Jewels of the Western Cape

October 2011 has been a busy, busy travelling month.

First stop was the Western Cape.

Vast blue skies. Red sandstone boulders scattered over rocky hillsides. Golden sandstone sculpted by time and weather into fantastical shapes. Green lawns and indigenous gardens of such astonishing beauty that they complement not compete with their wild-growing neighbours covering the kloofs and valleys. Not a sound save for a soft early morning conversation between two laughing doves and a bokmakierie singing its heart out from the top of a spreading acacia tree.

It’s dawn at Bushman’s Kloof in the Cederberg. This tranquil wilderness paradise has recently been voted No. 1 hotel in Africa and the Middle East, and No. 2 in the world earlier this year by Travel + Leisure World’s Best Service Awards.

Beauty of another kind is waiting at Steenberg Hotel situated on the Cape’s oldest farm in Constantia. Its buildings, lovingly restored, are now a National Monument, a far cry from the days when a feisty young 22-year-old Dutch widow, Catherina Ras, arrived here 10 years after Jan van Riebeeck, and found herself a husband and more importantly, land. She had more luck with land than with husbands. Number 1 was killed by a lion, Number 2 murdered by a Hottentot, Number 3 was trampled to death by an elephant. History does not record the ends of husbands 4 and 5, but in the process Catherina acquired lots of valuable real estate.

Over three hundred years later, Steenberg is a multi-award winning leading hotel of the world. It has a vineyard that produces award-winning wines. The night before I arrive, I learn that it has won the 2011 Conde Nast Traveler US Readers’ Choice Awards as the Top Hotel in Africa and the Middle East. That award comes hot on the heels of scooping the 2011 Best Luxury Hotel in Africa by www.TripAdvisor.com.

On the final leg of my Cape journey I come to rest at Mont Rochelle and Mountain Vineyards in perhaps the Cape’s loveliest valley – Franschoek. After tasting his fantastic wines on our cellar tour I lunch at Country Kitchen with one of South Africa’s youngest winemakers, Darran Stone, and dine that night at the award-winning restaurant Mange Tout.

Aah, but the Cape is beautiful…

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