Find Us & Enquire
How to find us
14 Bourke Street, Graaff-Reinet, 6280.
Read this first
Arriving after dark? Nothing goes wrong.
Karoo drives run long. Roadworks outside Aberdeen, a puncture, a stop that turned into lunch — it happens to somebody every week, and it is not a problem here.
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Send one message when you are an hour out
A WhatsApp with roughly when you expect to be here. That is all we need. Nobody is going to bed until you are in.
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The gate is the green one, and it will be open
If we know you are late it stays open and the stoep light stays on. Park inside, on the gravel, and pull the gate closed behind you.
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If your phone has no signal
There are stretches on the R75 and the N9 with nothing at all. Do not worry about it — send the message when the bars come back, and if they never do, just come. Somebody is here.
We are on South African Standard Time, UTC+2 — two hours ahead of London, seven ahead of New York. A message sent at midnight your time may sit until morning ours.
Getting here
Graaff-Reinet is a junction, which is why it works as a stop.
Three routes cross here — the N9 between George and the N1 at Colesberg, the R61, and the R63. Whichever direction you are coming from, the town is on tar the whole way.
Gqeberha — about 260 km, three to three and a half hours
The R75 the whole way, through Kariega, Wolwefontein and Jansenville, then up the Soutpansnek. It is the road most overseas guests use, because Chief Dawid Stuurman International is the nearest airport with scheduled flights and every car-hire desk is in the terminal.
Leave the airport by two and you are on the stoep for sunset. Fuel at Jansenville; there is not much between.
Cape Town — about 670 km, seven hours of driving
N1 to Beaufort West, then the R61 east to Aberdeen and the N9 north-east into town — 210 km from the moment you leave the N1.
It is a long day but a straightforward one, and a very large number of our guests do it in a single go. If you would rather break it, Prince Albert or Beaufort West are the sensible halves. Tell us roughly when you set off and we will keep an eye out.
George and the Garden Route — 340 km on the N9
Straight up the N9 through Uniondale, Willowmore and Aberdeen, over the Perdepoort and Buyspoort passes. Around four hours, and one of the better drives in the country — the landscape changes about four times.
From Knysna add roughly an hour on the N2 to George first; that run is about 320 km all in, closer to five hours with a coffee.
Johannesburg, Pretoria and Bloemfontein — leave the N1 at Colesberg
From Johannesburg it is roughly 830 km, about eight and a half hours of driving — a two-day trip for most people. From Bloemfontein it is around 425 km, close to five hours.
Either way you leave the N1 at Colesberg and take the N9 south-west through Noupoort and Middelburg. The Nieu-Bethesda turnoff comes up 27 km before us — if you have time in hand, take it, and see the Owl House on the way in.
Addo Elephant National Park — about 240 km, three and a half hours
Down the R335 and R336 to the R75 at Kleinpoort, then north-west through Jansenville. The alternative through Somerset East on the N10 and R63 takes about the same time and is prettier.
This is the classic pairing — elephants one day, the Valley of Desolation the next — and it is the single most common route our guests are driving.
The last kilometre
Bourke Street is in the old grid, off the main street, and every satnav in the world finds it. What some of them do not get right is the approach — if your phone tries to send you down a dirt track on the town side, ignore it and come in on the tar past the church. Look for the green gate and the white gable. Send a message and Nadia will talk you the last two turns.
- Check in
- 14:00 – 20:00
- Check out
- By 10:00
- Later than eight?
- Just tell us
- Right now
- WhatsApp is answered any reasonable hour
Check availability
Send your dates. I’ll come back to you myself.
There is no booking engine here and no card machine in the house. You tell me when you would like to come, I tell you what is free and what it costs, and we sort it out between us. Usually within the hour, always the same day.
WhatsApp is faster than this form and it is how most people reach us — but if you would rather write, write. Both land on the same phone.
— Nadia
What it will cost
A night for two is R1,450 to R1,850 depending on the season, with breakfast, VAT in and nothing added at the end. A longer stay brings the nightly rate down.
The house
One rule, and a few things worth knowing.
This is our home as well as yours, and we ask only that you treat it — and whoever is in the room next door — with the quiet you would want yourself. The stoep belongs to everybody until the stars are out, and after that to whoever is still on it.
- Smoking outside, on the stoep or in the werf
- No pets, but a guide dog is always welcome
- Short showers — the town has been in drought for years
- Children very welcome; Die Werf is the room for them
Last questions
The ones that come up on the phone.
Do I need a deposit, and how do I pay it?
Half the total by EFT holds the room, once we have agreed the dates. The rest is settled by EFT or cash when you leave. There is no card machine here and nothing is ever charged through this website.
Is there load-shedding?
Sometimes, and we are not going to promise you otherwise — it is a national grid and it does what it does. There is a small inverter that keeps the lights, the wi-fi and the gate going, the geysers hold their heat for hours, and the braai does not care.
Will my hire car manage the roads?
Yes. Everything to the door is tar, the road up to the Valley of Desolation viewpoints is surfaced, and the only gravel you are likely to meet is the last short stretch into Nieu-Bethesda, which an ordinary car handles fine in the dry.
How far is the nearest airport?
Gqeberha — Chief Dawid Stuurman International — about 260 km and three hours on the R75. There is an airfield in Graaff-Reinet itself, but only for private and charter aircraft; no scheduled flights.
Can you hold a room while I think?
For a couple of days, easily. Say so and Nadia will pencil it in. There are four rooms, so it is a pencil and a piece of paper, not a system.
Do you take single-night bookings?
Yes, all year except two nights minimum between 15 December and 10 January and over Easter. Most people who book one night ask on the first evening whether they can have a second.