Coot Club, Stanford – sleeps up to 40 guests
Coot Club is where nature becomes the glue for families and friends, amid the elemental wilderness of the Western Cape.
Six years in it’s making, Coot Club has 464 hectares of privately protected fynbos on the Overberg coast, and beyond the lagoon on which it’s set, the Maanschynkop mountains glow in the last of the day’s sun. Three eco-savvy boathouses line the water’s edge, spaced apart and stilted to protect the riverine vegetation of the pristine estuary.
The boathouses, with nautically themed red, turquoise and sunshine-yellow walls, framed maritime flags vintage finds, ticking stripes on rattan rockers and deep slip-covered linen sofas that didn’t mind damp swimsuits or sandy feet. This spot has become a cure-all for everything, from burnout to digital addiction. While it feels utterly remote it is an easy two-hour car trip from Cape Town.
Kayaking on the Klein River lagoon, fatbiking through the fynbos and whale-watching and wild swimming on the deserted beach in the adjoining nature reserve became all we craved. Sleep with the curtains open, waking at dawn to a chorus of birdsong, and take it in turns to serve each other coffee in bed before drifting over to the Clubhouse for fresh fruit and homemade granola, egg-and-bacon- filled croissants and cinnamon pancakes.
The Clubhouse, a restored 19th-century stone farmhouse, which stood empty for decades, earning its local nickname, the Spookhuis. If there were any spooks, they would have fled this now-sociable hub with a games room in the attic, plus a small library, dining room and natty little bar serving the best cool-climate wines from the region.
Rolling lawns lead to a clutch of stone cottages, two solar-heated swimming pools, a boules court and a raft of SUPs, kayaks and dinghies.
Coot Club is catnip for time-starved families, their appetites revved by being active in bracing sea air. At night, you have lantern-lit pizza and barbecues under 500-year-old milkwood trees, listening to fiery-necked nightjars, before ambling home under the stars.
Invigorated family and friends seem as carefree as the birds that haunt this blissful stretch.
(Thanks to the wonderful Jane Broughton for her words!)
