Cedar Escape - Rivercamp.

We had been getting withdrawal symptoms having not camped since the end of November as we tend to avoid school holidays. With the schools going back to start their new year, I started looking around for somewhere new to go to. This summer the wind in Cape Town has been almost non stop so this also ruled out our usual favourites like Leentjiesklip and Ganzekraal. I have found in the past, that strong South Easters in Cape Town also often bring rain to the Breede River Valley area as well. I then decided to give Rivercamp, one of the campsites administered by Cedar Escape, a try and booked for 4 nights.

On the Monday morning we set off with our packed Skipper, along with a couple of friends with their tent trailer. The weather forecast for the week was good with high temperatures forecast for the Wednesday. A nice change from Cape Town's continuous wind.

After turning right at the 4 way stop in Citrusdal we found the entrance to the campsite exactly 16.9km as per my gps along the road.

After entering the farm, a very friendly and willing farm worker took us along a dusty but good farm road to the campsite. It was also well signposted.

I had seen some photo's of the campsite on their website and was very pleasantly suprised with what I found when we got there. The website photo's do not do it justice. The campsite is huge. Lush green grass and plenty of shade. There are actually two sites but they are not demarcated. Anyway we had the place to ourselves most of the time, other than 2 very pleasant German tourists doing a quick one night stay over on their travels. The ablutions are in a stone building. There are 2 bathrooms with a huge shower, wash basin and toilet, There are also plenty of hooks and a bench for changing. There is also a nice kitchen area with electrical plugs and a double sink and plenty of hot water . There could be better ventilation, however they are going to attend to this.   

    
The campsite is on the banks of the Oliphants river and is quite far upstream, so the quality of the water in the river is very good. The water temperature was a pleasant 22 degrees, so very nice for swimming, which we did plenty of as on Wednesday is was 42 degrees outside.

There are 2 braai area's with a fire pit and an electrical plug point and a light at each. I presume this more or less differentiates the two campsites.

Here are a few photo's. Some taken from the air with my drone to give a different perspective.

Looking South from the campsite

Looking East towards the Cedarberg

Sunset on the Cedarberg

Another sunset shot.

This is now among my top 5 campsites in the Western Cape and we will definitely be back.

Here is a video I shot with my drone of the campsite from different angles.For better quality viewing, click on the YouTube logo on the bottom right and once opened in Youtube, click on the settings button next to the logo, also on the bottom right, and then on "Quality" and select at least 720p or 1080p.

 

Welgegun - Rawsonville.

I have not done any updates to this blog for a long time as I have been involved in a few other projects. However we have still been camping as often as possible, although mostly to the places we have visited before. However about a year ago we went to this hiddem gem, only an hour's drive from Cape Town.

After a bit of research on Facebook, I found a few mentions about Welgegun. It is another of those very special campsites that when you book it, the whole campsite is yours and there will not be any other people there. Now obviously over weekends there is a minimum charge and I think it is around R90.00 per person per night with a minimum charge of R1000.00. Therefore you do need a group of 11+ in order to not have to pay a premium over the R90.00pp charge. However during the week they are happy to waive the minimum charge and you just pay the R90.00 pppn. I could be wrong about the charges as their facebook page states R80.00 pp but this could be outdated.

Welegegun is situated on the Breede river near Rawsonville, Western Cape. It is just off the R101 which is also known as the Old N1. The entrance to the campsite is a bit obscure as there is just a farm gate with no signage whatsoever. However it is quite easy to find. As you go from Rawsonville towards Worcester, about 200 meters before you cross over the bridge over the Breede river, there is a lone Palm Tree on the right hand side of the road and the gate is next to this tree. After entering the gate you turn immeadiately left and follow the road running right next to the R101 with small signs to the campsite. The entrance is quite easy to see on the street view on Google Maps.

The campsite itself is lovely. It has two sections with a communal Braai Lapa in the middle. Nice green grass on the River bank. There is good fishing in the river and although we did not do any fishing, I saw lots of nice photo's of good catches made there when I was doing my research. The are a couple of canoe's that one can use as well. We took our SUP's and you could paddle for about 1km plus downstream quite easily. There is not much shade other than next to the ablutions and at the Braai area. The ablutions are good with 2 separate bathrooms with a shower, basin and toilet inside the block.

The only slight negative is that the campsite is quite near the R101 where it crosses the Breede River and you therefore do get a bit of traffic noise.

Their contact no is 082 871 8745 for bookings. Here is a link to their facebook page. 
Facebook Page. 
Here are a few photo's

 

 

 

Rondeberg Resort

Altydwater Campsite

Rondeberg Resort - Bulshoek Dam.

At the beginning of November we decided to try somewhere new to celebrate Colleen's birthday. For quite a while we had been looking to stay at the Rondeberg Resort on the Bulshoek dam, some 22 kilometers north of Clanwilliam on the Oliphants river. It is quite a long drive from Cape Town and there are ongoing roadworks in the area, so we decided to book in on a Sunday for a change as the traffic in the area would be lighter than on a weekday.

I had been looking at their website and they offered 3 different types of camping accomodation. There was General camping at R250.00 per night with a communal ablution block, Private camping at R300.00 per night with your own ablutions, braai area, shadeport and cooking/washing up area. The 3rd option was Waterside camping at R300.00 per night on the waters edge with your own private ablutions. We opted for the Private camping.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon after driving up in rather rainy and windy weather. Cape Town having experienced a severe storm on Sunday morning. However when we arrived the weather was clear but a bit windy. We set up in one of the private campsites and I must say that I was very impressed with what you got for just R50.00 more per night than the general campsites. We opened our trailer under the shadeport and therefore did not even have to erect the tent section.

The Bulshoek dam is on the Oliphants river and is fed from the overflow from the Clanwilliam Dam. The water is fairly warm and very nice and clear. Much nicer for SUP's, kayaks, swimming and boating than the resorts along the Breede River and we spent many hours on our inflatable SUP's. There is a boat launching slipway in the resort. There is a small swimming pool and a tramopline for the kids as well. There is a small shop onsite for a few items such as milk, bread and braai wood etc.

The resort is very well run and maintained and although relatively expensive for a campsite, very good value for money. I had a look at the general campsite ablutions as well and they were spotlessly clean and quite upmarket. We will be back in the new year, probably in April or May when the weather is a bit cooler in the area.

I did not take many photo's but here are a few.  

View from our campsite.

Sunset

View from the hiking trail.

Altyd Water - Rawsonville

Last month we decided to try somewhere new to us and decided on Altyd Water (It translates as "Always Water) on a farm near Rawsonville just behind the Du Toit's Kloof Winery. There was not too much information available on the internet other than their Facebook page but it did look very nice. We booked our usual midweek 4 nights from a Monday to Friday. It was only just over an hours drive from us so we arrived there a bit earlier than expected but this was not a problem as we had the place to ourselves, other than one other overnight visitor who arrived late on Monday and left early on Tuesday morning.

The campsite is unusual in that there are no marked out sites. There are several electricity boxes spaced out around the campsite and you just choose where to camp wherever you like. The campsite is on the banks of the Smalblaar river, which although not very deep, has crystal clear water and is great for swimming in a few of the deeper pools. There is a cenetral Lapa/Entertainment area with shade cover, benches and basins with taps, so we pitched near this.
The whole site has several trees for shade a lush and green grass in a very beautiful setting.

Here are a few photo's

Crytal clear water

 View from the campsite towards Worcester.

Views around the camsite and farm.

 Looking back at the campsite from downstream.

The ablutions are in one block behind the campsite and get 5 stars.
On the left side there are 2 showers and 2 toilets with wash basins. On the right hand side there are 2 bathrooms with a shower, toilet and wash basin in each. In the centre there is a washing up area.

We had very nice weather except for the Wednesday, when it was cloudy and it rained quite heavily in the evening. However on Thursday morning it cleared up again nicely.

We went into Rawsonville one day to buy a few essentials that we had forgotten to pack. Not a great experience. There are only a few very run down and small supermarkets/cafes there. It is best to take everything with you unless you are prepared to drive all the way to Worcester.

I spoke to the farmer and he advised that if you have a group they will allocate the whole site to you for a weekend if you have 20+ people in your group. Otherwise they do not allow more than 40 people per weekend.

Definitely going back here one day.

New update..... We have returned for another visit in April 2016 and I made a video with a camera drone. I have uploaded it to the log and it shows as a new post.

Silwerstrand Robertson

It has been a while since I updated this blog. Since my last post we have been camping a few times to Leentjiesklip and eventually over a long weekend in September we went with the Trekkers, Laarger 8 to Silwerstrand in Robertson on the banks of the Breede River for 4 nights.

I understand that the campsite is now managed by Antionette, the owner of the Montagu Caravan Park, who has many years experience and does a wonderful job. We arrived around lunch time and were personally shown to our site by a very friendly and helpful staff member. The access road was tar nearly all the way with the last 150 meters or so being gravel. This was not a problem, however a Northerly wind blew for the most part and the other users of the road tend to speed up and down, causing huge clouds of dust to blow over the whole campsite. Maybe a couple of severe speed bumps might help with this. 

It did not take us long to set up and we relaxed and waited for the others to arrive. We had our inflatable Standup Paddle Boards which we inflated and also went for an paddle up the river. Once you crossed a narrow channel upstream there was quite a long and lovely stretch that was navigable. Since we took our boards to Klipkrans in April this year, a few of the other members of the Trekkers have also obtained SUP's.

On the Friday we visited Excelsior Wine estate to go and buy some wine and ended up having a very nice lunch in their restaurant. It seems to be the marketing strategy in the area for wine farms that also have restaurant facilities to have not only very resonable prices for excellent food but to also sell the wines in the restaurant at cellar prices. It seems to work very well for the local tourism industry in the area.

Over the weekend the weather got even better, the dust subsided and we spent many hours on the river and braaing in the evenings with the other Trekkers.

Even though the campsite was fully booked for the weekend, it did not feel crowded as it is very well spread out. The main ablutions were pretty old and dated, but were cleaned regularily. There is a much newer and smaller ablution block near the fron entrance. I think they do plan to upgrade the main ablutions shortly.

On the Sunday morning, which was our last day, we woke up to rain. We were contemplating staying another night to let our camper dry out. However, by late morning the weather cleared up, so we quickly packed up and departed for home.

There is quite a lot of competition for campsights in the area, so next time we will probably try one of the other campsites but am sure that we will be going back to Silwerstrand sometime in the future.