DANIELSKRAAL FARM, Calitzdorp, Klein Karoo

For those seeking wide-open spaces and a retreat from the everyday busy, from traffic and noise, from hustle and bustle, the Little Karoo gently hits the spot. A valley, running between two parallel mountain ranges, the Swartberg to the north, and the Langeberg-Outeniqua to the south, ensures that unlike its ‘Great’ sibling, the Little Karoo offers lush, fertile land, where apricots, peaches, blueberries, and every cultivar of wine can, and indeed does, flourish.

And it is here, protected by the sturdy ankles of the Rooiberg Mountains for close to two centuries, that you will find Danielskraal Farm. The main farmhouse, built in 1836, has five bedrooms and was reinvented as a sumptuous and elegant holiday retreat almost a decade ago. It’s been a super successful place of happy-memory-making ever since. With its deep, comfortable stoep, overlooking the pool and firepit to the farm beyond, it's provided the perfect home for city-dwellers to spend a few days reconnecting with loved ones. Filled as it is, with art and antiques, curios and comfort, it’s no wonder that Danielskraal Farm has become a well-known and much-loved brand, with an impressive occupancy rate, and lots of lovely returning guests.

Kids and adults alike get a thrill checking the night camera for leopard sightings, and everyone loves the fact that Danielskraal is a working farm; the 5th generation tenant farmer maintains 50 of the 2650 hectares farmland here with seed, lucerne, sheep and cattle. The farm has an abundant water supply from the mountains, plus a borehole and a dam for storage. There’s the opportunity to develop the business further, with two gorgeous one-bed cottages, plus two worker’s cottages which could be dismantled and redesigned as guest accommodation.

However, if you’re seeking a home rather than a business opportunity, do not discount Danielskraal. The WiFi is fast and with George an hour away and Oudtshoorn, with its own medi-clinic, just 35 minutes away, this is a superb semigration option. The current owner feels completely safe living alone on the farm; ten minutes away, just off Route 62 is Calitzdorp, a tiny town full of friendly and hospitable 5th generation folk, who value and protect the safety and peace of the place, and keep an eye out for their fellow inhabitants. There are plenty of ‘inkomers’ living in Calitzdorp too; artists and craftsmen, winemakers and chefs are drawn to the somnolent, easygoing atmosphere of the town, and have given the place something of an uplift over the past few years. There’s a number of extremely good places to eat out, and plenty of eccentric characters adding colour and charisma to this special dorp! This region boasts rock painting and fossils, and more varieties of succulents than anywhere else in the world. The spekboom plant grows in abundance all around, absorbing carbon dioxide and pumping clean oxygen into the vast Karoo skies. With an absence of artificial light, nights offer the most incredible star-gazing, and by day, the light creates a kaleidoscope of changing colours over the folded hillsides… from the rich golds of dawn to the dramatic burnished pink and purple sunsets. Road trip, anyone?!

Specs

•Erf size: 2232 Ha (fenced)

•Main homestead: 293m2 o 4 bedrooms o 3 bathrooms (2 en suite)

•Guest cottage: 51 m2 o 1 bathroom (en suite)

•Manager’s cottage: 120 m2

•Laundry: 20 m2

• Workshop: 16 m2

• Carports: 60 m2

• Main pool and plunge pool

• Fire pit

• Dam

• Spring water used in the house, borehole has a 7,5kw pump, for gardens and drip irrigation

• 20 minutes from Calitzdorp

• 30 minutes from Oudtshoorn

• 1h15 mins from George airport

• 4.5 hours drive from Cape Town