A reader's retreat in the semi-desert

In search of the kind of quiet that only the Klein Karoo can provide, Brian Berkman sojourned at the secluded Kleindoorn Guest House, located on a working farm near the village of Barrydale in the Western Cape.

- Brian Berkman

The Kleindoorn Guest House, located on Kleindoorn River Farm near Barrydale in the Western Cape, and dating back to 1834, is the quintessential Karoo homestead. Formerly run by the late writer, poet, painter and translator Christine Barkhuizen-le Roux, the home remains in the Le Roux family and exhibits Christine’s influence.

As you enter the house, the first thing you notice are the books, which are everywhere. Appropriately, there are also plenty of places to curl up and read.

The front room is a good place to start, and you can choose from encyclopedias and romance novels to poetry and Afrikaans literature. The sun lounge is delightful too. Bathed in natural light, it is also ideal for painting in or simply relaxing. Its glass panes form a grid pattern that slightly distorts the sunlight as it enters the room, and Bertus le Roux, the current owner of the property, remembers his father installing the panes when he was a young child. Here there are also board games, more books and an upright piano. This room leads to what was once, perhaps, the original scullery, but it now serves as another bathroom, which has a shower.

The house has three bedrooms: two with a double bed, and one with two single beds. One of the double rooms is next door to a bathroom that features a bath, basin and toilet.

“The bathroom was the original part of the [farm’s] dairy where the cream would be separated from the milk for making butter,” says Bertus.

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