castle on the beach is sublime if not spectacular! To stay in a castle, with candles and roaring fires – watching the pounding surf, make evenings unforgettable! Bordering on the Sinclair Nature Reserve, activities such as hiking, fishing, whale watching, forest picnics, walking trails and swimming are available. Otters, bushbuck, whales, dolphins and numerous bird species inhabit the area.Nearby Knysna (a 20 minute drive) offers numerous activities from golf to an unforgettable train journey along the coast, as well as boat trips and canoeing and a morning spent with the Knysna elephants is an experience not easily forgotten.

Question by Lilly-Lou <3: How much would you charge for this?
How much would you charge for these facilities?
Pasture livery or DIY.
2 bales of shavings or 3 bales of straw (in with livery, can buy more at a price that we bought them for: £2.50 shavings, £2.00 straw.)
1/2 acre paddock (small i know but that’s why we offer stable too) behind small cottage.
Someone on site all hours (my auntie and uncle own the paddock, house and the village shop and tea rooms next door.)
In a village with about 10 houses and local pub.
Fencing runs along with reinforced fence along river bank (about 10 foot drop to the river so unlikely to flood)
Stable in the house’s back garden with bedroom and kitchen looking over it.
Yard lights and soon to be padlocked fences.
The paddock runs down the side on the drive and right round, down along a dirt track lane.
Quiet, however only one horse would be able to be kept unless it was a small pony such as a shetland.
3 goats are planning on entering the scene too. We have 3 definite hens and 2 chicks which we don’t know the gender of yet.
Foxes and feral cats are very minimal as we live on a shooting estate and gamekeepers are out every night on “pest control”.
Very nice, long (6 miles or so), quiet hacks from Febuary-August (?) when shoots aren’t running.
We get very bad snow and ice here which can sometimes be as much as 7 feet from November to January anyway so it isn’t as much of a problem.
Very nice, friendly community.
Big hunts run here over winter.
Need your own trailer if planning on hunting or showing.
3 small bales of hay per week included. More can be bought (same conditions as bedding)
No arena.

What do you think?
Water is not included in price as we do not pay water rates. Electricity is supplied as a single light over the stable door and out towards paddock (around the back of the stable, across the drive.)
They don’t shoot around the house. You can barely hear the shots, it would be just like someone tapping lightly on a door.
I know about horses, i have leased one a few years ago and have been riding for 8 years. We need to make the money, otherwise the shop could shut down and in this village there is only a shop and a pub. All of the houses are spaced out, the nearest house to the main village is about 3 miles out.
We can’t build a ring because we don’t have much land, however we are very lucky to have a track that runs in a perfect rectangular shape just down near the paddock, and 2 large fields that we’re aloud on when the sheep aren’t in it. Sheep live in a field next to ours, however they are not our sheep.
It isn’t 1/2 acre, it is just under a 3/4 acre paddock

Best answer:

Answer by Michaela
The fact that there is no arena is a downside, because even a trail rider would need an arena for groundwork and other training, and there aren’t even a lot of trails. Pest control? It seems like hearing gunshots would spook a lot of animals, and cause them to get hurt. Horses are prey animals, they flee at the first sign of danger. Of course, they will get used to it over time, but it will be very stressful at first. I don’t think you’ll be able to get much. I think you would be better off charging $ 50 rough board. That I think is about 25 euros? Rough board means you pay a fee for using the property but the boarder pays for food, shavings, etc. You might be able to find someone looking for retirement board. They would pay a small board fee to keep an older horse they have no use for there. If you are trying to make money off this property, it actually sounds like a better idea to open a petting zoo honestly. Or you can buy a Shetland pony and trailer it to people’s house for pony rides.

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