Here, you can step back 200 years and be steeped in the authentic and genteel lifestyle of yesteryear. It’s easy to imagine Lady Anne Barnard visiting this gracious farm because she actually did.
Set in 130 hectares, with the farm running all the way into the foothills of the moody Olifantsberg, the original Eikehof house was built around 1800. About 40 years later the gable and H section was added. Today the house is a national monument that’s lived in and loved.
Trees feature prominently on the farm, with over 600 additional trees recently planted. Fruit and nuts, olives, and citrus trees nestle the house, along with a century-old oak tree, while towering pin oaks also provide shade in the toasty summers. It’s peaceful, beautiful, and restorative to amble in the orchards and pick seasonal fruit to eat en route. There’s a small vineyard too, with only wine on its mind.
Worcester gets hot in summer and snows in winter but, as was the old way, the house is masterfully built with natural climate control. Thick walls, high ceilings, and mountain breezes do the trick. In winter, you’ll all be gathered around the open hearth fireplace in the kitchen, or pulled up close to the fire in the lounge or games room. Winter in Worcester is particularly magical, surrounded by snow-dusted mountains and with the surrounding countryside verdant and alive. Locals say it’s the best time of year there, by far.
Inside, Eikehof house is lux farm style. You’ll enjoy beautiful white bed linen and thick towels, walk on worn Persian carpets, and relax in velvet armchairs. A generous, scrubbed wooden table in the kitchen is for dining in situ over lazy meals. The blue plate collection here echoes the many shards of ancient blue porcelain found in the garden and likely brought here by early Dutch settlers. It will one day be fashioned into a historic mosaic piece. Since the dining room wasn’t needed, it took on new life as a games room with a big round table for playing fun board games or serious chess clashes. There’s a fireplace for crackling winter warmth here too.
In all, there are seven enchanting old-world styled bedrooms, with large and luxurious bathrooms replete with enamel ball-and-claw baths and some with showers too. There are king-sized beds throughout the homestead and cottages. The three bedrooms in the main house are all en-suite too. In the freshly renovated ‘old school house’ cottage are two bedrooms and a bathroom, there’s a second cottage with an en-suite bedroom and a kitchenette, and a third cottage with an en-suite bedroom, a kitchenette, and a hot tu.
As you move through the house, you’ll literally be walking across history. The floors are original yellowwood and Oregon, as are the heavy ceiling beams. Rooms are framed with rare and original single-panel yellowwood and stinkwood doors, and sash windows are shielded by internal wooden shutters. It’s a different world of grand proportions and symmetry, grace, and timeless Cape Dutch design, with mountain views from every window. Yet nothing in the house is precious either.
Wake up early, cosy up with a mug of coffee on the front verandah and watch the sun rise from behind the mountains. Sometimes it’s misty, but always the light dances across the rock faces and foothills. In the evenings you may be enveloped in light that’s candyfloss pink, as the sun sets on the day. You can also watch this natural mountain theatre while dipping in the round pool, which has been fashioned from an old farm dam.
In addition to all the fruit-bearing trees, there’s also a cool bluegum forest with a stream running through it. The water is sweet and clean and fresh from the mountain. And it’s said that once you taste the water, you will forever want to return to this majestic place that’s guarded by old oak trees – just as it always was.
Reviewed by Keri Harvey