Stillewaters

Self Catering: Richmond

Cost: R110 per person per night

Pet Friendly (no extra cost)

Ablutions and kitchen in the old house

No demarcated camp sites. Camping anywhere in the grassed garden adjacent to the old house. Power supplied on demand via extension cable. We are the only people at Stillewaters – how lucky can we get!

The glorious sunrise saw us on our way from Cape Town. Winding through the mountains and passing through the amazing Huguenot tunnel and into the karoo scrubland. An interesting hour was spent browsing through the museum town of Matjiesfontein (named after the reed beds in the valley that the Koi women, indigenous to the area, used to make mats (matjies) for their homes).

A purchase of karoo lamb tjops just outside Beauford West for dinner and a 10 hour ride – including stops – brought us to the small, run down, town of Richmond which lies just passed the ‘Three Sisters’. Stillewaters is 4.5km’s from Richmond and is a working farm battling to cope with the lack of water.

The farm house, built in 1863, has been left by its owners with cutlery, crockery, linen etc for the use of its guests (there is even soap and shampoo in the shower!). In winter you are welcome to light a fire in the lounge or make use of the indoor braai.

The farm is one of the original ‘Three Sisters’ farms and was used by the British to bury their dead during the Boer War. We were fascinated to learn that the young farm manager, Chris, had met the farm owner in Cape Town where he painted yachts for a living. The owner introduced Chris to the farm and has put him through agricultural school to provide him with the skills needed to run this tranquil farm.

Many of the 230 bird species recorded for the area were in evidence during our slow morning breakfast. Packing up our tripper was as easy as it had been to set up camp the day before. No camp fatigue. No uncomfortable ‘making do’. Although the weather had turned fresh during the night we were well insulated and it was a pleasure to throw open the doors in the morning inviting the world inside for morning coffee.