Outinequa Western Cape

 

From its position on a protected stretch of the Outeniqua Forest, Teniqua Treetops offers a unique tree house experience in South Africa’s rich Garden Route.

Situated in the Outinequa Forest, Teniqua Treetops feels like you’re on top of the world. This is a place where the hills undulate like waves – reaching great crests before gushing down into even greater gorges – where pine trees stand tall reaching up like the hairs on the back of your neck on an adventurous roller coaster ride.

At the bottom of these gorges are the rivers – flowing with cola-coloured waters that carry the tannins of the unique fynbos, (fine bush) indigenous to the landscape.  Add to this a symphony of birdsong by mostly unseen residents – including the elusive Knysna Lourie, Forest Buzzards, the Yellow-billed Kite, the Cape Batis, the Blackheaded Oriole, the mighty Fish Eagle, Spotted Eagle Owls, the Cape Robin, the Forest Canary – and many, many more.

 

The trees in this protected area are nearly as numerous as the birds – creating a thick carpet of rambling life – some more than a thousand years old. Giant Milkwood, Yellowwood, Candlewood and Saffron trees – they stand in thick patches, some blanketed in moss, others crowded by fynbos. Open fields break up the space – providing glimpses of the landscape’s drama.

 

At Teniqua Treetops – a unique, self-catering holiday resort of tented tree houses – life is all about the forest. Viv and Robyn Patz, who had been living urban, career-centred lives in Johannesburg, decided on a change of pace and, for most of the last decade, have painstakingly built each of the eight tree houses themselves, employing seven staff full time from the local area.

 

The structures are built to have minimal impact on the environment – and the forest itself had a say in the position of each one, since they were built only in the existing open gaps in the trees. For this reason, none of the tree houses are the same, their shapes and size informed by their position.