Spring in the Cape Winelands arrives with a kind of quiet confidence. Mornings stretch bright and cool, and evenings soften into those long, honey-coloured sunsets. Wellington, tucked between mountain folds and working farmland, is one of those places that come alive in this shoulder season. You don’t need a grand expedition to feel as though you’ve escaped. Sometimes an hour on the N1 and a gravel road is enough.
AfriCamps at Doolhof sits right where tar gives way to a dusty path pointing toward the Limietberg mountains. If you’ve travelled South Africa’s back roads, you’ll know the small pleasure of feeling tyres crunch over gravel and seeing the landscape widen. And there is a confidence to doing this with the right vehicle, too.
For this trip, the duty fell to the Isuzu D-Max V-Cross 4×4. The V-Cross sits at the lifestyle-leaning end of the D-Max range, a step up from the workhorse core without turning into a show pony. Under the bonnet sits Isuzu’s familiar 3.0-litre turbodiesel delivering 140 kW and 450 Nm – enough grunt for towing and off-road, but tuned with the brand’s usual nod to reliability and real-world fuel economy.
On the road, it’s comfortable and composed, if slightly agricultural, but when switching to gravel on the approach to Doolhof, it felt squarely in its element. There’s a solidity to the D-Max chassis that inspires confidence, the ride feeling anchored rather than rattled.
AfriCamps are simple, but comfortable, with just as much luxury as one ones, while still feeling remote. Canvas tents on raised decks, wood-fired hot tubs, a quiet river, and views borrowed from postcards. At Doolhof, some tents tuck alongside a meadow and river, while others perch higher up with mountain views. We got the meadow, and early evening arrived with the gentle soundtrack of birds, children discovering freedom, and the Kromme River whispering somewhere behind the trees. Families filled the remaining tents as the week unfolded, but the space never lost its calm. Kids could roam, parents could breathe, and everyone seemed to move at a peaceful pace.
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The tents are thoughtfully kitted out: proper beds, a small kitchen, a deck overlooking the veld. If you feel like buying food to cook beforehand, you can. If you don’t, the breakfast and braai boxes remove the burden of planning. There’s a comfort in knowing dinner is sorted without having to navigate a grocery store.
Wellington is quietly impressive. The vineyards shoulder the mountains with the calm pride distinctive of the Cape Winelands. One afternoon, we wandered down for a tasting at Doolhof’s cellar, a short amble among vines flushed green from the first real warmth of spring. The wines are good, the hospitality easy, and we found ourselves leaving with two bottles of the Limietberg Rosé Brut – a crisp companion for sunsets and slow evenings.
The hot tub, heated by wood fire, is both charming and humbling. If patience is not your strongest virtue, this is where you learn. The staff will tell you it takes three hours to warm properly. Believe them. Our first attempt was an enthusiastic, lukewarm miscalculation.
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AfriCamps lists a spread of activities: vineyard walks, river paths, mountain biking routes starting on the property, and the wider Wellington trails beyond. You can horse-ride, hike into Limietberg, drift between wine estates, or chase a round of golf nearby. Yet the real pleasure lies in slowing down. There’s value in doing very little, in letting the day idle between reading, braai smoke, and watching light move across a valley. Modern life rarely leaves space for stillness, and here it arrives naturally.
The V-Cross played its role as quietly as the surroundings, waiting dutifully in a patch of sun to be called on to take us back down the gravel. At R885 100, the V-Cross is a compelling alternative in a double-cab market increasingly defined by price tags that seem to creep up by the month. It offers enough refinement to serve as a daily commuter and family adventure machine, but its soul still leans toward the out-of-town routes. And there’s something fitting about pairing it with a place like Doolhof – both built on durability and space, without needing to dress themselves up too much to make their point.
On our last evening, the wind dropped and the sky settled into a soft-gold lull. We walked the riverbank until the light finally dipped behind the mountains, then built the final braai fire. The world felt unhurried, unrushed, and wonderfully close. City life would resume soon enough, but for that stretch of time, birdsong and river water replaced the urban hum.
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