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STOnE hiLL – A dOg

LOvER’S dELighT

By James Clarke, Photography by Mary Broadley

T he red brick road alone spoke thorns. In the distance, rank upon Each cottage has a well-equipped and

rank of hills and ridges. And we were
carefully designed kitchen – the work
of dedication: kilometres of half
bricks, half-a-million of them
I’m sure, all neatly laid and still just an hour’s drive from Fourways. of Caroline de Villiers who, with Mark

Morgan, owns Stone Hill. Caroline, a
tidy after countless vehicles had ridden It was the last day of winter and, at third generation Kenyan who settled
over them for many years. Incredibly, the crest, where our accommodation here in 1970, designed the cottages,
the wide, handmade road, was laid was in one of the 10 widely spaced some being double storeyed and all
mostly by two men – a former brick timber cottages, a southerly wind being well out of sight of the others.
layer, Petros Mhlanga and an assistant. threatened to snap-freeze us. Each is individually fenced off. Why are
they fenced? It’s because Stone Hill
The road carried us into the hills, The next day, the first day of allows guests to bring their pet dogs.
high above Magaliesburg village, spring, the temperatures dutifully
into a wonderful landscape of blue soared into the mid-20s. The place was fully booked yet we
and gold – the gold of the winter rarely heard barking apart, that is, from
veld and the blue of the sky. This was Stone Hill – a quiet, rural, self- the occasional happy anticipatory
catering resort to which the Tourism bark dogs give when about to be
The 360-degree view from the top is Grading Council of South Africa has taken for a walk. The absence of what
of mostly virgin veld, soft contours awarded a four-star rating. You bring I call ‘suburban barking’ was partly
sparsely dotted with ancient your own food – or you can have it because each family’s dogs are out
wild olive trees, dark and dense, sent up. Beautifully presented picnics, of sight of the others and dog lovers
the occasional sentinel kiepersol platters, breads and cakes are supplied (as opposed to dog owners) are, I
(cabbage tree), scarred survivors by a neighbour or, if you pre-order a have found, considerate types.
of countless veld fires, and several, day before, the village Super Spar not
lone-standing soetdorings (sweet only delivers everything but packs There’s a choice of walking trails
thorn) with their white needle-like your fridge ready for your arrival. either down to the river or following

Waterfall Issue 11 2020 33