Last year during the October school holidays, we took a few days out of the city and headed off to Die Berghuis.

Die Berghuis is situated in Swartruggens; a small farming town in the North West Province. We made our booking through LekkeSlaap and not long after confirming our stay, we were in contact with the owner of the accommodation to discuss any details before our getaway.

The service on the website is convenient with no hassles.

Die Berghuis is hidden away between mountains with an amazing view. It’s a self-catering accommodation that houses five people, with no electricity but has lights powered by solar energy. You have a gas stove as well as a gas fridge and freezer.

There is running water and if you’d like to have a hot shower, you need to heat the water by fire.

I know for some looking at this kind of accommodation would feel it’s way too much work when you’re suppose to be relaxing on your getaway. For us, we like choosing accommodating that DOESN’T feel like home. With all the little luxuries we usually take for granted or overuse, with this type of accommodation – you really get down to the basics and learn a few things along the way.

We had the same experience when we had a getaway at Ezemvelo Nature Reserve in 2020 and we all enjoyed it.

While Die Berghuis is situated close to the towns, you want to make sure that you have everything you’ll need with you before the trip and make sure you have a list of what you need to take along. Organising and packing for a self-catering accommodation is a little different to other types of accommodation as you need to bring most of your own things so it’s essential to plan ahead.

As soon as we picked the boys up from school on the morning of our trip, we headed off on our little roadtrip, stopping at Brauhaus Afrika, a German restaurant and brewery. It was previously known as Brauhaus am Damm which translates to brewery at the dam.

It overlooks the Magaliesberg and the Olifantsnek Dam for a beautiful scenic view while you enjoy delicious German cuisine and mouth-watering German beer.

After our pitstop, we headed on the last stretch of road to reach our final destination.

We were all pretty tired from the long trip so we unpacked quickly and settled in to make dinner on the fire.

There isn’t much to do at Die Berghuis so I made sure to pack in some activities for the kids to keep busy as well as some toys. When the weather permitted it, we sat in the little pool to cool off and when the rain poured down, we stayed huddled inside drinking warm beverages and chatting about nothing specific.

The quiet nights were some of my favourite moments because you just don’t get too see the stars like this in the city.

Sunset dinners were also amazing and who wouldn’t wind down with views like these? The kids all helped set up the table with each meal and took part in helping with some of food preparation. I’ll add a post at a later stage to share easy meal ideas for self-catering accommodation that are light on the pocket as well as effortless.

Kid1 took the opportunity to take care of heating water for the shower one evening, and he took the task very seriously, making sure there was enough wood burning at all times until the water was hot enough. This also has to be one of my favourite photos from our getaway.

I love getaways like these. They are simple with no city distractions and the kids learn so much about making it work in the outdoors.

We’ll definitely head back to Die Berghuis at some point again because it’s such a great breakaway from the city and the usual routines and rush of life.

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If this is a type of getaway that you’d enjoy, they currently have a 33% off special on the accommodation. You can book it through LekkeSlaap.