The tortoise shell

South Africa’s third oldest town has a beautiful reserve – located on a mountain where you can go driving through the veld – or fish, rock climbing, hike, and braai from morning to late afternoon.

The Paarl Valley was originally inhabited by the Cochoqua, a prosperous Khoisan tribe that farmed mainly with livestock. The Cochoqua called the mountain above their valley !hom !nãb/s – or Tortoise Mountain. Later, in 1657, a fiscal of the Dutch East India Company, one Abraham Gabbema, renamed it “de Diamondt and de Peerlberg” because of the way the mountain’s largest granite domes glistened in the sun after a morning shower. Peerl, old Dutch for pearl, would later become Paarl. The granite domes that impressed Abraham so much are today called Bretagne (French for Britain) and Gordon’s Rock (named after the Dutch explorer of Scottish descent Robert Gordon) and a third, smaller dome closest to the town is Paarl Rock, or the pearl of Paarl. Our route starts at the Afrikaans Language Monument. Follow the 11 km-long Jan Phillips mountain road – a bumpy trail with atractive views – for 5 km, past an amphitheatre, followed by the Victoria Dam and Meulsteen Botanical Garden and picnic site. Shortly after Meulsteen is a road sign for “The Rocks”: turn left here and continue uphill. Near the reserve’s entrance gate is another picnic spot, Pienaars Camp, with a neat ablution block. Meulsteen and Pienaars Camp’s picnic spots are free to use and the ablution blocks are usually clean – the Drakenstein municipality definitely deserves a pat on the back for their excellent work. Now drive through the Paarlberg Nature Reserve’s entrance gate – admission is free during the week, but on weekends you have to pay – and keep to the right when the road forks. A oneway road winds for 7 km over Paarlberg past numerous smaller granite domes and rocky ridges that are not visible from the valley floor. Once you’ve passed Grootwaboomkop on the right, the road descends steeply. The first piece of the descent has a concrete slab, but it eventually degrades into deep erosion ditches, and you have to be careful not to fall in and beach your vehicle. An ordinary family sedan probably won’t make it here. Shortly after the washed-out section, you can turn left towards Bethal Dam and drive back to the gate, but rather keep going straight ahead to the western slope of Paarl Mountain with

its beautiful views over the Swartland and Cape flats. During our visit, the veld was recovering from a fire a few years before. Despite the fire risk, the Drakenstein municipality operates a picnic spot along the route where you can braai, and we’re heading there now. There are a few obstacles before you get there, but we didn’t need to engage four-wheel drive. We must mention that we wouldn’t venture down the road in a VW Polo, for example. There are a number of ditches you could end up falling into, and then you’ll need fourwheel drive, or at least a diff lock, to extract yourself. Drive past Kleinwaboomkop to Krismis Camp for a picnic under shade trees.