Kingdom Lodge

Qambathi Mountain Lodge an affordable Luxury travel destination, South Africa – Kingdom of the Zulu’s

The setting at Qambathi Mountain Lodge is exquisite. A herd of lazy zebras gazes inquisitively at us driving in, and we’re torn between the close-up and personal encounter with them and by the magnificent peaks of the Kamberg mountains before us.

You can’t imagine a more picturesque backdrop for one of the most beautiful lodges in the area:Qambathi. Resurrected and painstakingly designed and rebuilt from an original old farmhouse, it’s the brainchild of architect Gerhard le Roux and business partner chef Stephan Erasmus. Set in the most perfect location, plum centre of the Kamberg and Rosetta valleys, it’s lush and verdant in summer, and even now, at the dawn of spring, its potential is magnificent.

Originality, despite its age-old foundations, oozes from every carefully considered pore of Qambathi. From the extraordinarily cool colours – natural white bull denim fabrics and blinds, sunbleached woods and warm stone – to the beaten metal lampshades and unique wallpapers, it’s a designer’s dream come to immaculate fruition.

“We wanted something different, something like no other lodge,” says Erasmus. Created with a vision of encompassing the style, form, raw material and skills of Africa with a contemporary and modern-day feel, the lodge is an astonishing mix of the unexpected and the eclectic.

Take the gorgeous bedrooms, for instance. All furnishings were created from camphor wood: it’s not only a natural insect repellant, which eliminates the need for invasive pesticides, it also exudes the most wondrous scent. Big soft hand-knotted rugs are everywhere, a far nicer and gentler alternative to commercial carpeting.

Handmade

All the furniture is all handmade, and throughout Qambathi, all light sculptures are made from solid slabs of natural edged timber with hand-blown glass beads and painstakingly-threaded Zulu teething beads, and your light comes from state-of-the-art LED low-energy globes. The kitchen wall is surfaced with waste coal dust, the kitchen floor made from local cave stone dust (as used by the Koi), and the guest book cover is from recycled crushed glass – as are all the glasses you’ll drink from here. And the wine cellar walls are the best: they’re made from grape skins from The Stables, the local winery.

Wonderful setting at Qambathi Mountain Lodge

Le Roux is no stranger to innovative architecture and design. A partner with the firm Theunissen Jankowitz, he was the leading architect for our famous and beautiful Moses Mabhida Stadium, but has also designed and worked on numerous lodges around South Africa, including Zimbali, four lodges at Nambithi and Thonga Beach Lodge, to name a few.

“This setting immediately appealed to us when we first saw it,” he says. “We drove here one morning and saw this old farmhouse, with an adjoining greenhouse, slowly deteriorating. It turns out it was an old post office and also a jail, built back in 1918. We bought it and started converting the farm to a game reserve.”

That was in 2007. The doors opened for business in July this year.

Qambathi Mountain Lodge

www.qambathi.co.za 

 

About the Author

On behalf of Qambathi Mountain Lodge

South Africa

Disney Vacation Club’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Villa

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