A beautiful rustic garden and cottage, directly alongside the dusty dirt road, amongst the mountains of the Botrivier, greets us in the settling dusk. We are met by our host for the night, the irrepressible Tannie Elrieta, an aunty with pluck and wisdom in equal measures.

Tannie is famous in the region for her home cooked meals, which are ordered by phone in advance, and take place in the cellar, with Tannie both cooking and serving. As if this is not enough, she also runs the guest house and is the winemaker! Just see if you can get her to sit still so you can hear some home spun wisdom!

The meat will all be sourced from the farm or those around, and natural local produce predominates. She sells a range of wines from the farm, but you will have to stop by to buy these, since she does not advertise (“because I will not tell people what to do!”) and the production is small and not sold retail.

After chatting with Tannie late into the night about her experiences as a lone lady traveller in Japan, oil prices and doing what you want in your life, we awoke early to the sounds of the cows and birds. We walked down to the river, meandering amongst trees at the bottom of her peaceful farm, accompanied by Tannie's wimeraner who manages to track and nearly catch two mongeese for our morning's excitement.

Don’t be startled if you co across a pig or two whilst on your walk, Tannie is quiet happy for them to wander the entire farm.

Tel/Fax: 028 284 9769