Right out of a South African Storybook. Alchemy Retreat is set on a spacious 248 hectares, this piece of heaven shares an Eastern border with Sanbona Nature Reserve, featuring the world-renowned Big-Five. Soak up the crisp country air, take lazy siestas, intermittent dips in our Kol-Kol and dam, or simply navel gaze – entranced by the infinite vista from our veranda. For one-third of humanity, the night sky has literally disappeared due to light pollution. At Alchemy Retreat stargazing is a regular pastime. Clear Karoo skies boast a spectacular milk way making our night skies an exquisite sight to behold. Relish the wide-open spaces, refreshing dam water, and inspiring nature walks. Fill your days with bird watching or capture our mesmerising sunrise, sunsets, and spectacular rainbows on camera. Our dam is perpetually alive with plentiful birdlife – a Utopia for birdwatchers and photographers alike. You may even spot the last remaining unicorn! Nothing compares to wide open spaces, spectacular night skies, birdsong, and the distant hum of bees to remind you of life’s simple pleasures. Nature knows best.

Alchemy Retreat is the manifestation of a long-treasured dream. Owned by life partners Mike and Roxy, it was love at first sight on the initial visit! It only took one more visit and a life-threatening disease to ignite the dream. By hook or by crook they managed to buy it and now they are the ‘Alchemists.’ For as long as Roxy can remember she wanted to live on a farm. From a farming community in the Eastern Cape, she was a ‘townie’, but spent most weekends on friend’s farms in the Adelaide, Fort Beaufort, and Grahamstown area. She had her sights set on marrying a farmer, but then she may have been too ‘wild at heart’ for any suitors to tame! It was through a journey with breast cancer, a pandemic and the loss of her parents that set the big dream in motion again. It had always been there, just buried on the hamster-wheel of urban life. She had a lifelong and nagging vision of owning a wellness centre from her late twenties. The vision drew into sharp focus as she navigated stormy waters. Our dream is to take something very simple – our blank canvass – and to transform it into an extraordinary place. A special place where personal magic happens. Where our guests are transformed through simply communing with the peace and beauty of the rustic countryside. A place where you can surrender to natures simplicity, and find pure joy in the modest pleasures of birdsong, sunrises and rainbows. It’s a place to unplug from the noise of life, the disturbance of devices and unrelenting daily demands. A few days spent in the Little Karoo harmonizing with the rhythms of the countryside will restore your balance and refresh your spirit.

Take a moment to pause and encounter the wonders of the Little Karoo. This is Big 4 country – starry night skies, dirt roads, quiet open spaces, and fresh air – simple pleasures that are becoming increasingly rare in a modern world. Come home to the Little Karoo – Big 4 country. We are pet-friendly too! Alchemy Retreat offers you Mother Nature’s bounty in abundance. A retreat from the rush and the demands of daily life. Just a little more than 2,5 hours from Cape Town, this 100-year-old homestead, barn and bunkhouse personifies authentic Karoo life. Flanked by the towering Langeberg and splendid Swartberg mountains, 5km’s off the R62, the longest wine route in the world, between Montagu and Barrydale. CNN voted Route 62 through the Klein Karoo one of the world’s top 10 road trips. The fresh country air here is imbued with the perfume of wild rosemary, punctuated by the bleating of the sheep and the early morning alarm of the resident rooster.