A leisurely afternoon at Riebeek Kasteel

Riebeek Kasteel

We spent a week­end camp­ing at Beaverlac at the end of January and decided to detour to Riebeek Kasteel for lunch on the way back to Cape Town.  I’d heard so many great things about this area and Riebeek Kasteel in par­tic­u­lar (see a pre­vi­ous art­icle), so we took a short left and explored one of the jew­els of the Swartland!

We star­ted off with lunch at the Clumzy Carrot.  Although there are tables both inside and out­side, we chose to sit out­side under the dappled shade of a beau­ti­ful old tree.  A water fea­ture provides back­ground ‘music’ and the thick cush­ions on the benches make for com­fort­able seating ...

The ser­vice, although attent­ive was slightly slow but when the food arrived it was so very worth the wait.  I star­ted off with an iced cof­fee – but this wasn’t the aver­age iced cof­fee where one is presen­ted with a glass of Nescafe with a few ice cubes bob­bing in it; this was a real McCoy iced cof­fee – basic­ally a deli­ciously creamy, thick cof­fee fla­voured milk­shake!  Absolutely heavenly!

Although the menu is var­ied with all sorts of treats from fresh salads to cur­ries we both opted for a bur­ger.  And a fine bur­ger it was too, topped with cheese (ched­dar and feta) and bacon and served with potato wedges, a side salad and a homemade rel­ish.  The bread rolls too homemade – a sure sign of qual­ity, coun­try fare!

After lunch we had a meander around the vil­lage – pop­ping in at Aitsa (27 High Street) which sells a won­der­ful selec­tion of homemade jams, honey, rusks and pre­serves.  This sweet little shop also stocks beau­ti­ful cush­ions, jew­ellery and other gor­geous arts and crafts.  Part of the same premises is Delicious Biltong – and as the name sug­gests, it sells deli­cious biltong!  Also avail­able is stone ground flour from the local mill.

Although we didn’t spend a huge amount of time in this little vil­lage it has given us a little taste of what it has to offer so we plan to go back for a week­end as soon as pos­sible.  There is a wide selec­tion of shops, museums, res­taur­ants and farms to visit so one would not get bored – per­haps plan­ning a week­end around the Riebeek Valley Olive Festival (30 April – 2 May 2010) would be a good idea?

Riebeek Kasteel is a leis­urely 60 minute drive from Cape Town – so why not give the Clumzy Carrot a try on your next free Sunday?

Useful Riebeek Kasteel Links:
Riebeek Kasteel Attractions
Riebeek Kasteel Accommodation
Swartland Wine Route
Swartland Attractions