Pepper Cottage

Pepper Cottage is a fully renovated cottage originally built around 1850. Situated on a busy working alpaca farm, the cottage enjoys great views across the Bossieveld Valley and is situated 10 kilometres from Villiersdorp in the Overberg. We welcome guests for a minimum of two nights.

We are ten minutes’ drive from Stettyn Vineyard where wine tastings and delightful cheese platter lunches are available, challenging mountain biking in most directions and close proximity to the Theewaterskloof Dam and sailing activities. At weekends the delightful and quirky Greyton Market is an hour’s drive, Hermanus is an hour away and Franschhoek 45 minutes over one of the most scenic mountain passes in the country.

A secure fence surrounds Pepper Cottage, without compromising views in any way and access is via an automatic gate. At this stage we do not invite pets since dogs are not alpacas’ best friends and, being prey animals, alpacas are often nervous of unfamiliar dogs.

We encourage visitors to see the alpacas, interact with them and visit our studio where we turn raw alpaca fibre into spun yarn, cleaning, carding and using traditional spinning wheels to produce spun yarn. We always have well stocked shelves of handmade alpaca clothing for sale.

The cottage comprises two bedrooms – one with queensize bed and the second having two twin beds. Because of the bedroom layout Pepper Cottage is ideally suited to a family of four – mum, dad and two children. All bed linen is provided including electric blankets for the cold months, as well as alpaca felted “huggie rugs” and extra blankets. Towels and big bath sheets are supplied. A big bathroom has loo, basin and shower with plenty of hot water.

There is no television or swimming pool. We do supply Wifi to our guests.

Artwork by local artists hang on the walls of the cosy sitting room, each one depicting an alpaca theme. This is after all Pepper Cottage, so named after one of our celebrated twin alpaca girls born in 2009. Indeed the whole story of this extraordinary alpaca is there for guests to read. The two original fireplaces in the cottage are now used as storage space so a gas heater in the centre of the cottage provides heat right through all the rooms.

The kitchen has most appliances including gas stove (think loadshedding), a fridge-freezer, whistling kettle, microwave, toaster, pots and pans, crockery, plenty of glasses and a central pine kitchen table and four chairs. Mountain water is pumped into a storage tank to feed the cottage. A stoep runs almost the full length of the front with table and chairs for outside dining. We also supply a Weber gas braai.

Contact Information: Christopher and Alison Notley
Helderstroom Alpacas, P O Box 324 Villiersdorp 6848, Western Cape, South Africa
Mobile: Alison +27 (0)82 662 9670, Christopher +27 (0)72 236 9356
Email: alpacas@helderstroom.co.za