Photo: Brian Berkman
UNESCO recognised the Swartberg Pass between Oudtshoorn and Prince Albert for its heritage value. It is the last pass that Thomas Bain designed and built.
With its many and steep switchbacks, this gravel road pass requires careful driving and attention. And, if you plan to explore Die Hel, also a 4×4.
By prior arrangement, a downhill adventure awaits for groups who would like to cycle down a 12km section facilitated by Swartberg Experiences.
As Farmer’s Weekly’s Garden Route and Klein Karoo Avitourism visit was made possible by BirdLife South Africa (which hosts the GoBirding.co.za platform with support from the Western Cape Department of Tourism and the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve), we were always on the lookout for birds.
Explore the peak (Die Top) in search of Verreaux’s eagle, Cape eagle-owl, Ground woodpecker, Cape siskin, Cape sugarbird, Victorin’s warbler, sentinel rock thrush, Cape rockjumper, protea seedeater and the orange-breasted sunbird, and keep an ear out for their calls while cycling down.
If telling friends you went careening from the Waboomsberg on the Swartberg Pass on a bicycle doesn’t get you sufficient bragging rights, telling them you had breakfast above the clouds cooked over open coals by Kobus and Charman Lategan and their team from Kobus se Gat certainly will.
Perhaps it was the crisp early morning air or the staggeringly vertiginous views below but, whatever the reasons, that breakfast of pillowy roosterkoek, still warm and smoky from the coals and packed with bacon, scrambled eggs and a sweet and spicy tomato smoor tasted Michelin-star worthy.
Drinking moerkoffie from an enamel cup while doing so was equally stellar.
Calitzdorp
After a delightful lunch under a canopy of grapevines at De Krans in Calitzdorp, the next stop reached via the Rooiberg Pass was a tiny Karoo village.
Van Wyksdorp is set between Calitzdorp, Riversdale and Ladismith, but at least 45km away from the nearest of them.
The drive from Calitzdorp to Van Wyksdorp passes the 14 000ha Assegaay Bosch Private Nature Reserve, which is richly endowed with fauna from the fynbos and succulent Karoo biomes.
Van Wyksdorp
Van Wyksdorp is an oasis in the arid Karoo as it has a natural mountain spring called The Eye.
In 1904 there were 200 people named Van Wyk living there on what was originally called Buffelsfontein Farm and hence the name was changed to Van Wyksdorp.
Rooiberg Lodge is a nature reserve, restaurant and upscale accommodation lodge at the foot of the Rooiberg mountains and a short drive from the Van Wyksdorp village.
Rooiberg also offers game-drives and other experiences for non-residential guests.
Our happy place
Sam Ralston-Paton works for BirdLife South Africa as a project manager focusing on birds and renewable energy. She was recognised for her Biodiversity Stewardship excellence by Mail & Guardian in 2023.
With a growing number of wind farms in South Africa, Sam’s work focuses on reducing wind energy’s harm to birds. Many bird species, including raptors, are at risk of collisions with fast-moving turbine blades.
Sam and her husband Greg live in Van Wyksdorp where they farm with permaculture and organic techniques. They show Farmer’s Weekly their gorgeous farm cottage, which is available on AirBNB, named The Happy Place.
Set in their large fruit tree-laden garden, there is a farm dam-style swimming pool nearby. The Happy Place has one bedroom with a double bed (the only drawback in the entire visit and only for those of us who require roomier sleeping arrangements).
There is a sleeper couch in the sitting room. The unit can accommodate three people.
The main living area is open plan with a well-equipped kitchen, hob and oven, as well as a dishwasher.
Two Art Deco comfy chairs and timber kitchen counter seating invite cooking or relaxing in equal measure.
Directly in front of the cottage, which has French doors and plenty windows throughout, is a hammock and two chairs. The large outside dining area has a built-in braai and a wood-burning bread oven.
Another wood-burner is inside the lounge area and promises to effectively warm the area in the cold.
Bath outdoors
A bathroom with shower and loo is off a small hall between the lounge and the bedroom. But a wonderful treat awaits those who venture beyond the bathroom’s outside facing door, where a tub with hot and cold water is privately enclosed in an outside garden under a tall tree.
“My grandfather taught me to eat organic fruit with a knife,” says Sam, pointing to the bowl
of just picked figs, granadillas and cling peaches which they grow along with olives and almonds on the farm.
Sam explains that they moved to Van Wyksdorp when her husband Greg was diagnosed with cancer and received an insurance payout with which they purchased the farm. The healing powers of Van Wyksdorp should not be underestimated.
For people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), Van Wyksdorp seems to be particularly well suited (although this is not something Sam or Greg are particularly worried about).
Greg, a shoemaker by craft, is evidently also very skilled at building as he, Sam and their assistant Willem have built and planted most of what is now on their farm.
The Happy Place is a few metres walk away from the village centre where you will find Buffelfontein, a multipurpose venue and gallery. On weekends, Sue and Gerald Lenferna operate a coffee shop there and the space also hosts music and other events.
Directly opposite, in a colourfully painted place, is The Mall, a general dealership selling many and varied things.
When Farmer’s Weekly visited an impressive telescope, a range of elegant black and white dresses, worker’s boots and hardware smalls were for sale in only one tiny section of the shop.
Think of Van Wyksdorp as a much lesser known but as charming Prince Albert Both benefit from a leiwater system of channels and sluices where residents have scheduled access to a water supply. Within their garden alone Sam has noted more than 35 bird species.
“We have the speckled, red-faced and white-backed mousebirds too, but the buggers
eat our crops, which is why everything we grow is under bird netting!” she says.
The Happy Place (083 673 3948) is available for stays of two-nights or longer. But I reckon you will want to give yourself plenty of time in this charming oasis of Van Wyksdorp to also benefit from the peacefulness and healing that Farmer’s Weekly experienced during our stay there.
Visit www.vanwyksdorptourism.com.
