Why I'm telling no-one about McGregor

It isn't easy to find some­where to stay on a farm that is remote but still close enough to a small town to provide light enter­tain­ment when needed and sup­plies when neces­sary. I spent quite a bit of time on the inter­net before I found our little gem on a farm just out­side Robertson and McGregor (bonus as we got two quaint towns for the price of one!).

The unbe­liev­ably beau­ti­ful val­ley that holds Robertson, McGregor, Ashton, Bonnievale and Montagu in its embrace has some­thing magical about it. And if you don't believe me, visit it your­self and you'll under­stand what I mean. The secret is to take the time to stop in the towns, as we did in Robertson and McGregor, so that the charm of each can find its way into the corners of your mind. Because it won't be any­thing tan­gible or some­thing you 'dis­cover'; the magic is simply there for the tak­ing, you have but to imbibe ...

McGregor Photographs by Dplanet on Flickr.com (Creative Commons License)

It happened that my choice of hide­away lived up to all expect­a­tions but had one major draw­back. Robertson in sum­mer is VERY warm (read: bladdy hot) and a couple of days where even the vaguest breeze refused to make its pres­ence known neces­sit­ated a hasty retreat to some­where cooler. In this way we got to know both of the little vil­lages, but McGregor in particular.

There are over 40 winer­ies in the greater Robertson / Bonnievale part of the Breede River Valley. This is the part of the world where the Wacky Wine Weekend attracts thou­sands of vis­it­ors, and encoun­ters with wine estates are one of the more pleas­ant out­ings in the val­ley. Robertson is a good old-fashioned coun­try town. Some of the houses here have been restored to their former glory and chain stores like Pick n Pay and Spar have taken up premises. Capetonians have second homes here, whilst oth­ers hav­ing chosen to retire here — it isn't dif­fi­cult to see why.

But it was McGregor that really stole our hearts dur­ing our stay in the val­ley. The bro­chures describe the town as a jewel, and 'the best pre­served and most com­plete example of mid-nineteenth cen­tury town­scape in the Cape Province'. But whilst this descrip­tion does indeed cap­ture the land­scape of the town, it doesn't explain the charm and almost other-worldliness of the village.

McGregor's main road is lined with tra­di­tional, white­washed and thatched cot­tages. The streets are quiet, the town is small, the moun­tains sur­round the town, and time seems to stand still.

Perhaps it is that McGregor lies on ley lines and is recog­nised as a sac­red site because of the high level of nat­ural energy they bring to the town that it feels like a nat­ural place for cre­ativ­ity and heal­ing. Artists, pot­ters, crafts­men, heal­ers and plenty of other char­ac­ters have made the little town their home, and Temenos retreat and well­ness centre is based here.

A drive along the main street is enough to have you oohing and aah­ing. A num­ber of the houses here are cob and straw­bale, thanks to the influ­ence of local Jill Hogan who runs McGregor Alternative Technology, an advoc­ate of altern­at­ive energy, per­ma­cul­ture and sus­tain­able build­ing, and gar­dens are half-wild whilst water trickles past in old stone irrig­a­tion channels.

McGregor Photographs by Dplanet on Flickre.com (Creative Commons License)

We were con­tent to drive around whilst the air con­di­tion­ing in the car kept us cool, but after a while explor­ing the town's side streets, a num­ber of which peter out into sand roads, we decided that a pit stop was in order and pulled again into the main road to explore our options. We ended up at Villagers farm stall and res­taur­ant. They have a selec­tion of the sur­round­ing area's arts and crafts and stock all of Rhebokskraal's products.

In fact, after some chat­ting with the lady at the till, we dis­covered that the shop was actu­ally run by Rhebokskraal, the olive estate. Not only was the olive tapen­ade one of the best we'd ever tasted, but the olives are farmed organ­ic­ally. Their oliva secca (dried olives) is close to heaven, and the seat­ing area down the side of the restaurant/shop under a series of grapev­ines, a wel­come res­pite from the heat of the day. If you man­age the trip, make sure you sample their olive chocol­ates, a com­bin­a­tion of salty dried olives and sweet dark chocol­ate! Hmmm

After a couple of hours spent sip­ping tea and ginger beer under the vines, we wondered across to Deli Girls Bistro. A straw­bale house this used to be a series of stables and is brim­ming over with breads, cheeses, smoked sal­mon, home-made pro­duce and even frozen meals, so if you're self-catering whilst stay­ing here, you don't need to go far to find your meals.

The only thing McGregor seems to lack is access to fresh veget­ables and fruit, but there is a weekly farm­ers' mar­ket in Robertson or stop off at the Affie Plaas Farm Stall just before Robertson. There are also a num­ber of people in town with their own veget­able gar­dens who might be per­suaded to part with the odd salad or beetroot.

The grounds of Temenos are simply beau­ti­ful. As its name sug­gests, these grounds are ded­ic­ated as a sanc­tu­ary or holy pre­cinct, isol­ated from every­day liv­ing space. While it is mar­keted as a 'coun­try retreat', the exquis­ite gar­dens and sac­red spaces cre­ate some­thing serene and almost sanc­ti­fied – in many ways Temenos feels some­thing like the grounds of a mon­as­tery, although there are no rules or reli­gious agen­das here there are reg­u­lar silent retreats.

Hard to believe that in 1997 these gar­dens were fields of fyn­bos and scrub. Now Temenos takes up a num­ber of blocks of McGregor and is well worth a stop. To walk through their gar­dens is some­thing they allow freely, and you won't be sorry you took the time!

McGregor lies at the foot of the Riviersonderend moun­tains, roughly 20 kilo­metres from Robertson and about two and a half hours from Cape Town. The road through McGregor runs through the vil­lage and then comes to a stop. It was never com­pleted and is com­monly known as the 'road to nowhere'.

Useful Links:
McGregor Attractions
Things to Do in McGregor
McGregor Accommodation
Robertson Attractions
Things to Do in Robertson
Robertson Accommodation