Goedverwacht – The Eden of the Sandveld

Goedverwacht

Dave Cornelius stoops to enter the Home of Snoek en Patat, Goedverwacht's local cof­fee shop that also func­tions as the heart of the little vil­lage, at least as far as the youth is concerned.

He can't be more than 22 years old, but he smiles and con­fid­ently holds out his hand for me to shake. He's been hast­ily recruited to come and talk to the English woman who has graced the premises after being dir­ec­ted to the cof­fee shop by a couple of the local kids, in search of a little more know­ledge on the village.

Goedverwacht is some­thing out of Eden. The little dorp – where col­our­ful fruit trees and gar­dens line the main road through town — lies around the back side of the Piket Mountain with a river run­ning through it.

It's gor­geous, but don't tell too many people. Continued

A trip less ordinary — Riebeek Valley on a scooter

A trip less ordinary

While spend­ing time with fam­ily in Riebeek West over Christmas, we decided to embark on a wine tour and explore the verd­ant wine val­ley, on a scooter! We star­ted our ‘trip less ordin­ary’ at Kloovenburg Wine Estate, where we also took part in an olive tast­ing and enjoyed their deli­cious wine on the ver­andah. The val­ley has become fam­ous for its deli­cious olives, olive oil and wine and we were excited at the pro­spect of tak­ing part in tast­ings. We were treated to exquis­ite views made all the more enti­cing by the per­fect, wind-free weather in the well-known Mediterranean cli­mate of the Riebeek Valley. Continued

Riebeek Kasteel Photograph

An old, dusty Mercedes Benz is not out of place parked out­side the Kasteelberg Country Inn & Bistro in Riebeek Kasteel.  This area, well known for its olives, has enjoyed a ‘rebirth’ of tour­ism with many people vis­it­ing from Cape Town for week­end breaks or the well known annual Riebeek Valley Olive Festival. Continued

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 ... Continued

Riebeek Kasteel – a perfect little Swartland town

Riebeek Kasteel

One thing you need to know about Riebeek Kasteel is that it's no longer a secret. Which isn't to say that you won't enjoy your­self immensely in this gor­geous little town nestled up against the Kasteelberg Mountain roughly an hour's drive from Cape Town, but if the cost of homes is any­thing to go by (and there are at least four estate agen­cies jost­ling for atten­tion on the square as you enter town) then people are lin­ing up for their spot in the sun in this rural, Tuscan-style village.

Riebeek Kasteel lit­er­ally is a sight for sore eyes. The scenery is intox­ic­at­ing, and vine­yards, olive groves, moun­tains and charm­ing cot­tages cre­ate a styl­ish, yet rus­tic appeal that has a buzz­ing local com­munity, and a ser­i­ous col­lec­tion of unique eat­er­ies that draw food­ies from Cape Town in their droves ... Continued

Spectacular Swartland

Swartland

There's a stretch of beach up the West Coast where I always go when I need to think. It may be when I need a little goal-directed think­ing – like the time I decided that I des­per­ately needed to see the world a little and impuls­ively packed my bags and set the gears in motion for some over­seas back­pack­ing. Or even just for some philo­soph­ical time-out, when the day to day grind becomes a little over­whelm­ing and the sand and sea seem like the only logical things left in the world. Whatever the need, it's this little unnamed stretch of beach that I go to to think it out.

Recently, how­ever, I've star­ted to explore a little, and have gradu­ally pro­gressed fur­ther and fur­ther up the coast. This region is actu­ally huge and includes the Swartland and Sandveld as well as the Olifant’s River val­ley. If you restrict your­self to the coastal towns you are doing your­self a huge dis­ser­vice and you miss out on beauty, inter­est­ing places and of course the great food. Continued