A warm family welcome and a slice of quintessential Africa at Three Tree Hill Lodge

The previous owner built Three Tree Hill into the side of a hill, overlooking the Mfazimnyama Valley, which is part of the Spioenkop Game Reserve. The lodge is surrounded by several flat-crowned acacia trees which gives us that ‘iconic Africa’ feel – it’s real Robert Redford and Meryl Streep stuff.

We’ve brought up four children here, and our aim is to extend a warm, family welcome to our guests. Having only nine rooms means we’re able to offer a very personalised experience.

We decided to make life easy for larger-than-average families by including lodges that accommodate four children. Two of our three family cottages have their own pools so the kids can make as much noise as they like. We offer little extras including a toy box, small gowns, and mini hot water bottles. We’ve even got a couple of family specific trails – one of which leads to a ‘magic faraway tree’ that’s actually a very large, climbable acacia with a big wooden swing – and another that leads to a river and encourages them to get properly dirty and muddy.

Being in Spioenkop gives us access to a population of white rhino, which is a real treat for visitors, and we’re the only private concession to take guests into the park – on foot. It’s a real ‘touch the ground lightly’ experience that lets you feel part of the environment. You feel a little bit vulnerable but it’s all very exciting.

Three Tree Hill is also surrounded by the site of a famous Anglo Boer War battle. Our previous owner was passionate about the Battlefields and we’ve continued that theme. The walls in our lounge are a treasure trove of memorabilia and every now and then a relative of someone who fought in the battle will bring in a diary, a buckle or a belt and we add it to the story.

We try to reduce our environmental footprint wherever possible and we encourage people to take home things they’ve observed – whether it’s re-filling wine bottles with water or preserving tea bags to use as firelighters. Our lodges are painted green, so we blend into the valley. We’re lucky to live in a farming area, which gives us fantastic fresh produce. One fun thing we do is cook meals on our oversized solar cooker. It’s a series of reflective aluminium sheets put together like a satellite dish and it boils a five-litre pot of water in nine minutes. Our cook uses it to make dishes like lentil curry and lamb stew. She goes out once an hour to stir the pot and turn it in tandem with the sun.