Cascade Country Manors, South Africa

Cascade Country Manors, a luxurious lomographic gateway in Western Cape. The reason we went to stay at Cascade Manor was because my friends wanted to visit Nabygelegen Vineyards because it was one of the few places producing the Pinot Noir they were so found of.

ANYWAY! I typed in “Nabygelegen” and then “accommodation” and Cascade Manor popped up (Google Maps is one of the greatest inventions of all time don’t you think?). This magnificent guest house is situated a mere 10-minute drive away from Paarl and 50 minutes away from Cape Town. Not only is the building splendid in itself, but it also has its own olive groves and a waterfall! Of course, we were sold!

This place is used a lot for wedding celebrations and there are cute heart-shaped stones thoughtfully placed here and there. Although very popular, we had the place virtually to ourselves as we went during off season (we went in May which is Winter in South Africa).

Cascade Country Manor boasts of 900 olive trees on the property and produces approximately 1000 litres of olive oil annually for Cascade Manor’s own Olive Oil brand (a hobby of Owner and Chef Volker Goetze). It is a unique blend produced mainly from Frantoio and Leccino olives. Volker runs olive oil tastings and this hard working gent can also drive you around the famous Garden Route and even arrange your transfer to and from the airport (as well as drive you to and from some of the local eateries).

Probably the most spectacular thing was of course the waterfall! It was a full moon on our first night’s stay and we had a lot of fun sharing a bottle of local wine there in the dark, enjoying the music of the falling water and trying to take long exposures of the moon (but the next morning, I was wondering why my trousers were so dirty!).

Cascade Manor serves Mediterranean food all day long (very nice!) and has an unheated pool (so we couldn’t use it, unfortunately, because the water was only +15 even on a hot “winter” day of +26).

The most unusual and impressive experience we had there was on our last morning. We woke up with the intention of getting a little sun tan only to be faced with the thickest mist flowing down from the nearby mountains.

We could barely see the trees of the surrounding forest, it was magnificent for black-and-white Horizon panoramas, I thought.

But, it was gone by noon, burned away by the late morning sun, exactly as Volter had predicted.

Cascade Manor
Waterval Road,
Dal Josaphat,
7620 Paarl

escrito por neja el 2012-06-18 #lugares #food #luxury #forest #pool #waterfall #relax #wedding #break #location #olive-oil #vineyards #guest-house #escape-from-the-city #western-cape #paarl #cascade-country-manors #luxurious-gateway #olive-grove