25th January Day 4

Robertson is a beautiful town, a hub for agriculture and wine, the town is on the banks of the Breede River and is surrounded by vineyards and orchards, after a drive round the town we headed to the small village of Mcgregor, this quaint village is a stone throw away from Roberston, it has recently become a retreat for artists. It felt very much like Pleasantville, again, things moved slowly here, bigger than Nieu Bethesda with quite a lot of development but still very rustic. We had a healthy breakfast and decided to keep up with the healthy trend and went to Montagu to the hot springs.

I always had bad impressions about the place, I did not know what to expect, whether there would be some old windbag healing her arthritis next to me, or some young drunk git urinating on my foot.

It was very relaxing, even I was able to rest away, the spa is in a wonderful setting, after feeling like a newish man we decided to head home via the Montagu dried fruit and nut cooperative.

Two and bit hours later I arrived home, I can look back and say that the detour to Williston and Fraserburg to Sutherland was a waste of time, but I guess some body had to go see the place, somebody had to see whether the Karoo Hoogland publicity department was understating or overstating things, they were very successful at overstating things.

The highlight of the trip was the eccentric folk we came across. The Sheila Snyman’s, the Kobus’s of this part of the world.

I cant wait for my next opportunity to drive from Cape Town to Johannesburg so I can dream up some ludicrous journey….

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) The Road to Montagu- This picture was taken from http://www.kapstadt.net/images/gardenmontagu2_510.jpg

24th January 2006-Day 3

We got up before the roosters started crowing, in the shadow of the moon we packed our belongings and headed off. Today would involve a lot of driving, it would involve entering completely unchartered territory and it would involve us only passing 4 cars on the road in over 13 hours on the road.

We wanted to take the dirt road to Murraysburg and make our way to Victoria West for breakfast, however, with the rains, it seemed too risky, we went back to Graaff Reinet and drove to Murraysburg passing a stuttering, dying lorry. Murraysburg is quite frankly a shithole. Once a hub for wool and mohair it is today a shadow of its former self and a bad start to a brief trip in the Western Cape.

Onto the N12 we headed to Victoria West, 12 km’s from the town, we saw a sign to Hutchinson, the only reason why Hutchinson exists is because the railway missed the town of Victoria West, so a junction with a few homes was built here. Many of these houses were deserted and empty, the junction had seen better days and was all but a forlorn ghost town.

Victoria West might be a small dorp, but it seemed much more like a city compared to the two towns we had just been to, but even having said that, it was remarkable to see that 08:30 on a Monday morning, things were moving so slowly. We walked the town on foot in search of a Karoo breakfast but did not find that many appetising places open. We went to inspect the building which housed the synagogue and to a few of the churches.

The Victoria West District Museum had good displays on fish fossils found in the area and on the natural history of the region. One also gains a good understanding of the history of the town through one of its other exhibits.

We also went to go see Mannetjies Roux, the legendary rugby players shop and museum, Roux still farms in the area. The real highlight and centrepiece of attraction in the town is the Apollo Theatre which has recently been gentrified. This is the only remaining art deco cinema in the country! It still shows movies regularly and is a symbol of pride for the locals.

We headed off to Loxton, no major breakfast, but were sure that the R63 would reward us with a great breakfast. We passed our second car. The towns were becoming smaller and further apart, one starts to understand just how big South Africa is when travelling on these roads. Nothing but farm land on either side of you, nothing but a few sheep and some shrubs. You just hope that your car does not break down here…

Loxton is a neat but tiny Karoo farming town. Nothing to do but hunt in the area or go in search of San rock sculptures, we did not have time for that and left Loxton.
Carnarvon is 60 KM’s away from Loxton, this is the regional hub for sheep farming, first impressions of the town were not that good, we found a local diner and curios shop and instead of having a Karoo brunch we had a deep fried bland rubbish, and the deep fried bland rubbish almost came out when I went to pay and realised the old South African flag was in the shop.

It was off to Blikkies Bar in the local hotel, it was lunch time and the bar was quite, now Blikkies (cans) Bar is famous because it has over 2000 bottles of different kinds of beer adorning its wall, the bar lady could not explain how all those cans made it to Carnarvon. The bar lady was very chipper of the fact that Springbok rugby coach Jake White had been in the area on a hunt.

After dealing with our parched mouths we drove around the town and off onto a dirt road to the farm of Sheila Snyman-Nel, Sheila, who must be in her 70’s is an energetic, no nonsense busy body lady. Her farmhouse which must be some 20 km’s away from Carnarvon is set under many large trees, it was like driving into an oasis. There were no pleasantries, she was in a rush, there was not even time to plug her book on Mountain Tortoises.

You see, Sheila has a tortoise reserve, now one might ask why the hell would you travel on a rough dirt road to see some tortoises… You see she has this tortoise which answers it to it’s name, Zach and I were gobsmacked, she yelped out Napoleon, and lo and behold the tortoise came to her. After a 5 minute tour and explanation she allowed us to use her bathroom and made it explicitly clear that we would not get tea, I enquired about the rush and before we knew it we were on the bakkie (truck) and on on our way to collect new born ostriches. We were on a god-forsaken road climhing steep hills and driving past a herd of buck. We arrived and had to collect the baby ostriches from their wary mother as they had been attacked by an army of ants.

It is not everyday that one gets to rescue baby ostriches and drive in the front seat with them.

She had to care for the ostriches and we did not want to interrupt her work so we said our goodbyes and headed off for Williston.

We were now heading to the Karoo Hoogland (Highlands), this would have been a dead boring drive had it not been for the many corbelled houses lining the road. It was getting very hot and we made our way to Williston to fill up. Williston was once famous for its stone cutting and tombstone production and this is the main reason to visit here, we did not have time for that detour, but one could safely assume that one of the more recent tombstones created must have been for the town itself. There was almost nothing going on, except for some excited school children walking down the street.

Soon it would be all dirt road as we headed to Fraserburg, it was only a 65 Km journey, but it was on a tough dirt road, we passed a car, but I started wondering why I had decided to take this route back to Cape Town, Williston was disappointing and I wondered that my verve to go to places where none of my friends had ever been was actually going to be worth it.

We arrived in Fraserburg, it is famous for one thing and that is its Pepper Pot, it has a hexagonal shape and is the symbol of the town. After a quick photo we prepared ourselves for the 125 KM journey to Sutherland.
Sutherland is by far the most famous town in the region and we wanted to go visit the world renowned SALT 2 Observatory. Sutherland is renowned as being one of the coldest towns in the country but also the best place to star gaze. The drive was the best one of the day, as we approached the town we saw the observatory and wanted to go see it the next morning. However, one had to book in advance and their were no openings, we hot, tired and bothered, our B+B looked worse for wear, the local eateries were closed and the town was barely breathing, disappointed we pushed for the N1.

I had wanted to go visit the Sheep cheese farm but it was in the wrong direction, and with my little car not made for off road travel we made our way for Matjiesfontein.

The drive was great, we passed our 4th car, but the rock structures and the cliffs were brilliant, it really felt like we were off the beaten track.
Matjiesfontein is a compulsory turn-off when ever one is in the area. The whole village is a National Monument. The Lord Milner is a grand old hotel which serves brilliant breakfasts, it was too late for that, but there was time to walk around the village, for Zach to rest under a palm tree and for me to bypass the old swimming pool come fish pond and go swim in the swimming pool. It was not allowed and taboo to that but I was willing to risk it as it had been a hot and sweaty day.

Feeling refreshed and reinvigorated we wanted to get closer to our final destination Cape Town. We drove past Laingsburg and Touws River and noticed massive road works just outside Touws River, it was time for a detour, we took the R318 and drove through the orchards and farm lands of the Koo Valley and the Burgers Pass, without some of the bends being very risky in the failing light, the views even at dusk were breathtaking. The change of terrain could not have been more stark. We drove through Montagu and decided to spend the night at Robertson.

We stayed at the Robertson BackPackers- much more active and livelier than Nieu Bethesda backpackers and after a great dinner in the town retired early so we could go to the hot springs the next day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) The Monday Morning rat race in Victoria West
2) Blikkies Bar in Canarvon
3) Sheila Syman-Nel calling Napoleon
4) Zach taking time out in Matjiesfontein

22nd January 2006 Day 2

After an early morning cup of coffee on our stoep we checked out and went for a breakfast of boerewors (farmers sausage), eggs and fried tomatoes at the famous Drosdty Hotel, built in 1806, this hotel with its famous façade is one of the true landmarks of the dorp (town).

We walked off breakfast by doing a tour of the town. Being a Sunday, most establishments were closed, but the museums and galleries were open. We walked past two jovial old ladies sitting on their stoep waiting to be picked up for Sunday lunch, and walked past Reinet House and the Old Residency. We wanted to go to the Hester Rupert Art Museum, but noticed that it was temporarily closed. We walked past 5 minutes later and walked in and were met by a thin man with an unkempt thin moustache whose upper lip was quivering. After engaging in the expected small town small talk, the man proceeded to tell us that he had eaten a pie the night before and it had too much pepper in it and his stomach did not handle pepper that well. Zach and I wanted to take our time at the gallery but did not want to see a man die while were in there, I don’t know if he lasted that day.

A sure highlight of the town is the Old Library Museum, it has a great history of the town, with brilliant San and Bushman art. It also houses an exhibit on Robert Sobukwe. Sobukwe who founded the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was born in the town. It is a great exhibit, there are also a few references to and photos of Benjamin Pogrund who was his close friend and biographer.

We left town, one of my observations was that Graaff Reinet is a hub for taxidermy. If you ever study the art of stuffing animals, know that you can probably find a job in Graaff Reinet.

We left the town and went on and up and up to the Valley of Desolation. I had been here before, a spectacular reserve just next to the town. We did a small hike went off track, did some bundu bashing and took stock of the wonderful birdlife, fauna and flora and the breathtaking views.

This is a great place to unwind and an even better place for those Kodak moments.

We headed off to Nieu Bethesda, one turns off to a dirt road and travels for about 25 kilometres to the hamlet. As one enters, you see a severe change of pace, the cattle cross the road at their leisure, the few people walking the street take everything in their stride and things happen slowly.

We checked into the Owlhouse Backpackers, expecting to find two Scandinavian female tourists in the backpackers, we were surprised to find that we had the whole backpackers lodge to ourselves.

We set off straight for the place that made the hamlet famous or should I say infamous-Helen Martins Owl House.

I was here in 2005 and believe that this is definitely one of South Africa’s most intriguing places to visit and definitely the most bizarre.

Martins had a dull, dour life, after a failed marriage she moved to the town to care for her convalescent mom and ailing father, when they passed away, she was left stranded in the village.

Her life, home and garden were transformed when having a premonition one night. Inspired by the bible, William Blake and Omar Khayyam she turned her windswept garden into the Camel Yard. Just imagine walking into this yard with hundreds of sculptures in close proximity to one another.

She and co-worker Koos Malgas created this site that will no doubt leave you agog. There is an eerie quietness in Nieu Bethesda, people from Graaff Reinet refer to the people from Nieu Bethesda, as “weird”, “inbred”, “strange”. There is definitely something strange in Nieu Bethesda and this is best typified by the Owl House.

Outside the venue you see the wire artists selling their goods, Nieu Bethesda is a hub for creativity, famous authors, artists relocate here, but many of the inhabitants from the township are highly skilled in weaving, wire art etc and there goods are propositioned to you as you enter and leave the venue.

As we left, the wire artists disappeared under the sparse cover as the heavens opened. We had heard of a micro brewery and restaurant on the other side of the river, in the poring rain and an underwater low bridge we crossed. It was not heroic stuff, but it was not that fun walking across in close to knee deep water.

Once on the other side went in search of the brewery only to find it shut for the week, this time we walked over the foot bridge over the water.

One needs to understand that you can walk the length and breadth of the hamlet in about 20 minutes, there are some wonderful local community trusts which develop local talent, a police station which saw no activity what so ever and some impressive churches.

The main road was dead quiet, we walked into Egbert’s Coffee Shop. Egbert Gerryts, who I understand has sadly passed away recently, relocated to Nieu Bethesda in the early 90’s, he left the bright lights of Pretoria, left a job at the university and came here to write. He opened a small, but excellent book shop and coffee shop. I had his lemon meringue pie which was in the league of my mom’s lemon meringue pie. When asking for the price, he pointed to a jar and said I should pay what ever I felt it was worth to me.

I wondered whether people would just walk out and never pay, but I doubted it, it is a system which I am sure worked for Egbert, a system of trust, and as a just reward for some great pie, I paid much more the pie than I normally would of.

Egbert would not really engage us about why he came here, except to tell us about the book he had written about the hamlet.

At about 16:00 we ventured across the farm lands and lush green grass to Pienaarsig which is where the township is. On our way there we passed a grandmother and her two kids Boeta and Klara. They were two of the cutest children I had seen in a long time, with it being a small town, people are naturally friendly and everyone greets one another.

Pienaarsig was just as quiet as Nieu Bethesda, except for two men drinking wine out of a coke bottle sitting under a shady tree talking away loudly.

On our way back we crossed paths with the grandmother and Boeta and Klara again, they were engrossed by our digital cameras and soon we started playing games with them and swinging them around.

There was little if anything to do, it was a Sunday, all restaurants were closed, and we went to the owners of the backpackers lodge, Ian and Katrin for dinner, well healed travellers, they had settled in Nieu Bethesda for some time now. They had a very young daughter who seemed as if she had just come out of the Village of the Damned. We were joined by an American educator who was about to start teaching in the local school. Sitting outside, we proceeded to have pancakes for dinner. It was a wonderful, quiet setting, we were both quite hungry but did not want to eat too much. We did not want to take advantage, no one takes advantage of anyone in this village, or so we thought…

I thought R25 was a lot for 4 pancakes, and I commented to Zach about this, who told me that I had just been charged R50 for those pancakes, I could not believe the audacity of our hosts to exploit us like that.

Sitting outside looking at the glorious Karoo sky, I could only muse at the highway robbery, but I still felt very safe to leave my car doors unlocked, by about 21:30 I was asleep, we had to get up at 05:15 to make our way to Sutherland…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Zach overlooking the Valley of Desolation
2) Murals in the Owl House
3) Late Sunday Afternoon Games with Boeta and Klara

Sussman Rewind-Roadtrip January 2006*

I had just finished a two year stint working in Johannesburg and it was time to head back to Cape Town. I had done the Joburg-Cape Town trip quite a few times in the past, but each time it would involve a different route.

Zach Nossell would accompany me on the trip, Zach a few years younger than me had seen his fair share of South Africa, but we decided to go to some places where we had never been, let alone any of our friends of family.

21st January 2006 Day 1

We left early Saturday morning, I picked up Zach who lives in the same neighbourhood I had worked and lived in for two years. The drive from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein is boring, very boring, despite the many mega garages which line the road and the many traffic cops, there is little beauty in the journey, one only feels like you have left the open road when you leave Bloemfontein and you start approaching Colesberg in the Northern Cape. The Northern Cape is far and above the biggest province in South Africa and the province with far and above the lowest population. It is incredibly sparsely populated.

Colesberg is the traditional half way stopping point between those who travel from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Excessively busy during the holiday period, the town was very quite, even it was a Saturday.

We traipsed along the streets of Colesberg. Colesberg has some impressive churches, a Dutch Reformed Church built in 1863, an ornate Anglican Church built in 1854. We walked along some of the side streets and came across the brilliantly named Flossy’s House of Bling Hair Saloon… you could not buy hair, but you could sure get your haircut. Soon a dog fight developed, and we snapped away taking photos and in a matter of no time, some eccentric old, mad English speaking lady came running after us accusing us of an invasion of privacy and trespassing and that she was calling the police, she tried to set her dogs in our direction, but we were more scared of her than her frothing dogs.

We started making our way to Graaff Reinet and soon we were in uncharted territory on to the N9 We soon saw the signs to Noupoort. Noupoort is infamously known for one thing, it’s drug rehabilitation centre which used biblical principles to cure the inmates. One patient died whilst under their care after being chained up around his neck in a detention cell.

The centre had closed but an offshoot had opened in the town. This town is possibly one of the saddest, worst towns I had ever seen in South Africa. Driving into the town one sees murals depicting kids who chose drugs and kids who chose Jesus. There were many ramshackle buildings, and on the outskirts of the town was the Noupoort Christian Care Centre, the building looked like an old reformatory or an old infirmary, incredibly eerie, we saw the guides who were high on the bible taking the patients who were becoming high on the bible but still high on drugs. I asked the locals about them, but they were even hesitant to talk about what happened in that building back then and what happens in that building now.

I did not want to see or hear a patient being beat or someone escaping and trying to hijack my car, so we headed off.

We drove through a dreary Middelburg and at about 15:30 we pulled into Graaff Reinet. It is one of the oldest towns in South Africa, this was my third visit to the town in 15 months.

It was late afternoon, and it was very quiet. We checked into our bed and breakfast at the Red Geranium, owned by the doting Clare Sheard. The room was huge and for just under £7 (R70 per person) we had a massive room with two bed rooms, kitchen, stoep (patio), and bathroom.

The town is beautiful, many buildings built in the Cape Dutch style, it was amazing to see people sitting outdoors on their stoeps on their swing chairs watching the day gone by, this kind of thing does not get done in the city anymore.

We were very close to the town centre and in a matter of no time had walked through much of the historic part of the town.

The Karoo has unbelievable cuisine and lamb chops are staple diet, I knew I could not leave Graaff Reinet without having eaten lamb chops. We found the Lemon Tree, the bar and restaurant was all but empty despite a woman with hideous curls, a drunken biker and barman who liked he had just hit puberty.

We saw that they did chops, despite our first impressions, the food and drink was excellent. However, just as I was about to bite into my second chop, a beanpole of a guy who looked 20 years old strutted in and sat down at our table. Without a shadow of a doubt he was wearing the most hideous shirt I had ever seen in my life. I know little to nothing about fashion and dress sense, but even I could tell that this was unbelievable.

Kobus, was an iron soulderer, what ever we said he laughed at, I started to wonder whether he was even 18. I did not know where this was heading.

It turned out, Kobus was celebrating his 36th birthday, and that is why he was wearing the shirt.

Even though it was an unbelievable experience meeting Kobus, the next man we would meet would be local legend, Jacques Laubscher, Jaques is a businessman, owner of the Lemon Tree, pilot, biker, musician and UFO spotter.

Zach and I became dubious of his claims that he had spotted UFO’s and in a matter of no time, his elder son had run home to get the tape. Carte Blanche, a very renowned current affairs programme in South Africa had done a 20 minute story on the Laubscher family and their UFO sightings.

I wanted to leave but could not as the younger Laubscher child was being scolded by his mom in the bar for being found drinking on the streets. He must have been about 13, and I could hear him pleading to his mom for her to understand that there was nothing else for them to do in the town.

The documentary finished, and I was captivated. Soon Jacques showed us newspaper cuttings and I could not help notice that there was a drum kit and guitars in this tiny lounge area of the restaurant.

Before I could ask any questions he shoved these magazines in my face about planes and about pilots and lo and behold there was a story on Jacques Laubscher and his antics as a pilot.

Jacques and his son walked into the lounge area and soon Albatross minus the bass guitarist were doing a gig for us and Kobus,

It was sensational, I could not help notice that Jaques was playing under a signed film poster by actor Hillary Swank. She was the lead actor in Red Dust, which was filmed in the town and she used to dine and drink in his restaurant/bar every night. They closed the bar for her.

Albatross is an actual band and it was a great gig.

We bid farewell to Kobus and the Laubschers, and asked Kobus where the vibe was going to be later that night.

After his advice we headed to the other place, and went to a bar full of English speaking farmers. After a few beers we went to Die Kraal (cattle pen), it was a behemoth of a club, it was on the outskirts of the town centre, playing terrible techno beats, and there on the dance floor by himself was Kobus, doing moves which were modelled on those of Gareth Keenan in The Office.

While playing pool, Kobus came up to us and asked us if we were new in the town, he did not recognize us, an hour before that we were sitting on the same couch and yet he failed to register who we were…

You have to love the larger than life characters of the small towns in South Africa….

We had to get an early start the next day so we headed off to bed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sussman Rewind- I believe that blogging is a very powerful tool for one to record past experiences, this roadtrip might have happened about 12 months ago, but I believe that it is better late than never to record and document those past amazing experiences.

Pics:
1) Noupoort Murals-It is your choice Drugs or Salvation!
2) Kobus in his special birthday shirt
3) Albatross performing for us