Weekend Escape: Klip Service

Paul Ash finally realises a dream: visiting a Victorian farmstead on a wheat and sheep farm an hour from Cape Town

Bartholomeus Klip has always sat on the edge of my desire. I saw pictures of it once, in another, poorer life. Everybody who went came back with stories, like Spaniards returning from the New World with tales of rivers of gold and mountains of silver (and how right they turned out to be .). I could just never quite get there - too far, too dear, weekend too short, too full .

And then one day it just happened and my girl and I were bouncing down the farm road, gasping at the emerald fields, the grazing sheep and shafts of sunlight falling through clouds onto the Elandskloof mountains behind.

We were in the suite. That meant throwing open the doors a couple of times a day, leading to repeated White Mischief mutterings as the light softened on the mountains and clouds lifted and lowered and lifted again.

In the late afternoon, the farm cat came to see if we were alright (we were) and then led us to the main house for tea. You see, at Bartholomeus Klip, it's all about the food. Even the cat knows that, and so do the baboons, as it turns out.

We had been told about the high tea. Then we had it, and it surpassed anything of its kind in the world. I have had high tea on the terrace of the Victoria Falls Hotel, and high tea on the P&O liner SS Canberra, and high tea under the somnambulant ceiling fans in a lofty Victorian building in Calcutta. None of them came close to the one we ate by the fire at Bartholomeus Klip, stuffing ourselves with scones and tarts and crumbly pastries as the winter rain began to pelt on the tin roof.

It was almost criminal, then, to return for dinner not even an hour later, but we did, and acquitted ourselves remarkably well, whispering our joy at the food and trying not to listen to the couple bickering like mynah birds at the next table.

That night we slept like turduckens, which is to say, stuffed, listening to the rain on the roof and the wind in the gum trees.

In the morning a troop of baboons foraged insouciantly in the field in front of the suite. The cat, who was back, watched them and licked his chops. I staggered out of my armchair like an out-to-pasture sumo wrestler. "Oh, lordy," I said, "it's breakfast time."

WHY GO THERE: The farm's setting at the foot of the Elandskloof mountains is spectacular, especially in winter when the rain has taken the parched edge off the landscape. Then there's the food and the service, and that beautiful suite. But if there was one reason to go, that would be the magnificent afternoon tea served in the lounge next to a roaring fire.

WHAT IT HAS: Four bedrooms in the main homestead and a glorious outside suite with a private verandah and a view across the farm to the mountains.

There's game viewing in the nature reserve - the herds of eland, bontebok and black wildebeest will, on occasion, make you think you're somewhere else, like the bush - and there are zebras from the quagga breeding project.

Don't forget the dam which you could admire from a canoe, or better yet, from the jetty with a bottle of wine when the sun turns the mountains gold.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Luxurious. The homestead is like one of those houses you sometimes drive past on the road to somewhere else and say "I wish I lived there". It has been beautifully kept, like the farm itself. Getting back in the car to leave is the hardest thing.

AND THE FOOD: People come from the ends of the earth for the food. The style is French with a local interpretation. The salmon trout comes from the dam (see above) and the lamb from the farm. Did I mention the afternoon tea?

RATES: High season rates (November to April) start at R2465 per person per night in a luxury room (R1510pp low season), R2690 per person per night in the suite (R1855pp low season). Not cheap but this is a serious treat. Rates include three meals a day - including the tea - game drives and the use of mountain bikes and canoes.

There is also a self-catering option at Wild Olive House (R880 pppn high season, R748 low season, cheaper rates for children) and you can book brunch, tea or dinner at the main house for R450 per person.

GETTING THERE:Bartholomeus Klip is off the R44 from Wellington to Tulbagh (take the N1 from Cape Town to Paarl). An alternative route is on the N7 from Cape Town via Malmesbury and Riebeek Kasteel and then left onto the R44 for a short distance.

CONTACT: Phone 0224481087, e-mail info@bartholomeusklip.com or see www.bartholomeusklip.com.

. LOCAL ATTRACTION:

If you're not in a hurry, take the slow, pretty road via Bainskloof Pass (between Wellington and Wolseley). The road leaps up the mountains from Wellington and then follows the Witte River down the other side in a series of lovely Mae West curves that wind among the pleasing rock formations.

The pass, named for road builder Andrew Geddes Bain, was completed in 1853. Unlike many others that have been widened into highways, this one could not be "improved" and it retains its original character.

Apart from exquisite stone walls on some of the dicier curves, the barriers on the river side of the road are stones and boulders. It's a reminder of how SA's mountain passes used to be.

 Remarkably, for such a beautiful spot, traffic is usually light and you may, with luck, have the pass to yourself. Take your time and use the lay-bys if you want to stop for the view - it's not the kind of place to have one eye on the road and the other on the scenery.