There was a small 50 year old weekender cottage on the property where we lived for the first 2 years whilst we renovated the cottage and built our own home. After finally moving into our home, we opened Cape Howe Cottages with just the original weekender (The Snug). We progressed to build "Cakes n Ale Cottage" opening this in December 2001 and finished our third cottage "Kings Den" in December 2003. A slow but steady development as time and money permitted. Although we designed our cottages, we engaged a local builder to do the really hard work with us lending a helping hand when needed and finishing off fitting out, painting and decorating. We were thrilled when our builder won 2 Master Builders Association Awards for "Cakes n Ale in 2001" - Best framed construction under $200,000 and Best Carpentry in the Great Southern. We were even more thrilled when our terrific builder succeeded in winning 3 more Master Builders Awards for Kings Den in 2004 - The Construction Excellence Award for a Predominantly Timber Construction, an award for the most Innovative Use of Building Products and the Excellence in Tourism Project Award. Needless to say we can highly recommend our builder - Russell Schlager.

Our philosophy in developing Cape Howe Cottages the way we have done is quite simple. Space, privacy and tranquillity surrounded by nature. So often you see the advertisement for holiday cottages which sound very nice, but when you get there you find that the cottages are in the middle of a paddock, all in a row and if the neighbours are noisy - you may as well have stayed at home. We offer something distinctly different, our cottages are so spread out and surrounded by bush and trees that you can't see one from the other, let alone hear your neighbours - the only disturbance is the morning bird symphony!

Our Passion for Nature

We are proud to have had our 53 acre property registed by the Department of Conservation and Land Management as a Land for Wildlife property. It means that we have recognised that our piece of paradise is special and we want to preserve it as a nature retreat to share with our guests and the local wildlife. Our property provides a large variety of natural habitats which encourages a huge range of native plants, animals, fungi and of course, birds. Being adjacent to West Cape Howe National Park and alongside coastal reserves provides a natural corridor for wildlife to come visiting.

We are still discovering some amazing things about our bit of land. After we had lived here for 7 years we uncovered a grove of well matured tree ferns lining a section of the creek which flows through the property. A large area of thick ti-tree was damaged by wind which formed a previously impenetrable barrier between the creek and our nature trail. It never fails to amaze us how diverse our relatively small holding really is.

Personal stuff

Personally: we met in Switzerland in 1981, (David was a tour guide in Europe, Gaynor was a passenger on a tour of western Europe). We married in 1982, lived in Beckenham and then Darlington - Perth. David worked in the hospitality & wine industry, Gaynor worked in the Insurance, Banking and Marketing industry. We have no children other than 2 of the four footed variety - "The Bears" - brothers Teddy and Trapper - both Bearded Collies (now 13 years old). David's family live in Derbyshire UK and Gaynor's family are spread between Yallingup - WA, Melbourne - Vic and Cheshire UK. With family and friends all over the world, we travel as often as we can and always bring home new ideas every time. Together we have spent holidays throughout most of Western Europe - France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, UK, Ireland; Mauritius; Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia; New Zealand; and most of Australia. Still on the "to see before we die list" is India, Peru, St Petersburg, Prague, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco (Casablanca is David's favourite movie of all time), Canada, Antarctic and then ........

Want to know more - have a look at this article which appeared in The Sunday Times Newspaper on 23rd March, 2007.
Click here to read the review.