Teaching An Old Town New Tricks

Good fortune and bad luck still add up to the perfect weekend in Paternoster

- Eugene Yiga

“Are you the lucky winner of a five-star getaway?” the email said. “See below to find out!” I almost mistook it for more spam until I realised it wasn’t a joke. I’d entered a contest. And now I’d won!

After a month of anticipation (and a two-hour drive playing leapfrog with other cars along the West Coast Road), my travel partner and I arrived in Paternoster. “I guess we’re not in Cape Town anymore,” he said as we opened the door to a fresh sea breeze. “It’s like we’re in a different country.”

Indeed it was. But even though we were in one of South Africa’s oldest fishing towns, we found the luxury of city life waiting at Abalone House and Spa.

“Here’s to our first getaway,” I said as we sipped on the complimentary bubbly that welcomed us to the boutique hotel.

With only 10 rooms (all booked out despite us being there in low season), we knew there would be peace and quiet; the kind of getaway that makes you feel like you’ve been gone for a week even though it’s only two days.

Our room on the second floor (number 13, ironically) looked down on the garden courtyard and plunge pool. It also had every temptation to keep us indoors; from CDs of soothing music to a decanter of sherry to turndown touches like white chocolate in mussel shells.