After our recent stay in Suurbraak, Thorsten and I had a weekend to kill in the Overberg before flying back to Joburg. We decided to spend two nights in Greyton, about 90 minutes from Cape Town, where neither of us had been before. We also made an afternoon detour to Malgas for lunch and a wine tasting at Sijnn Wines.

This part of South Africa has a magical quality to it, kind of like being inside a fantasy novel.

Greyton

Greyton is a very small town with a few thousand people. But after three days in Suurbraak it felt like a big city, with lots of shops, restaurants, and facilities for tourists. Greyton has an English village vibe with hundreds of oak trees, waist-high walls, and thatched, white-washed cottages with big gardens behind them.

We stayed in one of those thatched houses, in an Airbnb called Rosewood.

I do recommend Rosewood — find the Airbnb listing here — but be aware that the bathtub is wedged under the sloping roof in a way that makes it kind of hard to actually bathe. Otherwise we loved it.

We spent most of our time in Greyton hiking and walking around town. The town is basically surrounded by the Greyton Nature Reserve and we took two nice hikes there: The three-kilometer Platkloof Walk and the seven-kilometer Gifkloof Trail. (Read more about Greyton’s walking trails.) Here are some photos from our hikes:

We hiked for almost the whole day and saw only two other people.

In addition to hiking, we enjoyed browsing Greyton’s popular Saturday Morning Market. We also had two nice meals in Greyton: one at Abbey Rose (tasty but very rich South African dishes,) and one at the Old Potter’s Inn (brew pub with very good beer and burgers). All in all Greyton was a great weekend getaway — perfect for Capetonians who can get there in less than two hours.

Sijnn Wines (Malgas)

Malgas is a tiny little settlement best known for its hand-drawn pontoon ferry that carries one car at a time over the Breede River. We didn’t get to see or use the ferry, unfortunately, but we did enjoy some really great wine and Malgas scenery at Sijnn Wines.

And that, sadly, is the end of our Overberg roadtrip.