The Cavern Resort & Spa is situated in the Amphitheatre in the Northern Drakensberg, a World Heritage site.
With magnificent scenery of towering mountains, indigenous forests and cool Berg streams, the area is one of captivating beauty. Bushman paintings and rock carvings add interest.
Early European woodcutters exploited the yellowwood, stinkwood and other timbers on the property before it became a grazing farm.
In the 1930s Walter Coventry started a small guesthouse after he resigned as Superintendent of the Natal National Park. Then, in 1941, Judge Thrash bought the Cavern and employed Ruth and Bill Carte to run it.
The Cartes, recognising its potential as a guest house, bought the farm. They quarried sandstone to build the original thatched rondavels and had to be resourceful over the years as Eskom power was available only in 1976.
I remember well the evening entertainment, which included games of wit and action, favourites being charades and carpet bowls. The Saturday night dance was a highlight. A radiogram powered with an extension cable through the lounge window to a car battery was used for music back then.
Today The Cavern offers two types of accommodation. Standard accommodation is set among lush garden landscapes. Superior rooms and suites have magnificent views of the mountains.
Guests can enjoy relaxing treatments by qualified body care therapists at the Forest Retreat. This spa overlooks the fern forest, and offers a choice of massages, including a hot stone massage, as well as various body treatments and grooming options.
You can also enjoy lounging at the pool or choose from a huge variety of activities. There is tennis, lawn bowls, two daily guided hikes, fly-fishing and horse trails for the experienced rider or the not-so-sure.
Children can enjoy pony rides, canoeing on the dam and an exciting playground.
Visit www.cavern.co.za to see their calendar of activities, ranging from nature, art and photographic courses to stargazing weekends, Christmas in July, biking and hiking.
The Cavern offers some of the most magnificent hiking trails and provides guides and packed lunches for outings to the Amphitheatre and Tugela Gorge.
The grasslands are rich in Berg flowers, and the forests are home to 70 tree species.
The bird list is impressive, boasting 24 endemic species. Eland patrol the hills and adorn the caves in ancient Bushman paintings. Baboons, mountain reedbuck and grey rhebuck may be seen. At night a resident leopard prowls.
Not for nothing is The Cavern termed “the resort of many happy returns”. It is still run by the Carte family and is a place where families bond, friendships are formed and memories are made – I stole my first kiss at The Cavern. - Sunday Tribune