Happily stuck in time and space

Nostalgia, it’s part of the human condition. It burgeons as we get older, making us hanker after the “good ole days” as we often do. My love for old country hostelries is no different. 

It started with a visit to Blanco guest farm near Tarkastad when I was six years old, and was boosted by regular visits to my uncle and aunt’s Strombolis Motel near Plettenberg Bay. Apart from the outdoors fun, the earthy country smells and ever-present wood smoke, it was the extensive table d’hôte menu that most impressed a hungry boarding school kid.   

I’m thinking this as the dinner gong draws us out of the Tudor-styled Deer and Pheasant pub at Melton Wold guest farm, a 22-room old-style country hostelry situated exactly halfway between Victoria West and Loxton.

Tonight’s table d’hôte menu stars a thick vegetable soup, followed by a venison pie, a lamb curry with vegetables, and is rounded off with lemon pudding topped with ice cream. Coffee and tea is available in the fireside lounge afterwards.

Though our table feels like an island in a sea of burnished wood flooring — there’s only one other couple in the enormous dining room — we are very happily marooned at our linen-draped and candlelit refuge. The soup is refined and delicious, whereas the boerekos-nouveau main course (accompanied by a sumptuous Stettyn shiraz) is hearty and flavourful; but it’s the lemon pudding that delivers the culinary coup de grace. A light pastry surrounds a lemon curd sponge topped with vanilla ice-cream — definitely the star of the show.

Replete, we enjoy a cup of fireside rooibos tea on a comfortable couch before heading back to our en-suite double room on the other side of the building. There’s a wall heater and an electric blanket on our bed, but we put a match to the carefully constructed pile of kindling and firewood, mainly for the ambience, and enjoy a nightcap before turning in. 

I’m up at sunrise the next day, the misty wraiths of dawn rising from the thawing frost as I walk down the avenue of poplar trees towards the Manor House. Here I meet the effervescent Ronel Vorster — owner of Melton Wold guest house and wife of the farm’s seventh owner, Willem Vorster — who, like me, is getting a good walk in before breakfast.   

While she still plays an important leadership and general management role in Melton Wold’s hospitality offering, the day-to-day running of the guest house is handled by Kevin Ellison and Brenda van Zyl, who ensure the guests are well looked after and copiously fed. 

Melton Wold has long been both country hamlet and farm. With its own school, church and postal agency, it has given succour to its many isolated staff, farm workers and their dependants. But with the church not operational for some time and the school closing at the end of 2023, it seems the status quo is now changing.

In some ways, Melton Wold shares similarities with romantic Matjiesfontein and the enigmatic village of Middelpos between Sutherland and Calvinia. But it’s history is unique.    

It’s thanks in part to the house built by Alfred Ebden (the farm’s third owner — his family owned the Belmont Estate in Rondebosch) in 1889, that the Victorian-styled guest house exists today. Ebden was also responsible for renaming the farm from the original Boschduiwefontein to Melton Wold (“Melton” for the famous merino stud from where he imported top-class merino sheep, and “Wold” from his family’s home in the Cotswolds). 

Ebden put a lot of time, money and development into Melton Wold, but the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 saw Boer raiders replenishing their stocks at the “Engelsman’s” expense. Soon his many well-conditioned sheep, cattle and other carefully husbanded resources were carted off, which led to Ebden abandoning the farm, which remained ownerless until 1910. 

It wasn’t until the Torr family (owners of the farm from 1930-1988) let some friends — made homeless from the 1930s Depression — stay in the old Ebden house, that the idea of a hostelry was formed and the guest house was officially opened in 1935.

Soon after the Vorster family bought Melton Wold in 1988, heavy rains caused one of the farm’s dams to break and the resultant flood damaged the guest house. Jan and Loepie Vorster restored it, however, and when the farm was at last connected to the grid in 1999, the lights in the old generator-powered guest house burnt once more.   

Annette and I take a walk after a traditionally wholesome Melton Wold breakfast. We head up the koppie behind the guest house, aiming to complete both the short “Bossie” and “Koppie” trails. Leaving the labelled “bossies” behind, we huff and puff (the altitude here is 1,300m above sea level) our way to the reservoir at the top, savouring the brittle yet soothing Karoo landscape, and the centuries of handiwork put into the farm by its industrious benefactors.

Descending the koppie on the other side, my nostalgia is further piqued when I notice the shell of an old Valiant sedan near the bottom. After pottering around it and thinking fondly of my Homburg-hatted father driving off to the office in his black Valiant, we come off the hill at the start of the “game drive trail”, an excursion we will be taking after checking out.

The hotel staff kindly gives us an extra hour to pack up after which we set off in our 4x4 SUV to see what game sightings we can garner along the 8km circuit. We’re particularly pleased the hunting party arrives only tomorrow (Willem Vorster is a professional hunting guide, both on Melton Wold and surrounding farms) or the game could be understandably skittish.

The first animal we see is a lone emu. Annette and I wonder if it’s the partner of the one who was patrolling a camp near our room, all the while emitting a unique double-bass trill. But soon we come across a small herd of springbok, too; they keep their distance yet thankfully don’t take flight until we’ve languidly studied their playful antics.

When you see small groups of these nimble antelope on the Karoo plains today it’s hard to imagine they used to migrate across these vlaktes in their hundreds of thousands, even millions. In what is said to be the last recorded great springbok migration, Cronwright-Schreiner and two farmers agreed they could see about half a million springbok in the direction they were looking; but, with the trek area estimated at 225km by 24km they calculated the entire herd was millions strong, according to The Best of Lawrence Green by Howard Timmins.

Three more special sightings punctuate our game drive across the viewsome vlaktes. An 11-strong herd of majestic eland (the most coveted hunting prize of the San who inhabited these plains for tens of thousands of years); a splendid male ostrich and his two “wives” legging it across the veld against a backdrop of koppies and table-topped ridges, and a magnificent impala bull, followed by his emperor’s harem of does. 

We’re heading for Loxton next, and then another farm stay on the “Ou Posroete” between Fraserburg and Sutherland, preferring not to hurry home and rather remain happily stuck in time and space for as long as possible.

Travel notes 

Where it is and routes to get there: Melton Wold guest farm is 40km from Victoria West, en route to Loxton. It’s 640km from Cape Town (via the NI, N12 and R63) or 655km (145km on dirt) if you want to take the more adventurous De Jager’s Pass-Wagenaarskraal route.    

What sort of vehicle will I need: You can get to Melton Wold in a normal sedan car, but if you want to follow the De Jager’s Pass-Wagenaarskraal route and self-drive the game trail, you’ll need a high-clearance AWD SUV or 4x4.

What to see and do at Melton Wold: This is primarily a place to unwind by enjoying the deep silence and unhurried nature of an old hostelry that serves generous quantities of good food. But there are also many other things to do here: take in the nearby bradysarus fossil; play croquet, bowls, boules, table tennis, pool and darts (a putt-putt course is under construction on the old tennis court); mountain bike the 16km route; go for a walk on one of the marked trails or saunter forever over the 10,000ha that make up this working sheep and game farm; enjoy tea or coffee with homemade treats in one of the numerous lounges and sip a pre-dinner drink in the characterful Deer and Pheasant pub. 

What sort of accommodation is on offer: The guest house has 22 rooms that range from en-suite family accommodation (up to four guests) to en-suite double, twin and single bed rooms. All rooms have fans, fireplaces and/or heaters, and the beds also have electric blankets. Other amenities include a hairdryer, an old-fashioned wall-mounted radio and bathroom products. A sizeable campground (10 sites with electrical and water points plus built-in braais), with ablution facilities, plus a dishwashing area, is situated between the guest house and Manor House. Firewood, braai packs and homemade bread are available.   

What it cost us: Our dinner, bed and breakfast stay in a double en-suite room, with fireplace, cost us R995 each. R100 extra was charged for using the room’s fireplace. 

Best time of year to go: April to October. 

Contact: Call 053 621 1912 or visit www.meltonwold.co.za