Chapter 6 · The Future · Journal
What we are building next.
A year of renovations later, we know exactly what we want to build next. A farm. An experience. And an invitation to be part of the journey.
Written by Anneli · 22 May 2026
When we started Kanaan, we had a million ideas.
That is not an exaggeration. Every week brought a new one — a new room layout, a new event we could host, a new corner of the property that wanted attention. For the first few months, we tried to chase them all. We pretty quickly realised what every project eventually teaches you: you cannot finish anything if you are starting everything.
So we narrowed. We picked one focus — the renovations, the bones of the place — and let everything else wait its turn. Almost a year in, that is starting to show. The lodge units are nearly where I always wanted them. The grounds are softening into something that feels properly cared for. There is still work — there will always be work — but the foundation has set.
Now we can begin building on top of it. This blog is about what is next.
The anchor
A farm experience, at an affordable price.
When I was travelling, the kind of place I always looked for was the one that did not exist often enough. Somewhere genuine, well-located, with comfortable beds and good coffee, that did not cost the budget of a five-star resort. That is the traveller we built Kanaan for, and that is who we will keep building it for. Affordable. Honest. Beautifully placed. A working farm with rooms on it.
Every decision we make is anchored to that — would the version of me who slept in hostels across thirty countries want to stay here? If yes, we are on the right track.
Weddings
A beautiful venue, at a price couples can actually afford.
We did not buy Kanaan as a wedding venue, but the land told us something the moment we walked it. It is a beautiful place for two people to commit to each other. There is space, there are mango trees, there is sky.
So weddings have become a quiet, deliberate side focus. Not a luxury wedding venue — there are plenty of those in the Lowveld already. A beautiful wedding venue, at a price that lets the kind of couple who once thought they had to settle for a function hall actually marry on a farm, with their people, under the stars. That is the brief. It is one we are still learning how to deliver well.
Meals
On request, made well.
One of the simplest gaps in the original Kanaan was food. There was nowhere to eat dinner on the property. Guests arrived after a long drive, settled in, and then had to go out again to find something to eat.
We are fixing that. On-request breakfast and dinner, starting simple. A continental breakfast in the morning, a properly cooked dinner of local Lowveld dishes and a real braai in the evening. Nothing fancy. Just good food, made for the table you are already at.
The wooden house
A backpackers where there was never one.
When we bought Kanaan, there was no backpacker accommodation. There is now. We have been slowly renovating a beautiful wooden house on the property to open as a small dorm — 8 beds, a shared kitchen, the kind of place I would have stayed myself a decade ago.
It is not finished yet, but it is close. And it is already drawing a new kind of traveller to the farm — international budget travellers, often on long trips through southern Africa, who do not want to spend three hundred dollars a night to be near Kruger. They are exactly the people we had in mind from the beginning.
Live now
Multi-day packages — arrive once, see everything.
The other thing those travellers have shown us is what they actually want. Not just a bed. A trip. A few days of Kruger, the waterfalls of Sabie, the viewpoints on the Panorama Route, all sorted from a base they trust.
So we put together multi-day packages — two, three or five days at Kanaan, with a full-day Kruger safari included, and optional add-ons for the Panorama Route, an evening at Shangana cultural village, and airport transfers from KMIA. You arrive, you unpack once, and we handle the logistics of seeing the Lowveld properly.
The two-year horizon
Trails, cycling, and the wider farm.
There is more land here than the lodge itself. Kanaan sits on agricultural ground that runs out into bushveld, and we have always known we wanted to do something with it.
The first move is planting. We are slowly bringing the agricultural land back into use — partly for the beauty of it, partly because a small farming income is the most sustainable way to fund the upkeep of the land around the lodge. A farm that pays for its own gardens stays beautiful for longer.
The second move is trails. We are mountain bikers ourselves. There are hiking and cycling routes on Kanaan already — they have been on pause while we focused on the renovation — and we want to get them open again. The dream, longer term, is a cycling network that links Kanaan to neighbouring farms, so you can ride proper distances through the Lowveld without ever touching a main road.
The longer view
A real African camping experience.
Not the camping ground we already have under the mango trees — that one stays. We are talking about something further out on the property. A handful of low-impact, beautifully placed sites where you can have a proper African camping experience.
Eco-lodges, eventually. Small, deliberate, sustainable. The kind of place that does not feel built so much as found. That is the two-to-three-year horizon. Not all at once. Piece by piece. The way we have done everything here.
We are not finished. We never quite will be — and that, more than anything, is the point.
If you have stayed with us already, you know how much has changed in a year. If you have not yet, please come and see. The Kanaan we have today is already worth the drive. The Kanaan we are building will be even more.
— Anneli & Matthew
Be part of the journey
Come and stay while we build.
Every guest who arrives now is part of the story we will tell in three years’ time. We would love to have you here.
Keep reading
Chapter 1 · The Discovery
How we found Kanaan
A vineyard in Argentina that did not work out, a birthday at the waterfall, and the old man who caught us snooping.
Chapter 3 · The Land
Africa, from the gate of Kanaan
An invitation to a warm family holiday — Kruger, Sabie, Graskop and the wonders of the Lowveld.
Plan your African holiday
Peaceful nights, magical mornings, and Kruger on your doorstep.
Tell us your dates and who is travelling with you, and Anneli or Matthew will personally reply with warm availability and the right room or campsite for your trip.