About Us
Live your dream! This has always been our motto. And now we meet a great desire for life.
We – this is a joyful, positive and six-headed family from Germany who is ready for every adventure. Our love for South Africa is not new and so we decided to make this big step after thorough preparation. From now on our life in Mountain Shadows takes place – a fantastic place where we want to bring in all our experiences, ideas and strength. For us the fulfillment of a dream, hopefully for you an incredibly fantastic vacation.
What we believe is
We are confident that our commercial and craftsmanship is a sound basis for a successful continuation of the popular Mountain Shadows Farm and the Mountain Shadows Guesthouse.But we also know that this alone is not enough. This is why we bring with you a great deal of experience, hospitality, love of the country and, above all, joy of always new challenges.
What’s new
Mountains Shadows is very popular with both young and old and enjoys a large circle of regular customers. We value the existing concept and have made it our mission to continue the tried and tested.
But we also believe that values are best preserved through change. That is why, in addition to the usual service, we will implement some innovations for our loyal and new customers. Let yourself be surprised by a somewhat more exclusive design of our premises, a targeted ecological and sustainable orientation as well as a wide range of movement activities. As sports-minded hosts, we are already looking forward to enriching your stay with mountain biking, horse riding and stand-up paddling
The History of Mountain Shadows
An early dutch settler by the name of Herman Barentz was first granted his land in 1693. He named it Dekkers Valley. There were five successive owners of the land between this date and 1811 when, on the 6th September, Joshua Malherbe became the owner and built the Cape Dutch Manor House that was completed in 1823. In 1847 he sold the property to Jan Abraham Louw for 425 pounds.
Through the decades Dekkers Valley changed hands fourteen times and in the process some of the original acreage was sold off.
In 1959 Emile du Toit bought the Manor House and the remaining portion of the farm for 12500 pounds. The du Toit family was responsible for the restoration of the Manor House that had fallen into a sad state of disrepair by then.
Working in conjunction with the architect George Osler of Stellenbosch, an acknowledged expert in the restoration of Cape Dutch buildings, the restoration was completed and the beautiful Manor House declared a National Monument in 1976. Since there were six surrounding farms which also retained the name Dekkers Valley, the du Toits renamed their portion „Bergskladus“ which they felt reflected the idyllic location of the farm.
The farm was sold again in 1979 and after the restoration of the Jonkershuis and complete redecoration of the Manor House, it was opened to visitors in 1982. During 1986 the old cellar building was converted into a wine cellar and conference room. In 1993 the Jongmanshuis was converted into three Double Rooms.
Today the Manor House with it’s delightfully restored Jonkershuis and farm buildings comprises 10 Double en-suite rooms, including one Family Suite. In July 2017 we as family of six started our great adventure and immigrated to South Africa. The Beauty and wildness of this country and of course the cheerful and friendly people impress us again, every day.In Mountain Shadows we found our dream of a working farm combined with a guesthouse come true.
The history, the magic of the mountains and the tranquility and peace of this special piece of land catches you, as soon as you enter the driveway. We hope to welcome you at Mountain Shadows one day.