Back to basics at Beaverlac

Beaverlac

Last week­end I suc­cumbed to peer pres­sure and went camp­ing.  I did a 39 day trip through Africa at the begin­ning of 2000 and after camp­ing for most of those 38 nights I vowed I would never, ever camp again!  But the group invite for a week­end away was sent and I don’t like to miss out ... so I saw the inside of a tent again.

Our des­tin­a­tion was Beaverlac in the Cederberg and my good­ness it is beau­ti­ful.  The entire jour­ney was less than three hours includ­ing miss­ing a few turnoffs on the way out of the Mother City and the bath­room break so it’s a com­pletely do-able trip for after work on a Friday.

Beaverlac is situ­ated on the Grootfontein Farm and as a Natural Heritage Site the farm is com­mit­ted to pre­serving this wil­der­ness area tucked up in the Olifants River Mountains.  The farm is sur­roun­ded by moun­tains and also has the good for­tune of hav­ing two rivers run­ning through it; the Ratel and Olifants.  This makes for great fish­ing and even bet­ter swimming!

Facilities at Beaverlac are basic — there are no laid out camp sites; every­one just finds them­selves a spot wherever they see fit and there is no elec­tri­city so make sure you pack the braai grid.  The ablu­tion blocks are clean and I was lucky enough to always have hot water!  There is also a shop on site which sells wood, ice and other neces­sary provisions.

However, our party of eight (and two dogs) were not here to inspect the showers — we were here to kick back and relax and that we did.

The two rivers have, over the years, chan­nelled their way into beau­ti­ful pools and water­falls.  Most of our group went for a walk on Saturday to Tontem Pools — this is about 5kms from the camp site and once you get to the pools you are nor­mally rewar­ded with being the only ones there.  If how­ever you are not in the mood for a long walk, or as in my case you have an eight week old puppy to keep an eye on, then rest assured that you will be able to cool down on a hot day.  A huge moun­tain pool, com­plete with water­fall is only a five minute walk from the camp­site and we spent a good few hours here.  This pool was fant­astic – it was almost as if someone had designed it with a lovely flat rock to sit on right at the waters edge!

The tran­quil­lity of Beaverlac is won­der­ful.  Although the camp site is large there never seemed to be too much noise and campers gen­er­ally stuck to the ‘no noise after 10pm’ rule.  Even the dogs seemed to behave them­selves!  So if you are look­ing for some­where to really, really relax then head to Beaverlac — you can walk in the moun­tains or you can just lie in the shade and catch up on some read­ing; the choice is yours.

At R35 per per­son per night camp­ing (and R30 per dog) the rates will not break the bank either!  If camp­ing is really not your idea of fun then there are a num­ber of wooden cot­tages avail­able for hire at a slightly higher price.

Contact:
Beaverlac:  +27 (0)22 931‑2945

Useful Links:
Beaverlac Nature Reserve
Cederberg Attractions
Cederberg Accommodation
Western Cape Accommodation