Morukuru Ocean House

Important Note: Morukuru Ocean House is closed for a full refurbishment and is expected to reopen on 01 August 2026. 

Morukuru Ocean House is cocooned in utmost luxury, adrift in your own 4-bedroom oceanfront home within one of Africa’s most beautiful coastal reserves: the 36 000-ha De Hoop Nature Reserve. Morukuru Ocean House, part of Morukuru Family De Hoop, offers a bird’s eye view of the continent’s greatest whale nursery, as Southern Right whales migrate to the shallow coastal basins off the Overberg Coast for the calving and nursing season from mid-July to November.

Morukuru Ocean House can accommodate 8 adults & 4 children (all ages are welcome!). The 4 suites all have their own en-suite bathrooms and glass doors overlooking the ocean. The interior design is inspired by the surrounding fynbos dunes and is of the highest quality. Morukuru Ocean House includes the same features as those you will find at the private Morukuru houses situated within the Madikwe Game Reserve: amazing views, top service, a wide range of activities from guided marine walks and mountain-biking to sandboarding and of course 100% privacy.

Thanks to innovative eco house design, including the use of solar power and double glazed windows, Morukuru Ocean House is completely off the grid, relieving the tension between tourism and sustainability, thus offering guests 5-star luxury with limited pressure to the environment.

About De Hoop Nature Reserve

The 34 000 hectare De Hoop Nature Reserve is situated just over three hours’ drive from Cape Town, the capital of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

In addition to conserving 34 000 hectares of indigenous fynbos and coastal ecosystems, the reserve includes the De Hoop Marine Protected Area (MPA). Proclaimed in 1985, the MPA – essentially a nature reserve in the sea – stretches for 46 kilometres along the coastline and five kilometres out to sea, creating a marine conservancy of 289-square-kilometres.

Fishing and harvesting of any marine life are prohibited within the MPA, and in the decades since it was proclaimed the De Hoop MPA has become a vital breeding ground for regional fish stocks, while also creating an oceanic haven for Southern Right whales.

Each year these majestic cetaceans – once hunted almost to extinction – migrate north from Antarctica, taking advantage of the warm Western Cape waters to calve and mate, before migrating south in the early-summer. In the peak whale season (July-November), expect to see Southern Right whales as well as less-common Bryde’s and Humpback whales. Large pods of dolphins are also often seen surfing the breakers close in-shore.

Inland the biodiversity is no less impressive, with more than 1500 species of indigenous fynbos plants identified. De Hoop forms part of the Cape Floral Region, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, and the reserve conserves the largest area of lowland fynbos in the Western Cape.

Wildlife

Amongst the fynbos, you’ll find more than 86 species of mammal, including the endangered bontebok, Cape mountain zebra and eland, the largest of the antelopes. Though Cape mountain leopard and caracal call De Hoop home, these shy cats are rarely seen.

The reserve is also a paradise for bird-watchers. In excess of 260 species of birds have been identified on De Hoop, which is also home to the last remaining breeding colony of the Cape vulture in the province.