Our Stunning and Ideal Escape to Serenity in Citrusdal, WC

We left the city with the hope of finding a stunning and ideal escape in a farm stay. We found one in Citrisdale, called Pomegranate Cottage.

Many moons ago my friends, partner and I finally found time to go on a holiday together. We were specific in our choice of holiday. No BnB or hotel and had to be at least a 2-hour drive from Cape Town. And whatever accommodation we find should be able to accommodate all six of us in one setting. My partner, Andrew randomly found a place for us in Citrusdal that seemed to tick all the boxes – a farm stay in a cottage called Pomegranate Cottage.

We hit the road on a Friday early afternoon to miss the afternoon traffic on the N7. Unfortunately, we were met with a few 20-minute stop-and-goes along the way. Luckily, we had enough 90s hip-hop on our playlist to see us through. We arrived at our destination in a little over two hours.

Citrusdal is a small town known for its luscious acres of citrus orchards. It is roughly two hours away from the Mother City, near the West Coast. Nestled 10km before the small town lies Pomegranate Cottage, situated on the Nuweland farm and surrounded by the Olifants River Mountains. The three-star private cottage houses up to eight people for R900 per couple per night. We found the cottage was indeed a beautiful, serene place surrounded by acres of orange trees and of course pomegranate fruit trees.

My friend and I could not resist picking some fruits that were on the ground. We may or may have not picked a lemon or two from the actual trees for the G&T. Is that considered stealing? That’s about all the misbehaving we did – okay I should add sneaking in a short soak in the tub. A luxury we were denied in drought-stricken Cape Town.

We had no itinerary planned for this trip other than a food supply run as soon as we arrived. The idea was to switch off completely from any technology, but the self-catering cottage provided everything, including a TV with DSTV. On our first night, we were able to resist watching TV. We sat outside the courtyard revelling in the amber sun set behind the mountains whilst waiting on the braai. It was incredibly quiet – creating an atmosphere of total tranquillity. We headed inside for dinner to the spacious open-plan kitchen and dining area.

After dinner, it was time to bring out the board games. The living room has comfortable – deep leather couches and a sleeper couch. We cosied up to the fireplace and then the couple rivalry began with a game of 30 seconds. It is amazing how these games expose our competitive streaks. My husband and I teamed up, and I became increasingly agitated as it became apparent early on that we were lagging behind. We came last as I could not decipher his (to my mind) ludicrous clues. No hard feelings though, just aching stomach muscles from excessive laughing.

Since I slept in the living room, comforted by the warm crackling fire, the following morning I was rudely awoken up by noisy chirping birds. There is quite a variety of bird life in Nuweland – we tried guessing the species of each bird, but probably got it all wrong! Our day started off with a stomach-lining traditional farm breakfast prepared lovingly by my husband. After, we headed off for some kayaking. The windless morning was superb for paddling. This would be my first kayaking attempt and it was terrifying. For some reason, all I could imagine was being tipped over into the dam, dragged down by the dam weeds and drowning.

Embarrassed by my initial attempt, I tried again. I had to put faith in my husband’s paddling. He paddled us flawlessly across the dam and we got to see a close-up view of the surrounding veld and the grazing zebras and antelopes. One of our friends had a go on the zip line. He timed his landing perfectly and dropped into the water about 10 meters from the bank. Unfortunately for him, the farm’s resident golden retriever (whom we dubbed Goldie) was most excited by the action and paddled towards him. Catching up with him, and lurching onto his back.

From the timber deck we were all standing on, it looked as if Goldie was trying to drown him. The dog kept pushing our friend’s head under the water. At this stage, he had next to no stamina left as his asthma kicked in whilst trying to shove the dog away. Just as the guys were readying to jump in and save our friend, he somehow managed to find the strength to pull his head out of the water. Fortunately, by then his wife had managed to paddle up to him in the kayak and helped drag him to the bank. He stumbled up to safety, fuming and with a back full of scratches and no doubt some scars!

After this misadventure, Goldie returned to him, tail between the legs with puppy dog eyes, as if asking for forgiveness. We calmed ourselves with drinks and basked under the tall trees. We left a lamb knuckles and veg potjie to cook on the fire for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner, we headed to the living room for the last cosy night of fire and roasted marshmallows. We rounded off the night watching the English Premier League.

For our final morning, we had leftovers for breakfast and had one last paddle on the kayak. The host Louise was kind enough to let us stay longer than the 10 am check-out time. It proved to be difficult to say our goodbyes to the farm. If life didn’t dictate otherwise, we would have loved to stay on for another few days. Goldie ran after our cars, giving us an enthusiastic send-off as we drove away. We came back rejuvenated and with strengthened friendship bonds. We will certainly be back.