Welcome to De Bos

De Bos Guest Farm in Montagu has always offered a variety of family friendly, self-catering accommodation options – shaded camping, a backpackers barn, private en-suite rooms and bungalows.  They also have large swimming pool to cool off on hot Montagu summer days.

The big news is that: De Bos Guest Farm in Montagu has been sold!  Last month, Stuart & Regula, owners of De Bos since 2002, officially handed over the reigns to the new owners Andy & Tracy.

De Bos has always been a favourite place to stay for climbers visiting Montagu.  So we were eager to meet Tracy & Andy to hear their plans for the property…

Climb ZA: Firstly, Welcome to Montagu.  

Climb ZA: Tell us a bit about yourselves…  Where do you guys originally come from?
Tracy & Andy:  Our car says GP but really we’re from Gaborone, Botswana.  We spent the last 2 years in Johannesburg.  Before that, Andy arrived from mighty Blighty in 1989 and I (Tracy) was born in Zimbabwe.  My family left Zim in 1982.  We have two daughters (Kelly 19 & Jodie 17).  Kelly is studying at Stellenbosch and Jodie is finishing matric next year in KZN.  We also have four dogs & three cats (one of which is three-legged).

Climb ZA: So what do you think about Montagu so far?
Tracy & Andy:  Montagu is so friendly! We have been very warmly welcomed both by the locals and the visitors.  Geographically, there can’t be too many more beautiful places in the world.  How lucky are we?!

Climb ZA: What did you do before buying De Bos?
Andy:  I’m a civil engineer specialising in water and sanitation.  I was employed by ARUP in Joburg and previously I was working with my father-in-law in Gabarone.
Tracy: I’m a physio.   I was busy building my own practice in Joburg.  In Gabs, I had an extremely busy physio and pilates practice.

Climb ZA: Will Andy be working on the water in Montagu? 🙂
Andy: I currently have job with MESA consulting to the Laingsburg and Beaufort West municipalities.  I will need to travel quite a bit but De Bos is also going to keep me very busy!

Climb ZA: Tracy, will you be running your physio practice in Montagu?
Tracy: I’ll work from home doing physio in between answering the phone and emails!

Climb ZA: What are your plans for De Bos?
We would like to keep the De Bos ethos the same.  We like the casual budget choice we offer, but, we have quite a bit of maintenance to do to make sure it looks pretty and works well.  Since we’ve been here, we have upgraded the mattresses in the barn and the bedding in the en-suite rooms.  We’ve also added kettles to the bungalows.  Our big Plan # 1 was to fix the pool and that is now done.
We are are going to be installing a small bouldering wall and mat in the courtyard!  Next week, we will also be upgrading the WIFI to increase the range.  We have also updated the De Bos website and soon we’ll also be set up to take online bookings.

Climb ZA: What’s your favourite movie?
Tracy: Any James Bond movie and I also really like Meryl Streep as an actress.
Andy: I like football!  (Climb ZA: well, he is British 🙂

Climb ZA: Favourite food?
Tracy: Indian curry, Thai, anything spicy.
Andy:  I’m not fussy.  I like what Tracy cooks.  (Climb ZA:  Good answer mate 🙂

Climb ZA: Describe your perfect day.
Tracy: If it’s not at the beach it would be pottering in the garden then an afternoon ziz with a good book.
Andy: In front of the TV watching the footie.

Climb ZA: Any new rules?
Tracy & Andy: We really haven’t been here long enough yet! But I think there was an old rule to “Please not feed the dog(s)” that still applies.

Climb ZA:  Thanks Tracy & Andy.  We look forward to taking you guys out for your first climb 🙂