This past weekend, we went away to stay at a cottage at Boskloofswemgat
http://www.boskloofswemgat.co.za/index.htm. I can't recommend this place enough, its such a lovely, tranquil place, although unfortunately its really HOT in the area. Not a big issue though, when you can spend hours in the beautiful river :-)
We stayed in Langhuis, a lovely little cottage right near a beautiful rockpool.
The farm has quite a few cottages, mostly on the main part of the river and some of them are next to paddocks where you can see the lovely horses and two darling little donkeys. Apparently the one mare does bite so you have been warned, be careful when petting the horses or letting your children pet them. However, having said that, we did in fact pet quite a few of the horses with no incidents.
The main 'swemgat' is large and very idyllic with shallow parts that will be lovely for those with young children. There is also plenty of beautiful lawn where the kids can play. There are (I think) three cottages on the one side of the swemgat (with the beautiful lawns) and two on the other side.
The prices are also very reasonable, I was pleasantly surprised and Francois was a pleasure to deal with :-) Clanwilliam is pretty close with a very impressive Spar Supermarket, so if you forget anything, don't worry. We did all the shopping for the weekend at the Spar. If you feel so inclined you can also drive up the pass a while (I think its Pakhuis Pass) and see Louis Leipoldt's gravesite.
Funnily enough, while we were in Clanwilliam on Saturday, we saw two guys leading some camels along the road, I'm not sure where they were going, but they caused quite a traffic jam LOL
We saw a variety of wildlife at the farm, including, francloins, weavers, southern Boubous, doves, sparrows, sunbirds, and a mongoose. There were also a few very friendly fishies in the rockpool.
Anyway, again, I say, if you want a lovely relaxing weekend away, this is definately the place to go.
