Addo, addo, addo!

If it weren't for the Addo Elephant National Park, Addo would still be an obscure little town off the beaten track, roughly an hour from Port Elizabeth. It really is some­thing of a one-horse town, and loc­als use the police sta­tion as a land­mark, rather than the town, which isn't sur­pris­ing given that it is almost the same size.

That said, it isn't the town one comes here to exper­i­ence. And the area between the town of Addo and the Addo Elephant National Park, which is a ten minute drive away, is filled with a series of res­taur­ants, Addo accom­mod­a­tion ven­ues and excit­ing places to visit that include any num­ber of wild anim­als. It is also the burial place of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, beloved author of Jock of the Bushveld, who lived in the Addo area dur­ing the lat­ter years of his life, which lends the area an ele­ment of history ...

Photographs — Left: burial place of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick; Right: View of the Sundays River from The Lookout

Just out­side town on the R336 is the Lookout, left to the National Monument Council as a her­it­age for all by Sir Fitzpatrick's daugh­ter and son-in-law. He was regarded as some­thing of a val­ley pion­eer and was not only respons­ible for encour­aging British set­tlers to the area but was also largely respons­ible for the start of the Sundays River Irrigation scheme. The Lookout is worth a visit for the views over the Sundays River and to explore the graves­ites here that include Sir Percy, and his wife, Lady Fitz.

Just as you head out of the town of Addo there is a turnoff to the right, to one of the first farms in the area and one that is also a place of accom­mod­a­tion. Rosedale farm, an organ­ic­ally run cit­rus farm, is home to Keith Finnemore and his wife Nondumiso. They are a charm­ing couple who quickly make you feel at home in their thatched cot­tages, which use solar water heat­ers to heat water and are placed in the midst of an indi­gen­ous garden, filled with the cries of birds. In fact, as far as birds are con­cerned, Rosedale farm was to be the best place for sight­ings, other than Hogsback, on our entire trip, which Keith attrib­utes to his pesti­cide free environment.

Keith and Nondumiso are fonts of know­ledge and inter­est­ing to talk to. They've been farm­ing for a while, help­ing to pion­eer the grow­ing of organic cit­rus in South Africa and are part of a group of organic farm­ers who provide largely to the over­seas mar­ket but also loc­ally. Originally they farmed con­ven­tion­ally, choos­ing to con­vert in 2000 and began to sup­ply the UK, EU and local mar­ket with cer­ti­fied navel and Valencia oranges, lem­ons and clem­entines by 2004.

Photographs — Left: Rosedale Farm Cottage; Right: The Lookout

Keith, who is pas­sion­ate about what he does, provides a one-hour walk­ing tour of the farm, which we unfor­tu­nately weren't able to do (a reason to return!) tak­ing you through his use of a com­bin­a­tion of old farm­ing meth­ods and mod­ern sci­entific tech­niques to grow food that is pesti­cide free and deli­cious, if the freshly squeezed orange juice served at break­fast is any­thing to go by. Nondumiso was heard to mut­ter pens­ively that she doesn't know what she will do one day when they retire and her imme­di­ate access to freshly squeezed juice dries up!

Breakfast is one of the high­lights of stay­ing here. Largely organic, a spread of fresh fruit salad, yoghurt,  a range of cer­eals, muesli, home-baked bread still warm to the touch, and a deli­cious local farmer's cheese lie set out like a feast below a bright painted mural of sun-ripened fruit.

A cooked break­fast of eggs, bacon, fried tomato and mush­room fol­lows this, if you so choose, and the day gets off to a more than sat­is­fied start, regard­less of what you are doing. This spread is served in a large room that adjoins the kit­chen of the old farm­house, where com­fort­able wooden chairs and tables make din­ing a com­plete pleasure.

Photographs — Left: Rosedale Organic Farm cot­tage; Right: The gar­dens at Rosedale Organic Farm

Whilst we stayed here we unfor­tu­nately weren't able to eat our even­ing meals on the farm (if break­fast is that good, think of what din­ner would be like) and so ven­tured forth to exper­i­ment with the few res­taur­ants avail­able to us. Lenmore's, which has obvi­ously been around the block a few times, might have been recom­men­ded to us but I'm pro­pos­ing that you give it a wide berth. The décor, food and ser­vice are all remin­is­cent of the late 1970s, and we weren't that impressed. Unless steak served with over­cooked veget­ables drowned in white sauce is your thing, try some­where else.

Virtually next door how­ever, a sur­prise awaited us in the form of Stable Cottages Café. The styl­ishly dec­or­ated café and wine bar are part of the Stable Cottages com­plex, six pretty cot­tages in East Cape style with private ver­an­das and a cent­ral swim­ming pool. The café's menu was brim­ming over with the type of food one would expect to find in Cape Town – won­der­ful salads teem­ing with ori­ginal com­bin­a­tions such as spring­bok cap­pac­cio and cit­rus dress­ing, and smoked sal­mon and creamy fen­nel dress­ing. Despite the tempta­tion of a salad, we had the herb wraps with small white bean salsa, crème fraiche and rocket, and the soya honey glazed chicken breast on stir­fried egg noodles.

There is also a kid­dies menu, com­plete with chicken nug­gets or ham­burger with chips and there are pizza even­ings on a Wednesday and Friday. Desserts included a chocol­ate mousse cake with icecream and a baked cheese­cake with berry compote!

In-between the sampling of food and explor­ing the ins and outs of an organic farm, we man­aged to make it to the Addo Elephant National Park, but that's another story ...

Desirable Digits:
Rosedale Organic Farm & B&B +27 (0)42 233‑0404
Stables Wine Bar & Cafe +27 (0)42 233‑2462

Useful Links:
Addo Attractions
Things to Do in Addo
Addo Hotels
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