ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY & ECOLOGICALLY SOUND... A RESPONSIBLE HOLIDAY CHOICE; TENIQUA TREETOPS

Teniqua Treetops endorses the vision of a cleaner world for all. We are an eco-friendly resort. Climate change is a big concern, we actively try to minimize our energy usage whilst ensuring the long term sustainability of the indigenous forest on our farm.
We are low density and low impact.

We harvest our rain water which is crystal clear and use it for drinking and then we pump river water up for bathing and washing.
The river water is brown in colour from the tannins in the fynbos (Natural South African flora), and contains minimal muddy sediment. Both river and rain water have been tested and are potable. The brown colour could be removed from the river water with flocculation (chemicals) and lots of energy and waste (completed flocculent). We felt this would not be environmentally justifiable.

The brown river water does react with fabric softener creating unsightly brown stains. So we no longer use softener but rather EcoSoft washing powder which has a built in softener. (Our towels may feel a little harder than those you are used to).

We need to process all our grey water and black water (toilets) ourselves. We predominantly use the latest dry toilet systems to safely and efficiently process human waste without threatening the sensitive Karatara catchment area; septic tanks are used where we don't do damage to the underlying root bed of the forest floor and are not on a water course.

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Grey water (washing) goes through a grease trap and then into a swale and gradually filters through the soil.

We are in an indigenous forest that is alive. There can be insects, spiders, snakes, birds, mammals. There is nothing really dangerous provided you are careful. We do get puff-adders in the long grass on hot days, but there are paths and if you look where you walk it is not a problem. Puff-adders are notoriously lazy; other snakes will run from you as you are much larger than them. If you corner an animal it may attack, if you leave it alone it will ignore you or run away.

This is Africa, this is a forest and this is real and utterly stunning; that's why the area is known as The Garden Route, Natures Valley, the Garden of Eden... welcome to paradise.