Teniqua Treetops in the Forest Canopy

It is not often that one is invited to sleep, eat and wash high up in a wild, indi­gen­ous forest can­opy, sur­roun­ded by moun­tains, bird song, but­ter­flies and, well not much else really. But the ten­ted tree house resort set in the foot­hills of the Outeniqua Mountains right in the heart of the Garden Route does just that.

Not only does this pretty, ten­ted tree­house des­tin­a­tion lie roughly 23 kilo­metres out­side of the equally attract­ive vil­lage of Sedgefield, but by all accounts a visit here is 'quietly life-changing'. It is also one of few truly eco-friendly venues.

The cre­at­ors of Teniqua Treetops emphas­ise that they have gone to great lengths to pre­serve the peace and quiet of the nat­ural envir­on­ment, have used nat­ural mater­i­als in the con­struc­tion of the tree houses, and have con­cerned them­selves with min­im­ising their energy use and impact on the environment.

They have incor­por­ated a dry toi­let sys­tem, pipe river water from the Karatara River for wash­ing, whilst drink­ing water is har­ves­ted from rain (both sources are tested and pot­able); they pro­cess their own grey and black water and use no chem­ic­als when wash­ing or cleaning.

Despite, or because of, this there is a beauty to this part of the world that is totally unspoilt by the pres­ence of the the tree houses. Bird and beast behave as though the can­op­ies remain undis­turbed and giant 1000-year old milk­wood trees, tower­ing yel­low­woods, can­dle­woods and saf­frons form a treas­ure trove of trees that envel­ope the resort in a private world of leafy, dis­tilled sun­shine and effort­less harmony.

There is a magic ele­ment to the dis­tri­bu­tion of the tree­houses, some of which are multi-level, or have romantic glassed showers, loos with a view and pretty decks from which one can simply sit and absorb the forest views, undis­turbed. For those with chil­dren, there is plenty at ground level to provide enter­tain­ment, and a huge jungle gym, tram­po­line, swim­ming pools as well as plenty of hik­ing and river and rock  hop­ping are par for the course.

Teniqua Treetops is self-catering, eas­ily provided for by the fam­ous Saturday morn­ing craft and pro­duce mar­ket in Sedgefield, and a quick detour to the super­mar­ket for essen­tials for which the mar­ket does not cater.

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