Mzanzitravel Magazine - Issue 9

Country Travel
with a country-style breakfast served to you; then go for a leisurely stroll or some horseriding,
or go and watch about 50 local Zulu artists at work in the Ardmore Ceramic Art
Studio is next to the guesthouse.
PhotoSky / shutterstock.com
Still in Kwazulu-Natal, Stoneyhall Farm is situated at the foot of the Southern
Drakensberg. In summer the air is warm to cool as you explore the rolling green hills at
the foot of the mountain; in winter it turns into a white, snow-covered wonderland. Guests
are accommodated in comfortable, cosy wooden cabins with stunning views.
Another idyllic Drakensberg retreat is Antbear Lodge, a guest farm situated in the
foothills of the mountain and overlooking the Bushman’s River Valley. The guesthouse
is off the beaten track and caters for small intimate groups, never more than 12 guests
at a time. To stay on a working dairy farm in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, you can book
into Fountain Hall Guest Farm, 7km from Mooi River in the foothills of the Kamberg /
Drakensberg Mountains on the Mearns Dam. The farm is close to pubs, restaurants,
golf courses, schools, battlefields, bushman paintings and spa’s and is on the Midlands
Meander route.
If in the eastern Free State, you won’t go wrong with a stay on Welgelegen Guest Farm
outside the town of Fouriesburg, next to the Witteberg Mountain range, and 40km from
Clarens. It is a working farm with cherry and apple orchards, cattle and guest houses
sleeping 55 guests. For a holiday in a typical Free State sandstone farm cottage, you
may want to try the Madrid Farm Cottages on a farm that has been owned by the same
family for 134 years. The farm is near Clarens. Also offering accommodation in an old
sandstone building – in fact, a renovated sandstone barn – is the Oranje Guest Farm. It
is a 1,200-hectare working farm, amongst the beautiful mountains of the eastern Free
State between Fouriesburg and Clarens, near the border of Lesotho.
Dewald Kirsten / shutterstock.com
In the heart of the Northern Cape’s Karoo Highlands Route, near the town of Carnarvon,
guests can enjoy staying in a traditional corbelled house on Osfontein Guest Farm.
Corbelled houses only appear in parts of the Karoo where they were the first houses
built in the 1800’s by the trekboers, frontier farmers who moved into the interior. Because
of a shortage of building materials such as wood, they were built entirely of stone making
them warm during the winter months and surprisingly cool during summer, and safe from
the arrows of attacking San (Bushmen)!
Tony Magdaraog / shutterstock.com
82 |ISSUE 9|www.mzanzitravel.co.za | MZANZITRAVEL
Ilko Iliev / shutterstock.com