So it was with Bushmans Kloof. The beginning of the work to create an all-weather road over Pakhuis Pass easing accessibility raised the first tremor of fear, for how can wilderness remain wilderness if a tarmac road is provided instead of a dirt track? The hotel however is already benefitting because for days in the winter it had been completely cut off – and nothing destroys an hotel faster than having no guests. My visit was timed for the South African spring to see the fynbos and Karroo in bloom, for these semi-arid regions become a magic carpet of flowers when rain falls, as well as to see the interior changes being wrought in the hotel.

Unfortunately the rain that brings this annual miracle to the area also washes away the dirt road, turns dry stream beds into raging torrents, dusty dips into small lakes and generally makes access via dirt roads range from difficult to impossible. The tarmac all-weather surface makes the hotel more accessible but also brings it that bit closer to civilisation, tames the ‘wild’ in ‘wilderness’ a little.

More guests also subtly alter the reality of the hotel. No longer the preserve of just wilderness lovers for whom a dirt track is a part of the experience this is now becoming a truly international destination hotel since its awards and recognition in the international press. Guests now arriving have demanded changes such as the addition of televisions to the rooms, chipping away further at the wilderness, making the hotel a little less of a retreat.

The gardens are being remodelled and extended to meet the fynbos and to surround the two new Spa treatment rooms being created. Wonderful rooms, providing a wonderful spa experience surrounded by the scents and sounds of the fynbos, with its wild herbs, protea and rooibos bushes and cacophony of bird calls, insect chirrups and the rushing of water in the riverbed they overlook. Yet the gardens and new spa rooms chip away a little further at the ‘Wild’ element of the ‘Wilderness’, although the hotels position as a part of the protected 85,000 hectare Cederberg Wilderness limits this process.

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