Camping and excitement are not mutually exclusive at Beaverlac

Rock Pools

Fed up with crowded Cape Town city clubs and even more crowded out­door parties, we decided to take things down a notch this New Year's by head­ing to Beaverlac. Beaverlac, just over the Dasklip Pass near Porterville, is a little gem of a camp­site about 2-and-a-half hours out­side of Cape Town.

Spending New Year's Eve in the tran­quil sur­rounds of a camp­site on the Grootfontein farm might sound too staid for some people. Many people want buzz and excite­ment to usher in the start of the new and the end of the old. Turns out camp­ing and excite­ment are not neces­sar­ily mutu­ally exclusive ...

The camp­site is shaded by pines, giv­ing the whole camp a relaxed and peace­ful atmo­sphere. We hired one of the wooden bun­ga­lows scattered around the camp­site, but in pre­vi­ous years have been per­fectly happy camp­ing under one of the tall pines. Either option is incred­ibly afford­able and well worth the price.

The facil­it­ies are fine, if some­what rus­tic, and there's a shop where you can pur­chase ice, fire­wood and basic food sup­plies such as milk and bread.

The main attrac­tions at Beaverlac are the rock pools, and there are sev­eral options to cool your­self off in. The Grotto and Jacuzzi pools are very close to camp and are a lot of fun for every­body – includ­ing little ones on lil­los. Further up there are another series of pools, and those wish­ing to hike a bit are rewar­ded with a bit more pri­vacy than at the lower pools.

There is also rock art to view for those look­ing for a bit of a cul­tural exper­i­ence, some­thing that we've done before but didn't man­age to see again this time. Rather, we spent the day laz­ing in the sun and swim­ming in the Rooibos-coloured pools before head­ing back to our camp­site for a braai and a drink to help bring in the New Year.

Radios or loud music is not allowed, a very good thing con­sid­er­ing the prox­im­ity (and musical tastes) of some of our neigh­bours. But we made do with gui­tars and singing – some­thing that brought campers from all across the camp­site to our camp to join in. By 10pm we had close to 25 people sit­ting around our roar­ing fire and tak­ing turns to sing everything from Radiohead to Bob Marley with vary­ing degrees of success.

12 'o clock brought with it cham­pagne, mer­ri­ment and night-swimming in the Grotto pools – some­thing per­haps a little dan­ger­ous but highly recom­men­ded. Lying on your back in a dark pool and look­ing up at the thou­sands of stars that are vis­ible in such a secluded place is cer­tainly some­thing I would sug­gest every­one does at some stage.

The prob­lem with New Year's day when you're camp­ing is that the sun rises so early and it's dif­fi­cult to sleep in when the day begins to get hot. Another trip to the pools for a swim helped to clear the cob­webs and we appre­ci­ated the oppor­tun­ity to fully enjoy our last day at Beaverlac.

Cederberg Links:
Beaverlac Nature Reserve
Cederberg Attractions
Cederberg Things to Do
Cederberg Accommodation