The Valley of Desolation
Dolerite columns standing over the plains, on a surfaced road inside the park. Go for sunset — everyone does, and everyone is right.
A short drive out of townKaroo View — est. 2011
Four quiet rooms, a proper Karoo breakfast, and the best sunset stoep in Graaff-Reinet.
A restored 1880s Karoo cottage on the edge of town, looking at Spandau Kop.
Graaff-Reinet runs on South African time, two hours ahead of London.
- The house
- Four rooms, no more
- From
- R1,450 a night for two
- Breakfast
- Always included
- Spoken here
- English & Afrikaans
The house
Thick walls, yellowwood floors, and a stoep that faces the right way.
We took the cottage on in 2011. It was built in the 1880s, so the walls are half a metre thick — which is why the rooms are cool in January and warm in July, without anyone doing anything clever.
There are four rooms and there will only ever be four. Pieter bakes. Nadia answers the phone. Between the two of us that is the whole staff, and it is the reason we know which room you liked last time.
The question every first-timer asks
“Is breakfast included?”
Always. A full Karoo breakfast with Pieter’s fresh bread — it’s half the reason people come back.
— Nadia
The rooms
Four doors off one stoep.
Each one is a different shape, because the house is old and was never drawn on paper. From R1,450 a night for two, breakfast included — the whole rate table is published, no asking required.
Room one
Spandau
The corner room, with its own door onto the stoep and the koppie straight ahead.
King bedStoep door Room twoSneeuberg
The coolest room in the house in summer, and the only one with a proper bath.
Bath & showerKing or twin Room threeAloe
The smallest and the quietest, at the back, with a walled bit of courtyard of its own.
Queen bedOwn courtyard Room fourDie Werf
The old outbuilding across the yard — the family room, with its own gate and no one above you.
Sleeps fourOwn entranceA day here
The stoep does most of the work.
Half past four
The shade arrives.
The stoep runs along the front of the house and faces west, so from about four it is the coolest place on the property and the only place anyone wants to be. There is a tin of Nadia’s buttermilk rusks and a flask of coffee out from three.
Sunset
Spandau Kop goes the colour of a brick.
You do not need to drive anywhere for this. The koppie is straight ahead of the chairs, and the light comes off it for about twenty minutes. Bring your own wine — we have glasses and a fridge, and we do not charge corkage.
After dark
Then the sky does its thing.
We are on the edge of town with the veld behind us, so the outside lights go off at nine if you ask. In winter, when the air is driest, you can read the Milky Way from a chair without moving.
Straight answers
What’s here, and what isn’t.
We would rather tell you now than have you find out at nine at night.
What’s here
- Wi-fi that reaches the stoep
- A rusk tin in every room
- Off-street parking behind the gate
- Heaters in winter, fans in summer
- A fire in the sitting room
- Somewhere safe for a bicycle
What isn’t
- No television in the rooms
- No booking engine and no card machine
- No room service, and no minibar
- No lift, and steps at nearly every door
- No pets, except a guide dog
- Not much water — this is a drought town
The guest book
What people write on the way out.
There is a book on the hall table. These are out of it, word for word.
“We came for one night and stayed for three.”
Marlene · from the guest book“Slept better here than anywhere on the whole trip. It is the walls, I think, and the quiet.”
Ruth & David, Bristol · April 2026“Dankie vir die brood en die stoep. Ons kom weer.” (Thank you for the bread and the stoep. We’ll be back.)
Die Van Wyks, Bloemfontein · July 2026The reason to stay two nights
The park starts more or less at the end of the road.
Camdeboo National Park wraps around Graaff-Reinet on three sides. Most people arrive planning one night, look at the Valley of Desolation, and rebook.
The Camdeboo walks
Guests get a hand-drawn map of our favourite Camdeboo walks — from the 45-minute Crag Lizard loop at the viewpoint to the long Eerstefontein day trail.
1.5 km to 14 kmThe oldest town in the Cape
Graaff-Reinet was laid out in 1786 and has more national monuments than any other town in the country. The whole historic core is walkable from our gate.
On footRight now, in the Karoo
The Karoo has a proper set of seasons — hot summers, cold clear winters, and autumn walking weather that is hard to beat.
The direct line
There is no booking engine. There is Nadia.
Send a message with your dates and I will come back to you myself, usually within the hour and always the same day. No deposit is taken until we have agreed the room, and nothing is charged to a card on this website — there is no card machine on it.
— Nadia, 14 Bourke Street
- Answered any reasonable hour
- Every booking confirmed by a person
- Rates published — never “enquire for price”
- English and Afrikaans · we are on SAST, UTC+2