Kleine Paradys
Kleine Paradys caravan park near Piketberg is a long-term caravan park on a working farm in the Western Cape.
Situated on the banks of the Berg River, 13km from Piketberg in the Western Cape, Kleine Paradys offers 9 long-term campsites, 11 short term sites and 3 double stands for family groups.
Farming activities include an olive and orange orchard, sheep, springboks and honey. Their oranges are not only very sweet but is has a deep orange flavour which we are not used to in the oranges we get in shops.
Catch and release fishing is allowed in a dam as well as the river. Canoes are available for rent but bring your own safety jackets. The Berg River Canoe Marathon route passes the resort.
Kleine Paradys offers:
- two indoor heated and one outside heated pool
- putt-putt
- a children’s playground
- children’s water playground
- go-carts
- farm shop
- laundry
- private ablutions and sculleries
- juke (jukskei) courts and more.
They continuously add to and upgrade the resort. While we were there they were adding new shade nets to all the campsites.
The campsites are all paved with some fenced for campers with dogs. There were also unpaved campsites for dog owners at the time we camped.
Campsites 3A to 6B are earmarked for long-term campers. It is on the river bank and high enough not to get flooded. These sites are further away from the facilities than other campsites, although all facilities are within walking distance if you have no walking constraints.
All campsites have private ablutions with a toilet, basin and shower. Facilities are cleaned before you arrive and after you leave, so you need to maintain your ablutions.
Outside each bathroom there is a sink for washing dishes. Each ablution block has a laundry with the keys available at the shop at a fee.
Kleine Paradys boasts an unusually large variety bird species, specifically a breeding pair Fish Eagles.
The resort is on the Piketberg/Velddrif road with the last 3km a dirt road which is in good condition and suitable for road caravans.
We enjoyed our month at Kleine Paradys. The staff are friendly and very helpful and the owners approachable and available.
The resort is surrounded by commercial grape farms and the employee town of one of the farms is situated opposite the long-term campsites. We did not experience it as unnecessarily noisy or threatening. Access to Kleine Paradys is via a motorised gate and it is a safe venue.
One thing that stood out for us is that the prices in their well-stocked shop for most products were not excessive. We are used to camp shops being expensive.
The owners of Kleine Paradys are also the owners of the Spar franchises at Velddrif and Citrusdal and we bought good quality Spar packed meat at the resort at the same price as we could get it at Spar.
What to do at Kleine Paradys
Most of what you need are available on the resort, but if you want to drive out, there are a number of choices.
We did three trips apart from going into Piketberg:
Velddrif
You can travel 60km to Velddrif and surroundings. The fishing trawlers were in the harbour and I had the opportunity to have a quick chat with a retired fisherman. There is a museum and a number of restaurants.
We travelled to Dwarskersbos and had an enjoyable lunch on the beach at Soverby Lapa.
Citrusdal
We did a trip to Citrusdal, visited Kardoesie Farmstall and campsite and turned off to Koningskop Camping and cottages. Unfortunately Koningskop does not allow long-term camping, and they are a few kilometers from the main road. Kardoesie allows long-term campers and has an excellent view of the valley below.
It is worth spending time at De Tol Farm Deli where you find the wine store of Piekenierskloof Wines as well as Carmien Teas .
Koringberg, Darling, Moorreesburg and Riebeeck Kasteel
On the spur of the moment we drove to Die Ark campsite at Hooggeleë, Koringberg on a wheat and sheep farm, to meet the delightful Bregda with who The Wife had contact before. They take long-term and very-long-term campers but have limited campsites available, so they are often fully booked.
From there we stopped at Desert Rose Farmstall on the N7/Koringberg junction.
From Koringberg we travelled on a dirt road between West Coast farms, which I enjoyed very much.
We visited Darling, Moorreesburg, Malmesbury and Riebeeck Kasteel.
Darling has Evita se Perron which is a popular tourist attraction. If you like wine-tasting there is more to do around Darling.
Riebeeck Kasteel was quiet as it was a Monday which is usually quieter in tourist towns thanks to the busy weekends.
We did visit the interesting Olive Boutique with its wide variety of olive products and its enthusiastic owner.
There are many other places that one can visit in the area. The Western Cape towns are much nearer to each other than we are used to in the North of the country, and with the roads in good condition, it is easy to cover a variety of towns and attractions in a short time.
Keep in mind that this is a tourist area, so rather drive around on Tuesday or later as many businesses are closed on Mondays.
Trouble in Paradise
At this stage, we had a swim in the heated pool at Kleine Paradys, and a visit from friends from Langebaan.
The next week we were both down with Swine Flu, which is what the doctor diagnosed. For nearly two weeks we were down and out.
The doctor’s visit was another experience when he told us that he didn’t like people from Gauteng. When I took him on, he apologised and we understood each other much better from then on.
When we were on the road from Montagu to Kleine Paradys, the Scout’s indicator lights failed. We even passed a road block successfully thanks to the fact that the police were only checking for outstanding fines and did not do the usual checks.
In Piketberg I found an auto electrician who did his inspection and found that the people in Montagu who did repairs on the car’s exhaust, fitted the exhaust in a way that touched the wiring to the caravan and burnt the isolation.
We also found out that the auto electrician in Montagu damaged an interior blower fan I found at a scrapyard in Wellington after the agents quoted me R4500 for the fan. The guy in Montagu cracked the fan and quietly put it back.
In order not to become depressed, I decided not to calculate the money I lost to bad workmanship and incompetence in the 18 months we have been camping. I may do that one day.
Camper beware
There are service providers everywhere who become a different person when they see a GP number plate – and that other person is out to munch your money!
The repairs were done at Piketberg and we were back to towing a road-worthy caravan.
While camping at Jongensfontein, I started a bee and honey website, so I have been driving everyone mad with my honey and bee infatuation.
So, I was a happy chappie when I learned that Kleine Paradys had a small number of beehives in their orange orchard.
Owner Conrad then offered to have Dawid, who is the beekeeper on Kleine Paradys, remove honey from a hive and allow me to take photos of the process and the honey.
As it was late in the winter, the bees used much of the honey to carry them through the winter, so Dawid could only remove the honey from one frame so we would not leave the bees without honey to last them until August when the first flowers become available.
I got nice photos for my website and a few stings to my face and a swollen eye. The Wife was not happy!
An old school mate of mine who visited us at Kleine Paradys called after they visited and invited us to come and stay at Langebaan in the lower level of their house which they sometimes rent out.
That would provide us with a place to stay while we had the car serviced and repairs done to the tent which was starting to show some damage after 18 months in sun, rain and beach-front winds.
We decided to accept the offer but rather than stay for free as offered, we paid them the money we would have paid at Strandfontein, which is our next stop and who kindly moved our July booking to August.
July turned out to be the rough-weather month in the Cape, and I will talk about that in the next blog post.
More images on the Kleine Paradys slideshow.
What Does Kleine Paradys Caravan Park offer?
Safety: Safe farm.
Wi-Fi: Yes (paid)
Private ablutions: Yes
Standard of ablutions: Excellent. Showers. Provide own toilet paper.
Wheelchair accessible: Yes, some.
Plugs in bathrooms: No.
Laundry: Yes pay washing machines (pay at shop)
Condition of access roads: Good. Last 3km good dirt road.
Nr of stands: 9 for long-term camping, 11 short term camping, 3 Double stands for two families.
Paved stands: Yes.
Unpaved stands: Yes
Shade: Yes shade net.
Shop on-site: Yes.
Nearest town: Piketberg.
Pet Friendly: Yes. Arrange before.
Load shedding: No.
Hot swimming pools: Yes.
Pensioners rates: Yes
Long-term camping rates: Yes.
Facilities:
- 2 Indoor heated swimming pools
- 1 Outdoor heated pool
- Play area
- Putt-putt
- Private fishing
- Kayaking
- Birding
- Chalets.
Location:
R399 Road,
Broodkraal,
Piketberg,
7320
Map
Contact
Cell: 084 206 3190
Email: info@kleineparadys.co.za
Website