About the Owners
Magic happens when accommodation hosts truly understand the balance between creating a welcoming, home-away-from-home atmosphere for their guests, and disappearing behind the scenes to allow them to enjoy the peace undisturbed.
Leon and Margaret van der Merwe are this special kind of hosts.
Before settling down in the area permanently, they were tourists to the region also. This has granted them the unique perspective of a visitor who sees the town, the accommodation, and the beaches from a stranger’s point of view, but also from the point of view of a seasoned local who knows all the best spots.
“I was privileged to have visited the Cape year after year with my parents, since I was a young child. And the Cape grew on me every time we experienced its beauty,” says Leon. “It was while fishing with my father in the waters around Gansbaai at the tender age of 11 years old that I fell in love with the Overberg’s beauty.”
The dream of living in the area permanently finally became a reality when the couple built their beautiful home in 2003, revelling in the splendour of being far enough away from the hustle and bustle and only a hundred metres from the ocean. (While still being only a 2-hour drive from Cape Town, should they need to venture into the city.) Realising how much guests to their home loved the area, they felt a responsibility to share this “quiet jewel” of a town (as they like to call De Kelders) with others. And so, in 2009, they turned their seaside home into world- class self-catering accommodation. Thanks to their generosity of spirit and warm hospitality visitors now get to enjoy seaside holidays to cherish forever.
