South African sunset …

THE view from a window in my comfy picture-perfect cottage at Bushmans Kloof reveals that after a red-sky at night it was a red sky this morning.

The days start early here with guests waking up at dawn to join a drive into the heart of the Cederberg Mountains, surrounding the isolated lodge, to enjoy a peaceful coffee at sunrise.

And, while I’m definitely not a morning person, it’s not hard to be inspired to start the day early when this is the view from the bedroom window.

Today it was up and out for an early-morning linger by a lake that’s a stone’s throw from the estate’s elegant guest compound.

Early morning in the Cederberg Mountains it’s quiet and crisp, and guests at Bushmans feel like they are the only people in this wild and remote corner of South Africa.

This peaceful lake is only a 10-minute drive from the lodge and provides the perfect location for an early coffee stop on the morning nature drive.

Our guide and driver Dwane prepares a pre-breakfast snack of yogurt, baked goodies and fresh coffee and we wander beside the mirror-like surface to take in all the details of the landscape washed in the golden light of sunset.

During our waterside break the silence is only broken by flocks of birds, some dancing from leg to leg in the shallows and others swooping across the still surface, but all chortling to welcome the new day.

And there are no mechanical sounds to be heard, no high-flying planes or far-off trucks motoring along the highway.

Just the easy conversation of contented travellers and the chortling of birds not worries about humans invading their corner of South Africa’s Cedarberg Mountains.