EENUURKOP, SWELLENDAM

The R60 from Ashton to Swellendam is one of my favourite drives. Orchards and green pastures, dotted with meditating sheep and masticating cows, flash past your window as you keep to the shadow of the Langeberg.

The trip between the two towns takes no more than 40 minutes, just long enough to listen to At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash from beginning to end. Well, almost the end. By the time you get to the second last song “Green, Green Grass of Home”, about 5 km before Swellendam, you’ll see a sign on your left pointing to Eenuurkop Guest Farm.

Tersia and Jeremy Puren named their 110 ha farm after what is arguably the most imposing of Swellendam’s “hour peaks”; there’s also a Twaalfuur-, Elfuur- and a Tienuurkop. In the days before wristwatches, locals told the time according to the shadow that each peak cast over the town.

The biggest of the three selfcatering cottages on the farm is also called Eenuurkop and it sleeps eight people. The smaller “honeymoon” cottages, Misty Point and De Wet se Huisie, each sleep two. The Purens have lived on the farm for 38 years and have managed to eradicate most of the alien black wattle and rooikrans to turn the farm into their own version of Eden.

We stayed in De Wet se Huisie. Tersia showed us around when we arrived, telling us that Jeremy plants 100 trees every year. Each of the cottages is private, with views through the tree-filled garden across pastures towards the Langeberg. De Wet se Huisie is the kind of place where you want to settle in and start a fire immediately – either in the braai outside or in the fireplace in the open-plan lounge. Tersia’s aesthetic touch is visible everywhere, from the choice of furniture to the quality of the linen on the queen-size bed, and the soft towels in the bathroom (there’s a big shower and a bath). Vases full of fresh flowers from the garden are framed by the windows and there’s a bowl of fruit from the orchard on the dining room table.

Every house is equipped with a wide range of kitchen utensils, a stove, a fridge and two of the things that I judge a good self-catering cottage by: a clean braai grid and lots of dry firewood.

Eenuurkop is a perfect base to explore Swellendam and the nature reserves in the area. The farm borders Marloth Nature Reserve, which has a variety of walks and hikes into the mountains.

The historic town has excellent restaurants and other things to do. And Bontebok National Park is just outside town…

What else? De Wet se Huisie is named after the couple’s son who lived in the cottage for two years. Another son, Jean, makes fig preserve (R50 per jar), which you can buy, as well as some of the farm’s olives (R40 per jar).

Where? The turn-off to Eenuurkop is about 5 km north-west of Swellendam on the R60. You drive about 1 km on a good dirt road to the farm gate. Phone Tersia or send her a WhatsApp message and she’ll open for you remotely.

Rates: From R800 per day for Misty Point; from R900 per day for De Wet se Huisie; from R2 000 per day for Eenuurkop Family House. Contact: 082 956 9461; eenuurkop.co.za