Driving from Stanford to Gansbaai, you would be hard-pressed to imagine that the low hills on the left were covered with anything but monotonous scrub. In reality, they have proven to be one of the treasure troves of the fynbos biome, and they shelter the largest remaining milkwood forest in the southwestern Cape.
The modern story of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve begins around 2003, when the Lutzeyers decided en famille to leave the big city where their (relatively modest) fortune had been made in the packaging industry. Their search for new pastures ended on the low, rolling hills above Stanford village, where they found a degraded dairy farm they could afford.
The nutrient-poor fynbos vegetation of the coastal plain and hills was, however, clearly not suited to dairy or indeed just about any kind of farming. Nearly 20 years of extreme hard work that has made Grootbos Private Nature Reserve the leading conservation and tourism enterprise of the region.
What started out as a hobbity self-catering resort, built to help pay for the restoration of the natural vegetation on a farm near Gansbaai,...
From its infancy, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve started as a small self-catering getaway. Grootbos has transformed itself and the entire...
The owners of Grootbos themselves became, by and by, fynbos experts and Grootbos became a champion of fynbos conservation and indeed the onl...