Cape Town - The mountains above Chapman’s Peak Drive in Hout Bay still bear the scars of the devastating fire that ravaged Cape Town’s southern peninsula in early March last year.
But the soft rains have had their healing effect and, though trees stand gnarled and black, there’s a sheen of green on the ground and all over the watsonias are blossoming blue and orange.
It’s a sign of healing and rebirth after disaster, and the same can be said for Tintswalo Atlantic Lodge – situated on the ocean’s edge right at the beginning of “Chappies” – which was virtually razed by the inferno.
Like the mountain fynbos that relies on periodic fires to regenerate, Tintswalo is back. It reopened recently for the summer holidays and is fresher and more vibrant than ever before.
(On a personal note: 20 years ago when I lived in Hout Bay, the spot was occupied by low whitewashed buildings built back into the milkwoods that served as a dormitory, mess hall and ablution block for under-privileged kids for their holidays. I used to help an ex-cop mate who ran the place with the cooking and we’d dive for fist-sized black mussels in the marine reserve in front of the facility … something that was permitted, though taking out crayfish was not.)
You access Tintswalo Atlantic through a gate just before the Chapman’s Peak Drive tollgate. The slope down to the lodge is so steep that you’re obliged to leave your vehicle in the parking lot on the upper level while a driver takes you down to reception. It’s a fine idea because this is the stretch of road where one driver famously couldn’t “beat the bends” and, although he survived the plunge, there wasn’t much point trying to get the wreckage back up to the road.
Last March’s fire was so hellishly hot that the metal kitchen countertops and pots melted and solidified into grotesque shapes and glasses were fantastically warped. There’s a display of some of these and it’s hard not to shudder when you imagine what could have happened had the place not been evacuated timeously. But that’s where the horror ends – and most visitors at Tintswalo will anyway be unaware of the place’s history.
The 10 uniquely decorated rooms as well as communal lounge are airy and colourful – decorated much in the style of an extremely upmarket beach house – with all the glass-fronted rooms having clear views of the iconic Hout Bay mountain known as The Sentinel. Sitting on your private veranda, at the small (heated) pool or on the lounge deck with a glass or two of the Western Cape’s finest to hand, you’re treated to an uninterrupted panorama that stretches 180º from Hout Bay beach to that spot where Chapman’s Peak Drive twists away out of sight to Noordhoek.
I’m a sucker for doors and each one at Tintswalo is different. They are huge, heavy and ornate, adding a surprising touch of almost Byzantine majesty.
Nothing, however, compares to the sea. At high tide it breaks no more than 20 metres from your open windows and, I suspect, when there’s a tidal surge or storm you might get the foot of your bed wet.
Who cares? The surf break is way louder than any inner-metropolitan traffic noise but it won’t prevent you sleeping like a baby.
l The five-star Tintswalo Atlantic Lodge is the only private accommodation concession within the Table Mountain National Park – one of South Africa’s eight World Heritage Sites. For more information, go to www.tintswalo.com
Saturday Star