WHY GO?

"CERES is the ugliest town in the Western Cape," announced a friend while we chatted on a starlit evening during the recent holidays.

I took offence. This is my home town, named after the Roman goddess of fruitfulness.

I spent years growing up in the valley that is well-known for its fruit trees and cherry blossoms.

But I had to agree that the buildings along the town's main roads might not be a pretty sight.

Thanks to poor aesthetic vision after the devastating 1969 earthquake, which ruined most of the town's original buildings, Ceres is not an architectural gem.

But ignore that and you will find fertile lands growing much of our country's fruit, and some good wine, I discovered. Then, if you scratch around, there are a few original buildings from long ago which survived the earthquake.

One of these is the three-bedroomed self-catering cottage Die Kloofhuis on Koelfontein Farm, one of the valley's oldest farms situated 13km outside Ceres.

The cottage was built in the 1800s as a wedding present for a daughter of the family. The farm's website says it was "nicknamed the 'honeymoon cottage' since the sun comes up later here than anywhere else on the farm due to the rugged mountain ridges of the narrow valley that the cottage sits in".

ALL ABOUT IT

Koelfontein Farm has been in the Conradie family for seven generations since the 1800s.

It is a successful fruit- and grape-growing farm.

Die Kloofhuis, with its thick walls and low ceilings, has been carefully and comfortably restored. It sleeps six, which it did the night I spent there.

We cruised into Ceres on Saturday morning.

Nothing has changed since I left town almost 20 years ago. Perhaps this town's planners are nervous of repeating the design disaster of the late 1960s and 1970s, and prefer to stay safe without change.

We found the cottage on a dirt road between rugged mountains.

In front of the house is a large oak tree, and behind it are fruit orchards set on gentle slopes.

From its stoep you look across fields and a dam over the Ceres valley. The cottage is well-equipped with everything you might need.

THINGS TO DO

After dumping our bags, we headed to the farm's cellar, Die Kelder, for a wine tasting appointment.

After sipping really good Koelfontein wines, especially the Shiraz, we had to rush back to fall into our beds. Drinking in the morning on an empty stomach is never a good idea.

The following day we headed to Bo-Swaarmoed, the farming region the other side of the valley.

It's here on the Matroosberg that you can pick cherries in season on Klondyke Farm, and where snow falls thickly. You'd think it only snows in winter, but on the weekend in November, we stopped our car in disbelief to watch flakes drift gently to the ground.

DID IT LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS?

Die Kloofhuis is a quiet, restful getaway spot in a beautiful valley.

There are things to do, if you're feeling active. And Ceres is not the ugliest town in the Western Cape.

FACT FILE:

Rates:

The cottage, which sleeps six, costs R1000 a night.

Contacts:

To book the cottage call 023-313-3304; e-mail kloofhuis@koelfontein.co.za, or visit the website www.capestay.co.za/diekloofhuis

For information on what to do in the Ceres area see the website www.ceres.org.za