The public can now stay in this former ‘beach cottage’ of South Africa’s prime ministers and presidents

Hidden away in the beautiful, forested grounds of Umdoni Park at Pennington on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast is a house once used by some of South Africa’s most influential people. Built in 1920 by sugar baron Sir Frank Reynolds as a ‘beach cottage’ for his friend, General Louis Botha, the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa, today it’s administered by the Umdoni Park Trust, which also oversees the lovely Umdoni Golf Course bordering the Indian Ocean and the park’s forest, one of the last stretches of original coastal forest left intact on the South Coast.

The foundations of the house were laid in June 1919 but, sadly, General Botha died two months later. After the house was completed in May 1920, his widow, Anne, occupied it until she too passed on. For the rest of the 20th century, Botha House, as it became known, served as a retreat for numerous fascinating and prominent people, including presidents, politicians, businessmen and other influential movers and shakers.

As someone who grew up on the South Coast, I heard many stories about this ‘president’s beach house’, but despite numerous attempts I never managed to visit it, tucked away as it is among coastal trees and accessed only by a dirt road.
So I was almost as delighted as some of my golf-mad relatives to discover that it has been opened to the public as a wonderful – and very reasonably priced – guest house.

According to the more serious golfers among us, neither its Cape Dutch gables nor its sea view are as attractive as the fact that you can easily walk from it to tee off on the Umdoni Golf Course, or to enjoy a beer at the clubhouse, another lovely old gabled building built by Frank Reynolds. The clubhouse sits on top of the hill opposite Botha House, yet it’s impossible to see Botha House from there because it’s hidden behind a screen of massive fig and other ancient coastal trees.

Frank Reynolds himself lived not far up the hill from Botha House in another old and now famous home, Lynton Hall. Having been knighted, being a member of one of Durban’s A-list families and serving on the Natal Legislative Council, Sir Frank enjoyed some special privileges. One of these was the right to select rare plants from those imported by Durban’s Botanic Gardens for himself. As a result, when he died he left a garden boasting one of the finest private collections of exotic species in Africa – and some magnificent indigenous ones too.

Frank and his brother Charles, both of whom made significant contributions to the development of the sugar industry in South Africa, are buried in a lovely old walled graveyard in the grounds of Lynton Hall. Charles became something of a family >>
>> disgrace and died in South America, supposedly after being stabbed by a jealous husband. Apparently his body was pickled in rum, placed in a lead coffin and brought back to Umzinto to be buried. The rest of the family seemed quite level-headed though, with Frank’s son Lewis becoming General Smuts’s private secretary and a member of parliament for the South Coast. I have to mention that Frank is rumoured to have held a funeral service for one of his legs, which was amputated shortly before he died – so maybe he wasn’t always completely level-headed.

Fortunately the current owner of Lynton Hall, a descendant of Frank’s, does seem to have a sound head on his shoulders. Although he lives in the United Kingdom, he visits the estate regularly, is patron of its golf development centre, and takes an active interest in the entire park and its surroundings.

I always imagined that Ol’ Frank had quite a time of things clearing the forest to establish the original golf course, but after inspecting the photographs at Botha House I now believe all he did was replace the original open grasslands with greens and fairways. The stands of trees are much as they were in his day, and the clumps of coastal bush too. It turns out that Frank Reynolds, like all too few entrepreneurs, had the foresight to protect and maintain as much of his estate’s natural surroundings as possible, even going so far as to place the whole 200-hectare Umdoni Park into a trust for the people of South Africa in perpetuity – so it can never be ‘developed’.

Over the years the trust has done an outstanding job of making the park accessible to the public while maintaining its integrity. Various walks, hikes and mountain bike trails wind through the forests and are a bonus for visitors to Botha House who might not be such keen golfers. A walk along ‘Molly’s Road’ (Molly was Frank’s daughter) takes you to Otter Gorge viewsite where you can rest on worn railway-sleeper benches under massive old trees, looking down into the almost secret gorge with its forests and pools.

On our walk we saw duiker and banded mongoose. The birding on the estate is fantastic, with Forest Weavers, Crowned Eagles and Long-crested Eagles often spotted from the viewsite. Hikers regularly report seeing a pair of Martial Eagles which apparently nest nearby. It’s worthwhile taking a small flask of tea on any of the hikes because there are plenty of places you’ll want to stop and enjoy the views, either of the gorges, golf course, forest or sea.

The beach that’s used by guests at Botha House is a small private one with old ruined changerooms and a funny stone tidal pool. Situated in front of the golf course, it has become popular for wedding photographs and parties – stately Botha House being a perfect venue for weddings in general. Uninvited ‘guests’ at some of these occasions are a large family of dassies, which scuttle about among the rocks and invited guests.

At the beach parking area, which is right in front of the clubhouse, are two lovely old structures, largely in ruins. One is a red brick mill that was once adorned with sails, and the other a stone railway siding built especially for a visit by the then British Royal Family. King George V had been ill and it was suggested that he visit South Africa to convalesce, but he passed away before the visit could take place.

Much had been done to upgrade both Lynton Hall and Botha House for the visit though, and Botha House still boasts its original, beautifully simple yet sturdy teak furniture – although obviously the soft furnishings have been replaced. As a contemporary visitor, it’s quite weird to find yourself sleeping in a bed possibly once slept in by any number of powerful, interesting or outlandish characters, such as Anne Botha, prime ministers Jan Smuts and B. J. Vorster, and state presidents P. W. and F. W. de Klerk. The guest book makes fascinating and priceless reading.

But you only have to spend one night at Botha House to see why people loved staying there. All the rooms are large and have superb sea views, en-suite bathrooms and fireplaces. There’s an enormous upstairs stoep from which you can look out over the lawns, the swimming pool and the forest between the house and the ocean, a deep veranda for lazy beach holiday sundowners, a downstairs lounge and dining room, and a traditional colonial entrance hall. What more could a president, or anyone else for that matter, want?

Botha House
039 975 1227, www.bothahouse.co.za

Lynton Hall
039 975 3122, www.lyntonhall.co.za