Rooms: 6 cottages: all fully self-contained with 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms and shared or en-suite bathrooms with baths and/or showers.
Prices: R350 - R650 pp self-catering. Singles and special family rates on request.
* Special rates available
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Meals: Full breakfast R100; Continental breakfast R75; 3-course farm dinners or semi-prepared braai packs by prior arrangement.
Directions: Halfway between Calitzdorp & Oudtshoorn on R62. Head west from Oudtshoorn 28km, then Kruisrivier turn-off. Red Stone 6km down this road. Another entrance between foot of Swartberg mountain & Cango Caves via Matjiesrivier.
GPS: S 33 30 23 76 E 23 06 48 33
The humbling sense of the passage of time pervades this 3,000-hectare veld, whose desert colours swirl with Van Gogh vibrancy. The current Potgieters are the fifth generation to farm this land (ostrich, vineyards, cattle, fruit), but that lineage is put into perspective by the red stone hills. They date to the enon-conglomerate period, formed 120 million years ago when the earth twisted and a torrent of sanguine mud-stone settled and solidified; a few million years later, bushmen hid in the hills’ stone pockets and painted wildlife; and in the 1790s Karoo cottages completed the picture. It’s all been authenticated by erudite visitors: botanists, geologists and a chap from Roberts who identified 210 birds here, including eagles, black stork and five varieties of kingfisher. But you’ll find Hermanus and Petro plenty knowledgeable themselves. We drove out along dusty tracks leading past the schoolhouse that his father donated to the mixed community (which still congregates there), through babbling brooks to Chinese lanterns and blankets of fynbos and medicinal succulents. Hermanus will name them all. Petro says he lives in the past, whereas she’s an artist facing the future. Also on offer at certain times of year are geological, botanical and fossil tours. There are many ways to enjoy the scenery, cycling, hiking, horse-riding and ostrich farm tours… kids will love the morning tractor ride to feed the animals. When you’re tired out, your sleepy cottage, with original Oregon pine doors and floors and farm-made furniture, awaits.
More information from the owners…
