Page 24 - Fourways Gardens October 2020

Nature

STONE HILL – A DOG LOVER’S DELIGHT

B Y JAMES CLARKE, PHO T OGR APHY B Y MARY BRO ADLEY

he red brick road alone spoke It was the last day of winter and, at the crest, and all being well out of sight of the others.

of dedication: kilometres of half where our accommodation was in one of Each is individually fenced o . Why are
bricks, half-a-million of them the 10 widely spaced timber cottages, a they fenced? It’s because Stone Hill allows
TI’m sure, all neatly laid and still southerly wind threatened to snap-freeze us. guests to bring their pet dogs.
tidy after countless vehicles had ridden

over them for many years. Incredibly, the The next day, the rst day of spring, the The place was fully booked yet we rarely
wide, handmade road, was laid mostly temperatures dutifully soared into the heard barking apart, that is, from the
by two men – a former brick layer, Petros mid-20s. occasional happy anticipatory bark dogs
Mhlanga and an assistant. give when about to be taken for a walk. The
This was Stone Hill – a quiet, rural, self- absence of what I call ‘suburban barking’
The road carried us into the hills, high above catering resort to which the Tourism was partly because each family’s dogs are
Magaliesburg village, into a wonderful Grading Council of South Africa has awarded out of sight of the others and dog lovers (as
landscape of blue and gold - the gold of the a four-star rating. You bring your own food opposed to dog owners) are, I have found,
winter veld and the blue of the sky. – or you can have it sent up. Beautifully considerate types.
presented picnics, platters, breads and
The 360 degree view from the top is of cakes are supplied by a neighbour or, if you There’s a choice of walking trails either
mostly virgin veld, soft contours sparsely pre-order a day before, the village Super down to the river or following the wide
dotted with ancient wild olive trees, dark Spar not only delivers everything but packs paths through the grass-covered hills with
and dense, and the occasional sentinel your fridge ready for your arrival. great all-round views, including the blue
kiepersol (cabbage tree), scarred survivors ridge of the Magaliesberg that stretches

of countless veld res, and several, lone- Each cottage has a well-equipped and towards Hartbeespoort.
standing, soetdorings (sweet thorn) with carefully designed kitchen - the work of
their white needle-like thorns. In the Caroline de Villiers who, with Mark Morgan, I was not surprised to nd scattered in the

distance, rank upon rank of hills and ridges. owns Stone Hill. Caroline, a third generation veld hundreds of pieces of Stone Age tools
And we were just an hour’s drive from Kenyan who settled here in 1970, designed – broken scrapers and discarded cutting
Fourways. the cottages, some being double storeyed tools, left over the past million years and

Fourways Gardens • 22 • October 2020