Wednesday 6th September 2017, we took a 4 day Holiday to the Karoo.
From Cape Town to Warmwaterberg Spa, drove through the R62, the Route was so indulging as the landscape was very overwhelming and well crafted by God himself. The so-called semi-arid land of the Karoo looked as if we were in Colorado, the flat Rocky Mountains in the Karoo looked as almost as if there was no vegetation and the wind kept sweeping the dust now and then. As we were driving pass, my question was “How do people live in such a dry land where the temperature reaches up to 45 degrees in summer”.
The communities along the route were not vast compared to the bigger cities, some communities can range from 2000 to 4500 habitats, farming, and winemaking are one of the major jobs creation in these communities. It was very rare to see rivers flowing as most of them were dried and semi-dried, the vegetation was very dry which cause a big risk of wildfires, signage on the route sent out a huge message to travelers. The towns along the route looked full of energy and life as people were always on the move. What made Our Journey enjoyable was the fact that each mountain had a different identity as if they were telling a life story of their being. Despite the road works between Ashton and Montagu, the journey was still overwhelming. I felt so glad that, the road works provided some of the community members with jobs.
We arrive at Warmwaterburg Spa, an accommodation situated in a relaxed resort with geothermal pool between Barrydale and Ladismith. The place looked very relaxed and calm with less noise, all we could hear was the singing of the birds and the wind shaking the tree leaves. Our accommodation, which was a bachelor caravan with a double bed, kitchenette and a small eating area was just what we needed for the holiday. The site had its own shop, restaurant, and bar as well as camping sites.
What made our 4 days holiday relaxing, was the fact that we were able to shut from the busy life of Cape Town, with no television, no radio, no dstv, no internet. We had taken some books to keep us busy, however, we decided to make the hot spring pool, cooking, driving to other town and chatting as a hobby. Warmwaterberg was a hidden jewel along the R62, I do not know of some other places but, it was definitely a gem. We would take a relaxation session ( as I call it )at the pool 3 to 4 times a day. They were 4 different pools – a cold pool, a lukewarm pool, a warm pool, and a children’s pool. While in that warm pool, I could not stop thinking about how great is God.
At some stage, I was over curious to know the main source of that warm water and how it came to be, but that will be something which will be discovered some stage in the future.
On the 7th /09/2017, we decided to take a trip to Barrydale a town situated 30km from Warmwaterburg, just to see what the town has to offer. There wasn’t much to do there, thus I and Morne just planned to have a relaxed afternoon exploring the town.
Barrydale was named after James Barry and was established in 1880, it falls under the Overberg district and Swellendam The municipality, it has a total population of 4156 ( according to the 2011 record). The main racial occupation is Coloured and Afrikaans is the first language spoken. According to history, Barrydale history dates back in the 18th century, when farmers moved into the area in search of fertile arable land with water. There is a church which was built by the community where the R62 and R324 roads meet. Farmers in the area were encouraged to plant vineyard and orchards. In 1940 the Barrydale Kooperatiewe Wynkelder was formed and a distillery established which gave rise to the wine industry in the are. Speaking of today, Barrydale still projects a large proportion of which are direct descendants of the indigenous Khoisan tribe. Every October the town holds a festival called “ The Annual Barrydale Spring Festival”, an important event on the town’s calendar. Our very first stop in Barrydale was an African craft shop. The shop looked small from the outside, however, was bigger on the inside with many handcrafted African Arts. I and Morne, went inside the shop to browse what it has to offer, there were quite a large selection of arts, most of them made with wood and organic materials such as leaves, ostrich eggs and feathers and most importantly the staff and the owner were very welcoming and we were giving all the attention as if we were their 1st and last customers…there were few restaurants, but most of them were empty and a few shops as well. We took a walk down the road to see one of the very unique hotels in Barrydale “The Karoo Art Hotel”. Located on N.33 Van Riebeeck Street.
The tour was memorable and unique to us, as hospitality personnel, it is very uncommon to see a manager himself give a prospective customer a detail explanation of the entire property. Saturday 9th September 2017, I and Morne adventured ourselves to Ladismith a small town situated 55 km from Warmwaterberg Spa. Ladismith is the agricultural center of the Klein Karroo region. In 1852, the farm Elandsvlei was set aside for the town, and it became a municipality 10 years after (1862). The town was the name after Lady Juana Maria Smith who was married to General Sir Harry Smith, governor of the Cape Colony. According to history, Juana Smith accompanied her husband throughout the rest of the British American War of 1812. She is sometimes said to have introduced the Cantaloupe or Muskmelon to South Africa where it is known as Spanspek, which means in Afrikaans Spanish Bacon.
In brief, there was not much to see, however, we drove slowly around the town and just to bump into this Old Catholic church well, know as the Otto Hager Church, which was built in 1850 by Sir Carl Otto Hager. The Church became a national monument in 1976 and is recently used as an information center with many of the few antiques. There we could see a few pictures of Lady Juana Smith in her youth days. We asked the gentleman (not recalling the name) who worked at the information center where Lady Juana stayed, however, he could not really direct us as he was new in town. Well, I guess I was a bit disappointed as I was very curious to see her house. In the church was a carriage used for carrying coffins, not sure if the carriage was still in use, few chairs were at the back of the church. Well, we left the church thanking him and there continued our town seeing.
The fact that we were so hungry, we decided to stop at one of the restaurant called Die Kanna Kombus. We were craving for something sweet, we went in the shop which was close to the main restaurant and there we saw a display fridge with cake “Yummy”, believe me when I say the Chocolate cake and Cheesecake were the best cakes I ever had in my life. After our sweet tooth was satisfied, we thought of a visit to the next town which was about 100kms away, but we had decided to return to our accommodation because it was getting late as
well.
After all, our trip to Ladismith was a good exposure to what history is all about, even there was not much to do, but we enjoyed the fact that we could learn something new on how the town came to existence and its memories will always be engraved in my mind. Sunday 10th September 2017, was our check out date, we woke up early to start packing and get ready for the road back to Cape Town. We made breakfast and started to pack our belongings.
We left Warmwaterberg Spa just before 10 am. Before driving back, we decided to take a different route to explore more so we drove through Barrydale again on the R62 and amazingly we saw big signage of a hand waver workshop. We were so curious to see what all is about. We stopped at the shop, just to find an artisan the lady behind a wooden waving machine. It was quite an experience to see such a machine do still, exist and are not extinct, we stood there for about 5 min trying to see how the machine was operated. The operation of the machine seemed easy to us, thus it needed a lot of effort and muscles to handwave a simple placemat. The lady directed us to the shop which was close to the workshop, beautifully handmade, those placemats, towels, tablecloths, table runners and names them, were just so beautiful. We took the R324 to explore the magnificent Tradouw Pass, a route off the R62.
Tradouw pass in the old Khoisan language means Women’s Path, I had no ideas why it was named women path, but our ancestors knew why. The pass connects Barrydale and Swellendam and is a 16 km route with a range altitude of about 219 meters. The pass was completed in 1873 and was built with the help of large gang prisoners, Sir Thomas Bain was the one who originally had the idea to construct this and he was known as “the man with the theodolite eye, an instrument used to measure vertical and horizontal angles. The Tradouw pass is one of the best road masterpieces
I’ve seen in the Western Cape so far. The road climbs through a narrow gorge into the heart of the Langeberg where there are a number of a lookout point where we’ve stopped to look at the magnificent views, along the pass was a bridge named Andre Uys, the old bridge can still be seen if driving slowly. Below the pass runs the Tradouw River, the backdrop of the Langeberg Mountains make the pass very particular and gives it beautiful
scenery and settings while driving. Just after the pass, we came across a village called Suurbraak located between Swellendam and Barrydale.
The Village falls under the Overberg district and was established in 1812 when the London missionary society established a mission station. We did see much there as we were only driving pass, but surely, we could see the village had so much life. I’ve always wondered about such mystery and on how these wonderful roads and towns came to existence, it just makes me ask so many questions as most of the time when passing these, I stay quiet with so many thoughts in my mind and sometimes, I wish to meet the elders and communities members just to know about the history that beneath and how they manage to leave in such remote and small settlements.
