| As you pass through the blue peaks of the Sneeuberg along the N9 between Graaff-Reinet and Middelberg, not far from the turnoff to Nieu-Bethesda, you come upon an unassuming gate at the head of a farm road. Like so many exceptional places in this part off the Karoo, it requires only an adventurous spirit to drive a short three-kilometres through the bush into a small, perfectly-formed valley that the Scotts call home. Sue is there to greet you in her improbably lush and well-tended garden, which seems immune to the Karoo sun’s forbidding glare. No photograph can replicate the impact of arriving here on a sweltering day. No recording device can capture the intensity of sunlight bouncing off the homestead walls, the cool shadows dripping from an ancient pepper tree, the brilliant splashes of flowers or the whiteness of ducks waddling across a lawn so very green you want to kick off your shoes and roll on it like a child. The only sounds are bird calls and the drowsy distant hum of bees about their business.
The 4300 acre farm of Abbotsbury forms part of a greater 50 thousand ha conservancy. For guests this means the chance of seeing springbuck, kudu and steenbuck in a Malaria-free zone. The truly lucky might perhaps spot mountain reedbuck, the rare grey rhebuck, klipspringer and that shy feline, the caracal.
 Review Abbotsbury's fauna list
Arriving too late to relax at the hide or follow hiking paths up into the mountains, I missed out on enjoying some of the 120 bird species identified by Abbotsbury owners Sue and Gordon, including the endangered black eagle.
Check out Abbotsbury's bird list
Look at other great activities in the area...
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