Calitzdorp Country House

Five luxurious air-conditioned bedrooms, each with its own private patio, garden and fountain, are furnished throughout with Victorian, Cape and French antiques and graced with a fabulous collection of original South- and West African paintings, carvings and bronzes. Original Oregon wood floors provide the perfect mirrored showcase for a collection of Persian rugs, adding to the overall elegance. En suite bathrooms include shower, twin washbasins on hand-selected Italian granite slabs and best of all, outsize baths that invite intimate candle-lit assignations.

The decorator's theme extends to the elegant and spacious dining and sitting rooms, where languid ceiling fans, hand crafted in the colonial style, produce gentle swirls of cooling air. In hotter conditions, air conditioning throughout the House easily copes with your need for comfort.

Dining and sitting rooms flow seamlessly out to a flagstone-paved courtyard, ideal for fresh morning breakfasts or al fresco dining on hot still summer evenings, or just for lazing, drink in hand, to enjoy the scenery. The courtyard's restful water fountain presides over the long view westwards across blue salt-water swimming pool and gazebo, over green vineyards and lush orchards, to the stark and dramatic Swartberg (Black Mountains) beyond. Throughout the house, sash windows and wood and glass paneled doors in the Karoo style are traditionally covered in the afternoons to keep out the fierce sun. And guests who have made advance bookings for the optional four-course dinner may be invited to visit our well-stocked wine cellar to choose the appropriate accompaniment for their meal.

The cool shade of a verandah which surrounds three sides of the house entices guests to relax on 19th century Cape rusbanke (traditional rawhide-strung farm benches), the House binoculars in hand, to take in the many examples of bird life on the adjacent dam and surrounding trees. You may then go on to enjoy the spectacular sunsets behind the Swartberg Mountains, and conclude your evening with a crescendo of the incomparable Southern night skies in all their celestial splendour.