Page 10 - LandscapeSAIssue111

PROJECT

Above and below: Riverdene children’s maze and play area Paved walkways and buggy paths are wheelchair-friendly
be improved by incorporating compost
and mulch to prevent moisture loss and
reduce dust due to excessive Eastern
Cape winds.

Visser says that the initial setting out and
surveying of Sindile was quite harrowing
as rangers were required to keep roaming
lions and buffalo away from the team
before temporary fences were erected.
Borehole water, supplied by tankers
during the early days of installation,
needed to be rationed as it was the only
source of potable water to the reserve.

All plants, compost and topsoil had to be
delivered to the donkey camp situated
outside the Shamwari reserve, and
transported from here to each lodge.
Irrigation and ongoing
maintenance
Irrigation is supplied through closely
monitored boreholes that supply the
various lodges. The irrigation design
incorporates various storage facilities
and booster pumps and where practical,
The Sindile tented camp, draped along Eagles Crag and Riverdene in the same drip irrigation systems were installed to
the natural contours of a hill, incorporates time frame of three months. This was planting beds to minimise water loss due
gravel walkways and buggy paths. Where followed closely by Long Lee Manor, the existing site conditions.
slopes were more than one in ten, gravel the tented camp and an upgrade to the
fix was used to prevent slippage of the entrance gate welcome centre. Ongoing maintenance is being
gravel course. Extensive timber decks undertaken in-house by the Shamwari
with outdoor showers and small splash The full installation took place over a team.
pools were incorporated for each tented period of a year just before Covid struck,
villa. and in the middle of one of the longest Acknowledgements
Eastern Cape droughts in living memory. Information supplied by Landmark Studios
Installation process Temperatures peaked in the mid-thirties and Kingfisher Landscaping, a division of Life
The installation was a very quick to forties, which was “unbearable at Green Group.
turnaround, with Kingfisher Landscaping times”, according to Antoinette Visser of Photos by Ryan Plakonouris, Glenn Wagner
having to undertake the installation of Kingfisher Landscaping. Poor soils had to and Antoinette Visser. n

8 Landscape SA • Issue 111 2022