By Lee Tulloch

Copyright smh

Their joint epiphany has transformed the 300-year-old Cape Dutch farm with its whitewashed gables into one of South Africa’s most beautiful and inspirational farm stays.

The farm focuses on improving soil health by using agricultural practices that align with natural systems. Animal rotation methods (hence the movable chicken coops) give vegetation time to recover. Empowering the ownership of the community, Farmer Angus sold 85 per cent of the business back to his workers five years ago.

Angus prefers the word regenerative to sustainable. “There’s nothing in the world we need to sustain,” he tells me. “We need to make it better.”

The hotel reopened early this year after a complete reimagining. It’s now a tranquil, 80-room retreat built in the style of a small village of whitewashed terraced houses, set in a landscape of lily ponds and rewilded gardens, wrapped by the Helderberg mountains in the distance.