A Place to Dream in Tulbagh ...

On the edge of Tulbagh, shortly after passing along its bust­ling Main Road to where a rather impos­ing NG church sits over­look­ing the val­ley, there is an unob­trus­ive row of bluegum trees.

Just bey­ond this is the Bloekombossie res­taur­ant — a rather quirky look­ing eat­ery that prom­ises deli­cious teas and meals, com­plete with a curi­ous cob house and thatched ron­davel out­back. Behind this lies Dreamcatcher cot­tage — quiet, peace­ful and invit­ing, its attract­ive façade facing the Winterhoek range of moun­tains — the view cap­tured from two of the three bedrooms ...

If you did not know it was here, you wouldn't see the cot­tage when driv­ing through Tulbagh. And this is only the first of a num­ber of whim­sical aspects about this par­tic­u­lar venue. Dreamcatcher in the Chippewa cul­ture is the inan­im­ate word for spider or bawaa­jige nag­waagan, mean­ing 'dream snare'.

Alongside one of the front win­dows of the cot­tage, with its tinned, pitched roofs, hangs one of these sac­red items com­plete with feath­ers and beads. Despite its being but a small rendi­tion, and the fact that tra­di­tion dic­tates one should hang these over the bed, the cot­tage must be imbued with this dreamcatcher's spirit, for only the best of dreams filtered through whilst we stayed there. In fact, we slept bet­ter than we had in months.

Dreamcatcher is an eleg­ant, mod­ern cot­tage, care­fully kit­ted out with all the mod cons one expects from three-star self-catering accom­mod­a­tion, but done with a cer­tain dis­tinc­tion and meas­ure that allows one to feel imme­di­ately at home, whilst main­tain­ing an under­stated luxury.

The web­site does not do the venue justice. In real­ity, it is far lar­ger than it comes across in pho­to­graphs, and the dis­tance between bed­rooms eas­ily allows for pri­vacy and time out. The heart of the cot­tage is the lounge and din­in­groom, its roomy rafters revealed. Attractive and aes­thet­ic­ally appeal­ing, the fire­place houses a roar­ing fire that kept this open-plan area snug and warm on all four of the nights we were there.

The din­in­groom opens up onto a pleas­ant, little enclosed ver­andah, as well as a braai area and plunge pool that, accord­ing to a num­ber of enthu­si­astic vis­it­ors' quotes in the guest book, is a lifesaver dur­ing the warm months of February / March. That and the air con­di­tion­ing on the west side of the house.

The kit­chen has most of everything you need, with pretty wine gob­lets, cof­fee machine, wash­ing machine and bar fridge. Each of the bed­rooms is ample in size and extremely com­fort­able, par­tic­u­larly the beds, which either means that the dream­catcher in the win­dow was doing its thing, or the beds and mat­tresses were as com­fort­able as they felt (I wish all accom­mod­a­tion would take a leaf from this book, as I can think of only one other time in which I was as com­fort­able, and that was in the Cotswolds in the UK!).

And it was just as well that the interior was as  gen­er­ous and wel­com­ing as it was, as I became more than famil­iar with the lay­out of the fur­niture due to a rather sick off­spring, who was in no con­di­tion to leave the house for a few days. Despite this, my first foray into the vil­lage of Tulbagh bordered on enchant­ing. I snuck out as the light of the first day was begin­ning to dim, to explore Church Street.

Church Street is one of the main reas­ons for com­ing to Tulbagh – you'll read about it in every inform­a­tion bro­chure. This beau­ti­ful street has some of the most not­able and largest num­ber of examples of Cape Dutch archi­tec­ture, Victorian and Edwardian houses and national monu­ments in one street in South Africa.

Even if you didn't know about Church Street – it is not imme­di­ately obvi­ous from a pre­curs­ory drive through town as it runs par­al­lel to the main road – the set­ting of Tulbagh, lying as it seems to do, in a secluded val­ley all of its own, sur­roun­ded by the Obiqua, Winterhoek and Witzenberg Mountains, is enough to make one want to stay awhile.

And there is so much to see and do here, that one would be hard pressed to do it all in a day, although Capetonians are ven­tur­ing out here for an even­ing show at the new Saronsberg Theatre (dir­ectly con­nec­ted to the Saronsberg wine estate), man­aged by part­ner in the artistic ven­ture, Chris van Niekerk of Sewende Laan fame (Chris also runs Rosendal Teater set in the east­ern Free State town of, you got it, Rosendal).

The beau­ti­fully restored, formerly con­demned build­ing, now an intim­ate, little theatre on Van der Stel Street (the main street through town) plays host not only to a range of homegrown tal­ent, but also to local stars like Sandra Prinsloo, Danie Niehaus and Koos Kombuis.

And all of this awaits one, even before set­ting out to sample the fam­ous wines of the val­ley – Drostdy Hof, Blue Crane Vineyards, De Heuvel, Waverley Hills Organic Wines, Theuniskraal Wines, Twee Jonge Gezellen and Manley Private Cellar.

Add to this a list the length of your arm of places to visit, such as Kimilili Cheese, Moniki Chocolatier, the pretty deli Things I love, and a col­lec­tion of often reviewed res­taur­ants along Church Street, and you begin to see how one or two days is prob­ably not going to do Tulbagh justice.

Which is why a venue such as Dreamcatcher is such a gem. And the reason its vis­it­ors return time and again.

Contact Details:
Maria Fredericks (South Africa), Mobile: + 27 (0)73 016‑1942 or
Piet Geuens (Belgium), Mobile: +32 (0)473 23–8850
Website: http://www.dreamcatcher-tulbagh.com/
Photographs used in this art­icle are cour­tesy of and © Dreamcatcher.