Stands for Sale - Mountainlands Nature Reserve

This exceptional reserve near Barberton in South Africa is world famous for its unique geology and natural heritage. Inscribed in the World Heritage list in July 2018. Encompassing 18,000 hectares (44,480 acres), it offers excellent game viewing, a wilderness / bush experience and an unparalleled opportunity to acquire your own piece of Africa.

Mountainlands brings you the opportunity to purchase one of only eighteen highly exclusive 1-hectare private stands (10 sold only 8 remaining!) where you can build your own private game lodge or holiday home. It offers piece of mind and full title ownership in a large wilderness area which is professionally managed.

Just imagine a secluded hide-away 3,5 hours from Pretoria / Johannesburg, 45 minutes from bustling city centre, Mbombela and 15 minutes from Barberton town for necessities. With both the world-renowned Kruger National Park and the picturesque town Kaapsehoop just 1-hour’s drive for day trips. Your own secret world of crystal streams and dappled shade, where krantzes echo the call of starlings and the bark of bushbuck or baboon. Imagine your own nature reserve, a leopard’s wide-eyed stare blazing in the lion-colored grass; red hartebeest like a frieze on a sunset hill and impala’s eyes like a galaxy of green stars in the torch-light. Imagine being there after work on Friday. Imagine your neighbors being plains game such as kudu, eland, blue wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, red hartebeest, buffalo, rib buck and impala; forest animals such as duiker and bushbuck, bush pigs, warthogs, leopards, caracals, brown hyenas, jackals and multiple bird species. Imagine walking the mountains in a time before motorcars, when ox wagons creaked up stony inclines, and all that broke the horizon were mountains and flat-crowned thorn trees. Imagine what it would be like to find a place that looked as wild and beautiful today – and free of malaria. This is Mountainlands Nature Reserve.

5 Stands available in the R6 million to R7 million price range:

1. Olive Grove – R6,050,000 - Full title, serviced land; Including VAT and transfer costs

The site lies on a rocky bushveld shoulder, on a ridge thrusting above the valley bottom in a vast semi-circle of wooded, grass-capped hills. A seasonal stream, deep in the valley below, crosses in front of this spectacular north facing site, adding to the whisper of Hyslop’s Creek to the east. The feeling of being at the centre of attention in a giant natural amphitheatre, is invigorating.

The slope downwards from the almost level promontory is quite steep. The tree diversity at this site is impressive and the olives at least will provide some year-round shade. Undergrowth is sparse, with grass only appearing on the lower slopes of the ridge where shade and tree density are reduced. The site is dry and the trees mostly deciduous, but it is exposed to cooling breezes in hot weather.

The building footprint follows the north-south orientation of the ridge and is limited to the more level ground. The rocky outcrop at the north end of the site provides for a skillfully constructed viewing deck, to be shared with monkeys in the sour plum season. The vehicle approach will come from the south-east more-or-less along the contour.

2. Pinnacle Plain – R6,600,000 - Full title, serviced land; Including VAT and transfer costs

High savanna, eternal sun swept grasslands with spectacular wrap-around views – a space where your heart swells to the movement of the grass, silvered by a runnel of breeze. The distant range-on-range of hills towards the north, misted blue with moisture haze; the sky like a vast ceramic bowl, blue glazed, clouds providing endless interest.

To the north-east, the vast bulk of the Wonderscheur ridge swells and dips behind your own little knoll. To the south, behind you is the sweep of the Makhonjwas with their krantzes and wooded groins of forest. This site more than any other, celebrates the sheer escapism of high open grassland. It is located on a mid-slope shoulder overlooking the fan of wooded valleys that feed into Hyslop’s Creek. The footprint is gently tilted north, in a hollow between two slight grassy rises to the east and west. Off-site the ground falls away steeply in the front, exaggerating its elevation and sense of freedom. It provides a classic opportunity for a creative architect to blend the dwelling into the minimal cover the site provides.

The building limit is an east west oblong that includes the whole of a slight dent in the shoulder of the hill. It will require some skillful excavation and turf roof to hide the low-profile structure from casual view. Your eyes are naturally drawn to the classical view down the Fourteen Streams gorge and through to the Noord Kaap hills. But it is the vast expanse of open sky that provides the signature for this site, especially at night where star gazing will become a knockout aperitif for extended “dining out”.

3. Dombeya Grove – R6,600,000 - Full title, serviced land; Including VAT and transfer costs

Haunting montane bushveld with breath taking views down the Fourteen Streams valley, where richly folded velvet slopes rise to smoothly peaked grasslands. This site perches on a lightly wooded hillside half-way to everywhere, and feels connected to everything. The valley bottoms and mountain peaks are all right there, seemingly at arms’ length.

A mix of grassland and wooded outcrops are where you tread and the seasons turn all of them through their independent cycles of renewal for your benefit and wonder. The north facing slope is quite steep, requiring a split-level building format, probably above and below a horizontal rocky ridge populated with Combretum, Acacia and flame flowered Pride-of-de-Kaap. The two-tier building footprint curves round the slope, accommodating a wonderfully textured outcrop of quartz veined rocks. The natural spaces separating tree clumps provide uncluttered views through about 250°. Road access is down a short zigzag from the entrance road above and behind the site entering it from the southwest.

4. Two Streams – R6,930,000 - Full title, serviced land; Including VAT and transfer costs

Two Streams site is located in riverine forest at the junction of two headwater streams, the most westerly tributaries of Hyslop’s Creek. The stream flows easterly and the building footprint slopes gently north, extending across the water into shaded forest under-storey. Across the stream immediately to the west, there is a strip of open grassland, from which a view of the towering Saddleback Range looms impressively. The building footprint follows the curve of the stream bank, lined by large Wild Plum, Waterberry and Matumi trees. These are the dominant canopy species along the riverine strip. The only approach road follows the southern stream bank from the east. This is completely screened from the site by riverine trees and a low ridge just 30 metres east of the building limit.

5. Wild Fig – R6,930,000 - Full title, serviced land; Including VAT and transfer costs

The site lies on a south-west facing foot-slope, overlooking the headwaters of Hyslop’s Creek. It is a flat, rectangular site dominated by a great Sycamore Fig in the centre and covered entirely with slim young trees typical of dry bushveld thicket. This is a natural dwelling site with ready evidence of its human history.

The well shaded site allows for limited views through the surrounding trees over the Acacia savannah of the valley floor to the slopes of the Saddleback range on the high horizon. These may be enhanced by judicious pruning and landscaping. Building here will require skill and care, primarily to avoid damaging the roots of the venerable old fig. To optimize retaining cover and shade, with selective access to distant views, modular construction, connected with walkways would suit this site. The same style could extend to a raised viewing deck centered around the great fig tree.

This is a sheltered site, warm in winter, with a dazzling variety of tree species, a prominent old Knobwood (Zanthoxylum capense) deserving mention. Access will be from the east, well screened through the thick bush above the site.

Cannot believe this can be yours? Book a private viewing to experience the magic yourself.