Willemsrivier will put your soul back in your ribcage

Whether it’s the wildflower season or not, if you spend the night on the Kotzé family’s sheep and guest farm Willemsrivier 4 km from Nieuwoudtville, 1795 will seem like yesterday.

- JOHAN VAN ZYL

We live in a world in which accommo­dation venues would promote free Wi­Fi as a selling point rather than the beautiful polished copper four­poster in the bedroom, or the mid­century Formica table in the kitchen. And that’s probably why you chuckle over the unpretentious message onWillemsrivier’s home page: “Willemsrivier is a working sheep farm, offering rustic, basic, unsophisticated, primitive farm­style historical and nostalgic nature­loving self­catering accommodation (not serviced, no aircon, no TV, no WiFi)”.

In the airy living room of their farm­ house, which does have Wi­Fi – it is, after all, where they live and work – Arend and Erika Kotzé laugh about it too. “I changed the wording the other day to make things crystal clear,” Erika says. “I had to…You won’t believe how many people – especially people with children – simply cannot do without the internet. That’s often the first thing guests want to know: What’s the Wi­Fi password? And once they’ve unpacked: But where’s the TV?”

“I actually find it a little sad,” Arend says, “that some people cannot have a conversation with their husband or wife or children any more. That’s why, when guests stay over at Willemsrivier, we want to whisk them away from today’s kind of lifestyle.”

Or, as a guest wrote about the experience in a visitors’ book: “Thank you. Here, the silence and the stars will put your soul back in your ribcage.”