Cape to Canyon Collection

21/01/2025

27/07/2024

Bourke’s Luck Potholes… what a stunning geological formation cause by the
Blyde River Canyon Lodge
Blyde River Wilderness Lodge Blyde River Canyon

Blyde River Canyon 🇿🇦

24/07/2024

Come and enjoy our hospitality in this incredible place!
Natures beauty at it’s finest!

18/07/2024

What a beautiful place we live in!

06/06/2024

06/06/2024

capetocanyoncollection

25/05/2024

The Franschhoek Valley in South Africa's Cape Winelands was settled by French Huguenots in the late 1600s. The name Franschhoek is Dutch for "French Corner".

The Huguenots were French Protestants who fled France in the 17th century due to religious persecution by the Catholic Church. In 1671, François Villion, a pioneer Huguenot, arrived in the Cape of Good Hope, and 17 years later, 200 Huguenots settled in the Cape Region. In 1688, the Huguenots began settling the Olifantshoek valley, which became known as Franschhoek. The Dutch government granted the land to the Huguenots, who introduced their knowledge of viniculture to the area. Today, the Franschhoek Valley is known as the food and wine capital of South Africa and is home to some of the country's best wine estates.

The Franschhoek Valley also has a Cap Classique Route that includes nine cellars, where visitors can learn how to make Cap Classique. In 2012, a private operator reinstated a branch line that was previously used by steam locomotives, and now operates the Franschhoek Wine Tram, which transports tourists between wine estates in double-decker trams.

Pigcasso (April 2016 – March 2024) was a 700-kilogram (1,500 lb) pig from South Africa whose paintings have sold for millions of rand all over the world. Pigcasso is best known for being the first non-human artist to be given her own art exhibition, and for holding the record for most expensive artwork by an animal ever sold. She is also famous for the watchmaker Swatch using one of her paintings in its 2019 limited-edition Flying Pig timepiece.[1] More broadly, she was known for inspiring conversations around veganism, vegetarianism, and factory farming.

22/05/2024

THE CAPE VULTURE
It is among the most majestic raptors you’ll see in South African skies. These fierce-eyed birds with their creamy, buff feathers are highly intelligent, far-sighted, blessed with a sense of humour, and (mostly) not too smelly.

Griffons are often the first vultures you’ll see arrive at a kill or at a ‘vulture restaurant’. You’d think that they, or any vulture for that matter, would smell as bad as the carrion they eat. But in fact, Cape vultures are fastidious birds, bathing in clean water after every meal. They mostly exude a faint, pleasant fragrance not dissimilar to baby talcum powder.

They can also be mischievous – and seem to find human shoelaces endlessly amusing.

In the wild, they are majestic on the wing. They fly higher than any other vulture – 8 000m, which means their eyesight is incredibly good. Scientific studies have suggested they can see 8 times further than humans, with 20 times better resolution. They can even see air molecules moving, which is how they find thermals.

In other words, you may not see them high in the sky, but they certainly can see you.

They’re also the biggest eaters at a carrion feast, wolfing down a kilogram or more in just a few minutes.

They have gregarious lives, mostly roosting in cliff-side colonies.

South Africa is home to about 10 000 Cape vultures, and the species is currently classed as ‘vulnerable’. The best places to see them are the Magaliesberg mountains in Gauteng and North West (where there is a large, stable colony), near the Sterkfontein Dam in Free State and north and south along the nearby Drakensberg mountains, in De Hoop Nature Reserve near Cape Town in Western Cape, or at Kranskop in Marakele National Park in the Waterberg mountains of Limpopo province – a few hours’ drive north of Pretoria.

Their greatest threats are poisonings and collisions with power lines. And the greatest help for their continued existence comes from farmers who bring carcasses to ‘vulture restaurants’ – designated protected areas in the countryside, sometimes with nearby viewing/study sites, where safe, poison-free carrion is left out to feed any vultures in the region.

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01/05/2024

To each and every one of our hardworking staff! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

Not only is your work exceptional, but your dedication, love and support in everything you do is noticed and appreciated, especially the care you give towards our guests, each other, the environment as well as our Wildlife! 🤝✊🤙🤘🙏 🇿🇦

WE ARE

21/03/2024

10/03/2024

This is one of Africa’s weirdest birds. It struts about the savannah with the head of an eagle and the legs of a stork. In reality, it is a bird of prey – with a family all to itself. The Secretary bird possesses a snake-killing prowess that is the stuff of legend.