By Roxanne Reid
If you’re ever on your way up the N12 that links Cape Town and Johannesburg via Kimberley and you’re looking for a value-for-money place to stay, Akkedisbult cottage near Hopetown in the Karoo could be just the ticket. About 135km south of Kimberley, it’s a peaceful retreat on a working farm.
If you’re ever on your way up the N12 that links Cape Town and Johannesburg via Kimberley and you’re looking for a value-for-money place to stay, Akkedisbult cottage near Hopetown in the Karoo could be just the ticket. About 135km south of Kimberley, it’s a peaceful retreat on a working farm.
Your route will take you on a dirt road 12km east of the N12 to a farm called Nuwedam, owned by the friendly Gerald and Nici Buchanan-Clarke. The two-bedroomed Akkedisbult cottage behind the farmhouse has an open-plan living room and a deep stoep where you can enjoy sundowners or a braai.
It’s an old cottage that’s been updated with tiles and other touches like a modern kitchen with a stove, microwave and everything you could possibly need to self-cater – even a coffee plunger and choice of two kinds of coffee grounds in the fridge, together with creamy farm milk.
Nici has thought of everything to make your stay comfortable and enjoyable, supplying firewood, fresh flowers, delicious rusks, even tissues, loo spray and toothpaste. Sweet water comes from a borehole and there’s a TV in the living room, as well as a few Country Life mags and field guides to birds, grasses and wild flowers to keep you entertained. A heater in the living room and electric blankets on all four beds, as well as a fan for hotter days show that these Karoo hosts have to think of both extremes.
Their Irish wolfhounds were equally friendly but didn’t bother us once we stopped paying them any attention. The cottage has a wire fence around it, not for any security reasons as there would be in the city, but to keep the Buchanan-Clarkes’ Nguni cattle, sheep and springbok out of your small patch of the Karoo.
You can go walking or mountain biking on the farm, or take a drive to see the springbok that graze the Karoo veld. It’s a great place to watch the sun set over the open plains or see the stars that fill the clear night skies.
You can go walking or mountain biking on the farm, or take a drive to see the springbok that graze the Karoo veld. It’s a great place to watch the sun set over the open plains or see the stars that fill the clear night skies.
Gerald and Nici were happy to chat about things to do in the area – for instance, a visit to the old wagon bridge in Hopetown, or a 50km drive to Orania, the small town that’s a stronghold for Afrikaans and Afrikaner identity (it even has a koeksister monument!). A little further afield in Kimberley are the McGregor museum, and the mining museum at the Big Hole, where some 2700 kilos of diamonds were mined between 1871 and 1914.
Nguni cattle
For friendly but unobtrusive hospitality and great value for money [Update: by early 2019 it was R500 for two people], Akkedisbult is hard to beat.
You can book your stay at Akkedisbult through Travelground or SafariNow.
Like it? Pin this image!
You can book your stay at Akkedisbult through Travelground or SafariNow.
Like it? Pin this image!
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
