Our yurts are individually decorated and extremely spacious and comfortable.
Choose between five very different styles of yurt. The Mongolian yurt is handpainted in burnt orange with traditional motifs in green, blue and gold. It has a clear crown which lets in lots of light and is great for stargazing at night. The Afghani yurt is more romantic with bent willow poles and a deep red ceiling, making it cosy and intimate. The lupins in the meadow in front of it create a sea of blue in the spring. The Jaipur yurt is made of coppiced chestnut and is light and airy, with dappled light filtering down through the cork trees. It is named after its appliqué Indian bedcover. The Safari yurt is up at the top of the land with fantastic views over to Gaucin and Jimera, and is decorated in rich earthy colours. The Maimani yurt is also made of coppiced chestnut but with a closer lattice and more roofpoles. It is named after the large Afghan kelim from the village of Maimani which is the centerpiece of the yurt. The yurts are all set up as double rooms with comfy beds, and pieces of traditional Mongolian furniture and exotic textiles.
The camp runs on solar power and the yurts have overhead and bedside lights as well as sockets for charging mobile phones and laptops. They all have private bathrooms with hot showers and ecological loos.
Each yurt has an acre of private meadow with seating area, or you might prefer a hammock in the shade of the giant cork trees. Birdwatchers and botanists alike will find plenty to fuel their passion. This is our fourth year on this bit of land and each year we clear a little more of the scrub and see the wildlife return. In spring the meadows are carpeted with a huge variety of wild flowers, and this year we have been excited to find orchids we had not seen before. The bird population has also increased. The mixture of open meadow and forest provides the perfect habitat for dozens of species of birds, and during the migratory months makes it an ideal stopover for many more. If you are lucky you will see a hoopoe!
Garden list compiled by Duncan in May 2007 (spotted from his yurt):
Birds: Black kite, Egyptian vulture, griffon vulture, sparrowhawk, goshawk, honey buzzard, buzzard, golden eagle, Bonelli’s eagle, booted eagle, short-toed eagle, kestrel, lesser kestrel, wood pigeon, turtle dove, cuckoo, tawny owl, rednecked nightjar, pallid swift, common swift, bee eater, wryneck, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, swallow, house martin, wren, robin, blackbird, blackcap, Sardinian warbler, western Bonelli’s warbler, melodious warbler, firecrest, crested tit, blue tit, great tit, short toed treecreeper, spotless starling, jay, house sparrow, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, serin, corn bunting.
Butterflies: Bath white, large white, clouded yellow, brimstone, Cleopatra, Spanish festoon, Queen of Spain fritillary, Moroccan orange tip.
Join us four nights a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) for a three course dinner with plenty of wine, under our pergola lit by Chinese lanterns. All food is from our kitchen garden or locally produced, and flavoured with herbs from the garden.
Breakfast is continental, with a fresh fruit salad, honey from local hives and homemade jams and marmalade. We offer sandwiches, paninis, and meat and cheese platters during the day and have a fully stocked bar which is open until 11pm (11.30pm on dinner nights). We can also do pack lunches for excursions.
Book in for a full body massage, a reflexology session or some invigorating yoga, or simply relax on a sunbed beside the pool.
Our pergola overlooking the pool and the mountains beyond is a perfect place to watch the sun go down in the evenings. Lounge with a cocktail, play backgammon or smoke a hookah in the Turkish style seating areas, decorated with antique kilims. Once or twice a week we hold a "film night" under the stars.
The local area has plenty to offer. Ride out into the countryside from the neighbouring stables, visit ancient caves with paleolithic paintings, go on a birdwatching trip or mushroom walk, or take a tour of one of several sherry bodegas in Jerez.
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We know a couple of things that could make our visitors’ stay with us easier and more comfortable. The track and the composting loos!!
Well, the town hall have finally resurfaced the track. Hire cars can now glide along to us. The new surface stops just short of our land, so you will still get a couple of hundred yards of dirt track to give you a little bit of adventure, but we have had all the nasty bits taken out on this stretch too. We have also moved the car park up nearer the gate to cut out the final steep bit, and we now have wheelbarrows for you to barrow your cases down through the meadow to your yurts.
This year, we are installing some very smart hi-tech composting loos. We will be keeping our nice wooden seats but click here for a look at what will be underneath! They have a built-in ventilation system too...
We have been busy this autumn building the platform for and moving into our new yurt home. It consists of a central 30 foot yurt with two 16 foot yurts and two 12 foot yurts attached. It is probably the largest yurt structure to be built, and is a wonderful new family home for us.
We are not keeping it all to ourselves though. We will be holding welcome drinks on our terrace, which has a fantastic new down the Ronda valley, every changeover evening (Wednesdays and Saturdays). We will also hold film night up here once a week, with the cinema set up with a wide screen between two of the yurt pods, projected against the side of the main yurt.
We really liked a comment made by one of our guests last year: “you have created a heady mix of luxury and romance, without pretence”. With this in mind we are upgrading a few things and adding a few extras. We are having homemade olive oil soaps made for all the bathrooms and we have got some nice new wooden sun loungers and deck chairs for the pool area, and new outdoor furniture for all the yurts.
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