RETREATS
When the question is what comes next.
DATES
THE INVITATION
Sixty percent of the world’s population has never seen the Milky Way. The Cederberg, four and a half hours from Cape Town has some of the darkest skies on earth. The views include the galactic centre: the brightest, most star-dense part of the Milky Way that most of the northern hemisphere never sees.
Orion’s Odyssey puts you inside that sky for three nights. Each evening, Heine, astrophotographer and owner of one of the largest privately held telescopes in South Africa, takes you on an unforgettable journey. You’ll see and photograph planets, nebulas and galaxies.
And you’ll taste the cosmos. Our chef’s plant-based tasting menu runs alongside the stargazing each evening with every course built around a specific astronomical phenomenon with ingredients sourced from local farms and the property’s own garden.
Two people, two disciplines, one universe.
AT A GLANCE
4 days
Max 10 guests
Cederberg
Plant-based
THE CRAFT
Astrophotography is not photography. It is a long exposure of deep time.
THE IMAGE
Astrophotography
When you open a camera shutter on the night sky, you are not taking a photograph. You are catching photons: individual particles of light that have been crossing the galaxy for millions of years, looking for something to land on. Your eye cannot hold enough of them. A long exposure can. Heine has spent two decades learning how to hold that shutter open long enough for the universe to show you what it is made of.
THE INSTRUMENT
Equipment
The equipment ranges from wide-angle lenses to a 3-metre focal length telescope, as well as one of the largest privately held telescopes in South Africa with a 20-inch aperture. Between those two extremes is everything: the full sweep of the Milky Way, the rings of Saturn, the interior of a nebula that until recently only professional telescopes could reach. You can also connect your own DSLR directly to the telescope and capture galaxies.
THE APPROACH
Two disciplines. One sky.
1
For most of recorded history, the night sky was the only map anyone had. Every civilisation that navigated, planted, or made meaning did it by these stars. Then we lit the ground and lost the stars. The Cederberg has some of the darkest skies on earth. Each evening Heine sets up the telescopes and hands you access to the night sky as the Khoi-San people saw it.
2
Every atom of carbon on your plate was forged in dying stars. Chef Aphelele’s plant-based tasting menu runs alongside the stargazing. Each course is his translation of a specific astronomical phenomenon. It isn’t a gimmick but a reminder that what you are eating and what you are looking at share the same origin. You taste the cosmos that you are made of. We call it g.astronomy.
3
The San people painted in the caves for thousands of years. The images are still here, well-preserved paintings of ochre figures, eland, half-human forms. They were not decoration but the record of what it felt like to be human. The Cederberg has been inhabited longer than almost anywhere on earth. You are not the first person to stand in this silence and look up.
WHAT A DAY LOOKS LIKE
Simple days. Extraordinary nights.
MORNING
AFTERNOON
EVENING
YOUR GUIDE
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER · NATURE GUIDE · FOUNDER
“Down-to-Earth Astronomy” – science and astronomy have to be relatable. You need to feel the cosmos, only then does it become alive and you can’t but surrender to awe.
He grew up under the northern sky. He photographed everything he could see. Then he came to the Cederberg, and he saw the rest of it.
Heine doesn’t just observe. He explains and explores. One of the guests wrote that he explains the Big Bang “like it’s a home language.”
When you stand at that telescope in genuine darkness, and Heine tells you that the iron in your blood was forged in the core of a star that died, you feel a deep connection.
Most people who look through a telescope see points of light. Heine’s guests come back talking about what it felt like. That distinction is everything.
WHAT GUESTS SAY
WHAT DOES IT COST
All prices include accommodation, all meals, all practices, and guided stargazing. No hidden charges. Never more than ten guests.
CANVAS AND TIMBER
Built from canvas and timber, which means the valley comes through the walls. Wind, water, first light. The simplest of the three, and the closest you can sleep to the land.
3 NIGHTS
Solo
R20,500
Double
R31,000
WOOD AND GLASS
Built from wood and glass, set between the rocks. Floor-to-ceiling windows put the valley in the room with you. The one most people picture when they imagine the place.
3 NIGHTS
Solo
R27,500
Double
R37,500
CEDERBERG ROCK
Built from Cederberg rock, set closest to the river. A separate bedroom, its own lounge, and a large outdoor space that is yours alone. The most private of the three.
3 NIGHTS
Solo
Double
Reserve MY place
A 50% deposit confirms your place. You can pay upfront or in instalments.
If you are not committed to making a reservation yet and have some questions, contact us here.