This was published 7 years ago
Baylonstoren, South Africa: Eat from the trees at this stunning farm resort
By Sally Webb
Babylonstoren chefs parading with morning's harvest.
Sometimes the travel stars collide. You arrive at your lodgings, perhaps a bit tired and bothered from your journey, and the beauty and uniqueness of your surroundings surpasses all expectations, transforming your mood and transporting you to another world. Babylonstoren, a "farm resort" in the Winelands just outside Cape Town, is that kind of place.
Nestled into the foothills of Simonsberg mountain, Babylonstoren is one of South Africa's oldest Cape Dutch farms, dating to 1692, with a working vineyard and winery and an extensive fruit and vegetable garden that is as exquisite as it is diverse.
If you were to draw a line between Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl, the three main centres of the Cape Town Winelands, you'd create a triangle; Babylonstoren is almost bang in its centre, which means you can use it as a base for exploration of each region and the oneological (and other) delights they offer, without favouring one over another. Or, as we do, on our all-too-short sojourn, you can treat it as a destination in its own right.
Babylonstoren with its distinctive hill.
We've bookended our southern Africa holiday with safaris, sandwiching between them a few days in the Cape, including just one night at Babylonstoren. As soon as we pass through the front gates I realise my mistake. One day at this glorious spot to explore all it has to offer, from its renowned winery to its extraordinary garden, from its farm shop to its restaurants and its spa will not be enough.
One of the best preserved farms in the Cape, Babylonstoren has a long history, with some of its surviving buildings dating to 1777. The place got a new lease of life when it was bought in 2005 by media mogul Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos, a former magazine editor of South African Elle Decoration, with an exceptional eye for detail. They opened it as a hotel in 2010.
The hotel suites occupy former workers' accommodation on the estate. Beautifully restored, the thick-walled, whitewashed cottages have open hearths and elevated gables. The rusticity of the buildings' bones contrast with the carefully curated designer furniture and white on white furnishings within, but the feeling it gives is elegant, rustic and relaxed.
The well-designed interiors.
Our cottage is enormous, its stable door opening onto a central lounge with a bedroom and ensuite bathroom off to each side, the master with a romantic four poster bed and a huge claw footed bath. A sleek glass box poking out the back of the building houses a small kitchen and dining table, and directly overlooks the garden.
We're peckish upon arrival so we head straight to the shady courtyard of the Greenhouse cafe, where produce from the garden is the star of the lunch menu and there's a classy rusticity to the way the food is served: local Boerewors sausages in a roll are wrapped in thick paper secured with twine and side salads and condiments are served in thick glass preserving jars. With its metal tables, classic French park chairs and gravel underfoot, you could be sitting in a place in Paris or Provence.
We borrow bicycles to explore the gardens and vineyards, ending up at a boathouse on the edge of a lake that feeds water down to the gardens below. We launch two-person canoes from the wooden jetty but struggle to make much headway against the blustery wind that blows us back into the reeds. Our attempts at fishing, using the rods provided for hotel guests, are somewhat futile although we do manage to hook – but not land – one of the resident trouts.
On the job: Working ducks cross the bridge to the vineyards where they help control snail numbers.
It's pushing 40 degrees in the afternoon sun, and the kids delight in the pool, cleverly created in what was once an old water tank. If we'd been at home in Australia this would be described as bushfire weather, and indeed there's a plume of smoke rising into the air from Simonsberg's peak behind us, where a forest blaze has taken off. For the rest of our stay the sky gets increasingly hazy and we watch nervously as the bright orange trail of flames works its way down the ridgeline. (The fire makes headline news and is untamed for many days.)
We also visit the Tasting Room, a gorgeous space overlooking vineyards on two sides, where highlights among the excellent wines sampled are sprankel, a rather unique sparkling chardonnay and nebukadnesar, Baylonstoren's flagship bordeaux blend.
While the vineyards are extensive, covering 72 hectares of the farm, the heart of the estate is the extraordinary garden, inspired by the historic Company's Garden in Cape Town, which supplied the Dutch East India Company ships with fresh vegetables and fruit as they broke their journey in the Cape.
The Farm Hotel at sundown.
Indeed it's the garden that really drives everything about Babylonstoren. The hotel rooms were built to accommodate guests who came to see it and the award-winning restaurant, Babel, was created so that guests could eat produce from it.
The 3.5 hectare garden is made up of 15 distinct sections or clusters, designed with wonderful geometric precision (best seen via aerial photos), which are devoted to vegetables and herbs, stone fruit, apples and pears, nuts, citrus and berries. Companion plantings abound, and all of the more than 300 varieties of plants in the garden are edible or have medicinal value. I doubt there is a more beautiful, or productive, private vegie patch anywhere in the world.
There's also a collection of bee hives, and a coop full of very contented looking chickens and ducks, who are invited into the orchards daily to eat snails that would otherwise menace the plants. Our kids love exploring it all, especially the woven egg-shaped pods which serve as perfect garden hideaways.
Spa at Farmhouse at dusk.
The true beauty of Babylonstoren, as a hotel guest, is that you can help yourself to anything you like from the garden, to eat on the spot – the kids take full advantage scoffing their bodyweight in ripe, juicy figs – or take back to your cottage to cook. As we're only here for a night, though, we want to experience the acclaimed Babel restaurant, which normally has a two-month waiting list for bookings (house guests get to skip the queue).
Occupying a restored cowshed with glass windows that let the garden in, it's a bright, contemporary space. The menu defines the produce to plate philosophy with starter salads defined only by their colour (red, yellow or green) combining vegetables, fruit and flowers (much of it unpeeled), more traditional main courses, and desserts classified as either bitter, salty, sour or sweet.
We're extraordinarily reluctant to leave Babylonstoren to continue the next part of our adventure. Our short stay at this unique place remains a very special interlude. If paradise can be found, I reckon Babylonstoren is it.
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
South African Airlines flies in codeshare with Virgin Australia to Cape Town via Perth and Johannesburg. See flysaa.com
STAYING THERE
At Babylonstoren, double rooms start at rand5850 with a two-bedroom cottage for a family of four from rand9600. Phone +27 (0)21 863 3852 Babylonstoren, see babylonstoren.com
Sally Webb travelled with the assistance of &Beyond and stayed courtesy of Babylonstoren
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