To Do's

Top level athlete and rugby player turned yoga practitioner and nature lover, Francois Beer takes you on a guided Mindful Walk in Silence beneath the powerful and energising Langeberg Mountain ranges in Barrydale.

A Silent Hike gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in nature, escape from your phone and step away from the clutter of life for the rare opportunity of a cleanup of that hard drive you call your brain. 

2-3 hours

Barrydale has a great history and it's an intimate village. On Doris's walk you'll discover the history but you typically also bump into a bunch of the locals. It takes around 2 hours for the tour. The chats over the garden fence and in the likes of the Hub, Die Langhuis or the bookstore take longer.

For ultra-serious cyclists – Barrydale resident  and ultra-distance athlete  Alan Hardaker has a close relationship with the Map Room and treats any invitation for something hardcore  with relish. You’ll be slotting into his Munga or Freedom Challenge or Silk Road cycling event prep. More ‘normal’ cyclists are welcome to join the daily town ride (6am summer / 7am winter) or follow a Map Room Relive / Strava download. Barrydale is gravel bike country. For mountain bikers a new 60km loop through a number of farms will soon be opened and for road bikers the 40 Km Tradow Pass route is a real scenic highlight.  Rick is your man to help coordinate / lead a ride. For a casual cruise around the village we have our collection of Dutch bikes – including a tandem.

The swim club departs at dawn from the hotel in one of our trusty Land Rover Defenders. The destination - a rock pool on the Tradouw pass. Along for the trip is a Melvill & Moon Game Drive Ammo Box (9 mini Stanleys) with fresh ground coffee plus a stash of freshly baked New York Bagels. Followers of the Wim Hoff cold water swimming movement will relate to all of this. The trip ends at the AGA back in the Breakfast Room for hot coffee and a full farm breakfast

Our area is famous for its Brandy. Named after Joseph Barry the pioneer that Barrydale got it’s name from, the Joseph Barry distillery is one of South Africa’s leading craft distilleries and has been producing hand crafted Cape Brandy since 1941. Joseph Barry’s state of the art tasting room is where you’ll enjoy a brandy tasting experience that includes Joseph Barry XO which is a past worlds best Brandy in its category awardee. Also there you’ll be tasting award winning Brandy’s from Joseph Barry’s sister company Oude Molen.
The distilliary is in easy walking distance (+_ 2 Km) from the hotel and combines well with a visit to Gert Vd Merwe’s elegant Lang Huise country store and Moreson Antique store
Open up till 5pm in the week plus up till 4pm on Sat and 3pm on Sunday.
Cost R60.00 for a tasting of 6 Brandies
R95.00 for a brandy and chocolate pairing

The fact that ex international oil trader Kenny Scheepers’s high end Metanoia distillery doesn’t even have a sign on the road ads to the surprise of what you will find at the end of an inconspicuous dirt road that will have taken you through one or two other farmers properties with a growing sense of ‘surely this can’t be it’
A major focus of the Metanoia distillery is on using the wealth of local fauna, including aromatic and medicinal botanicals such as Buchu, Artemisia Afra (Wilde Als), confetti bush and countless others. All of them ideally suited for making high-quality botanical spirits, including gin, absinth and aquavit.
Metanoia is not open to walk in visitors but is well worth consideration by Gin, Brandy and Whiskey connoisseurs of can be visited by arrangement via Kenny himself.
Depending on Kenny’s availability It ties in well with a visit to Joubert Tradauw as they are close neighbours
Kenny Scheepers 0716414869

Join Derek in a recipe sharing session plus  prep of one of the hotels slow cooked menu items: Oxtail, Ostrich neck, venison, lamb curry and other stews (that's the fast part pictured - the braising !). The one you do is yours to take home on your departure. Not for free, you'll be paying for ingredients and a bit for the tuition.   While not every home as an Aga, slow cookers are easy to come by; load the ingredients, put them on super slow as you head off for a frenetic day at the office, return to a perfectly prepared super slow cooked meal. Just like the ones on the menu of The Karoo Art Hotel in Barrydale.

Bowls is absolutely brilliant for the likes of the inter family bonding of strangers the day before the wedding. Jukskei is better for smaller group.  Tennis is tennis.  It doesn't take much to turn the seemingly unfashionable games of Bowls and Jukskei into an all out party (trust us on this). All three sports are played within walking distance of the hotel. Speak to us about setting things up. Speak to Wilko in the bar about the arming and transport of cool boxes, and the mobile DJ rig and the fines table and the manufacture of team kit, etc, etc. 

There’s a lot of South Africa’s most romantic retro Safari brand in and around the Karoo Art Hotel. Rick and Sue founded Melvill & Moon in 1998. The Roorkhee chairs on the balcony and on many of the room veranda’s, the luggage racks in the rooms and the Transvaal chairs in the dining room, plus the Victorian campaign wash basins converted into champagne caddies are all from Melvill & Moon. As is the full blown Grand Picnic set up featuring Melvill & Moon campaign furniture that will emerge from a Melvill Moon limited edition Land Drover Defender for an ultra-romantic sundown session or picnic lunch on the top of a Klein Karoo mountain top.

Preserving the ancient craft of hand weaving are inspirational Barrydale Hand Weavers. A visit there will take you into their loom room and there you’ll find a dedicated team of crafts people under the leadership of Kate and Arran Bastable using a weaving process that predates the industrial revolution in the manufacture of a high end range that sells In many of South Africa’s leading boutiques as well as internationally.
https://barrydaleweavers.co.za/our-story/
There is a retail shop on site.
This visit dovetails well with a brandy tasting. Barrydale Hand Weavers are on the Joseph Barry distillery property.

The Langhuis country store is owned by celebrated South African couturier and wedding dress designer Gert Van der Merwe. There you’ll find a beautifully curated collection of gifts along with some great off the peg fashion by Gert. His partner Jaco is an outstanding hair stylist with a big Gauteng following but now Barrydale based.
The Langhuis doors are wide open for walk in visitors but bookings with Jaco are essential. Talk to reception.
The Langhuis is a great stop over on the way to Moreson.
Further along at the top of our street is Moreson an outstanding antique store curated by the owners of the historic Moreson property Brendan and Steph

20 kms out on the Ladysmith rd is the famous Ronnies Sex Shop as well as the turn off to Warm Waterberg mineral spa. Typically you'll find Ronnie himself in attendance at his famous 'shop'. How the Sex word got onto the wall of a previously non event of a roadside store is a fun thing to hear direct from Ronnie. But there is a connection to the Karoo Art here. He was sitting in the bar minding his own business when some friends shot up the road with a plan ! If you either have a costume or you've got away from Ronnies with your underwear still on a visit to Warm Waterberg is a memorable experience. As a place it's not everyone's cup of tea design wise, lost as it is in a 70's time warp. But the way it is is exactly what it's owners and band of dedicated followers want and the effect of it's Lithium enriched waters is wonderful. Suggestion ; pop into Ronnies for a drink or two for a confidence builder then shoot across to Warm Waterberg for an immersion there.